Letter No 54

AUST. No 34171

LAC Cooney, JF

No. 3 Squadron

R.A.A.F.

MIDDLE EAST

20^th Jan ‘43

 

Dear Mum,

                  At long last we managed to stop long enough to let our base party catch up to us with our mail & got quite a few letters & the parcel containing the soap washers, etc. The letters I received were numbers 18, 19, 20 & 23 from you, two from Peggy, one from Mrs Nicholson one from Miss Wilmot & one from Vivi & Maureen. I also received some Readers Digests etc from Mrs Michaels & another package from Miss Wilmot & numerous papers & magazines from you & Betty.

                  Please don’t worry so much about me & Betty N because, as a matter of fact, I have forgotten all about her & my contention is that there is better fish in the sea than ever came out of it & there should be plenty of girls about my age still left at home.

                  Re the allotment, I still have enough to exist on because the only things we can spend our money on is cigarettes & a few sundry items at the canteen & so the money is mounting up in the pay-book & the pennies have been falling the right way for me, as a matter of fact, after tea last night I increased my wealth by about £5.1/-. My remuster should be through shortly & that will bring my daily pay to about 7/3 a day.

                  The squadron seems to be getting quite a bit of publicity at home now because every paper that we receive seems to mention the squadron.

                  We now hold three important desert records, they are firstly – a record number of enemy kites shot down, secondly, record serviceability of aircraft & we have been in the desert longer than any other squadron. So it’s about time we were taken up to Syria for a spell.

                  I have been expecting to hear from George Buxton for some time but as yet no letter has arrived I’m hoping I will hear from him in the next mail.

                  I think I answered Betty’s first letter on the 28^th July. Anyway I received the copies of George Brissett’s letters. Can’t understand what could have happened to him or why he hasn’t dropped you a line before this.

                  Betty & Dad are quite right when they tell you that you are to stop giving blood donations if it is going to affect your health. There’s plenty more people that can give blood & feel less ill effects than you do.

                  That photo of our 1000^th bomb was taken when we were down in Alexandria & all the lads in the photo are armourers in our flight.

                  I wondered how long Mills would be able to stand up to the A.I.F. up north but I didn’t think he would be able to get his discharge. I thought they would put him in some job at a base.

                  That’s about all for now but will write again shortly. Hope we receive some SO (?) parcels shortly ‘cause they are a long time overdue.

                  Much love to all at home

                                                                                          Lovingly Yours

                                                                                                                              Frank

 

PS excuse writing I lost the nib out of my fountain pen