World War II Letters Home October 5, 1939 - Estelles Wickenkamp

                                                                                         Royal Air Force Station
                                                                                         Harwell
                                                                                         Didcot, Berks
                                                                                         October 5, 1939
Dear Folks:

By the time this gets across all of you will be at home again.  I got Mom's letter the other day and 1 from Esther and Richard today.  Some of my letters are addressed to Honington and other to Stradishall;  I am sure glad I told all of you nearly 2 months ago that I wouldn't be at Stradishall anymore.  I don't know whether you are getting my letters of not but if you do it doesn't seem like it.  I have been sending pictures, magazines, papers and letters from all over the country, even when I was at Thornaby, and no one has ever said a word about getting them.  I sent my commission home a long time ago but I don't know whether you even got that.  I don't think there is much use sending many airmail letters across Canada as I have two letters sent by airmail on September 11 and just got them today - so you can see it took nearly 3 1/2 weeks for me to get them anyway.  The only airmail service that is any god is the Transatlantic route and that is so expensive.

I will be here at Harwell for another month but until the end of that time I won't know where I will be moved.

I will be flying tonight unless a fog or rain comes up like it did last night.  Next week we will be  doing practice bombing with our Wellingtons - which will be quite interesting.

So the local yokels are trying to get government jobs - I suppose that is so they can stay in Canada or are there some more of these people who are "enjoying the war" because they think they'll get rich.  What has happened to Vernon and Max - have they given up the idea of joining up or what?

The R.A.F. have had a few skirmishes and so on but nothing very extensive.  There have been 8 or 9 "pamphlet raids" on Germany and Berlin and not a machine was harmed, which goes to show the Germans how easily we could drop bombs.  The Navy is doing its share of fighting and our Army troops in France are doing their share, so are the medium bombers of R.A.F. that are stationed across the Channel for a while. Now that Poland is gone there is an inevitable "chewing-the-rag" session coming up.

I hope you had a good stay in the states Mom.  I'll bet things were so changed that it didn't even seem like the same place anymore.  You needn't send those beer bottle caps yet - wait until Christmas, ha! ha! - maybe you might send some turkey with them.

Now that threshing is over I suppose you keep the ploughs going full force.  We are having real fall weather - it has been a bit cooler, night rains, and some of the trees that do shed their leaves have started already.

I have a touch of the Hives again - they are not so terribly bad, but seems to be quite persistent.  I am on a diet now so may be able to shoo them away soon.

I am afraid I haven't much news to talk about and I haven't any snaps to send this week but I'll send some more newspapers.  I'll finish this when I come down from flying;  I'll be able to tell you how effective the blackout is around here.

Back again.  This country doesn't look the same as it used to, instead of bright lights of towns all that is visible is an odd dim glow here and there.  It is just possible to see cars on the road but their lights are quite faint.  The only bright lights I saw flying again tomorrow night for about 4 hours, then that will be all for a little while.

I'm afraid I don't know what else to write about now so I'll just have to quit.  Maybe I'll be able to think of something more interesting next time.

Don't forget to write ofter, All of you.

Love, Estelles