Wartime Brothers 1944

I’ve scrounged myself a corner seat (with back to the engine if you are really interested!) although I may have boobed in selecting the company which - so far - consists of three ultra respectable ladies and one rather frolicsome young offspring. However it shouldn’t be too bad ….

I guess I’d better finish off now as the seat is beginning to bounce - very frolicsome!

I promised to try and catch this afternoon’s post, so here it is, although I’m afraid that I’ve only ten minutes or so to write it and seem to be far too bleary eyed to make a very good fist of it even for that short time. And even this weary state hasn’t the defence of a day’s hard work because since lunch time I have been sleeping very very soundly in a great bit leather armchair - I should think it almost big enough (and certainly strong enough) for two… I arrived here just after seven thirty this morning. The real snag was transport from Gainsborough and I spent getting on for three hours wandering around before any turned up. Rather a waste of good sleeping time …

This seems to be an awful incoherent effort… I’ll write a decent letter as soon as I have collected my scattered wits and then maybe I shall be able to thank you…for a rather grand leave.

I’m afraid that this letter still isn’t going to be the one one I have promised myself I will write, because I got caught this morning for a church parade and didn’t manage to wangle out of it. It’s lunch time now and as the post today is collected just after 3pm I shall have to finish off before the afternoon work - or, at least attendance. A bit of a change from last Sunday, I guess, although I don’t know that the weather is very much different - wet and gloomy. The one important difference is that then we were together and now we are a darn sight too far apart.

… I think that I might manage to dig up an odd idea or so for that leave of ours together … I have hopes that I can investigate those aforementioned ideas as soon as I can fix the dates of my leave. This I will do as soon as possible and will then let you know about them…

here’s the gen, so far The pub I have in mind - and the only one within reasonable distance - has, so I’m told, quite respectable rooms but is not up to much in other respects. Also we are quite a way from any town, as you know, so I don’t think that much can be arranged to initiate a mad social whirl. I think I might manage to arrange things for next weekend but will phone you about it one way or another.Incidentally, se seem to start work on Mondays now, if the weather permits, but can be reasonably sure of having Saturday more or less clear, so I am rather wondering when would be the best day for you to come up. I’m also wondering about trains back- as far as I know at present there are only three, these being one somewhere around 8.30 or 9am from Gainsborough, another around 1.30pm from Retford and a third at 6..25 from Lincoln.
Rather a varied assortment. However, I expect there is an ABC somewhere on the station and it oughtn’t to take take too long to track it down.

... Just after I came back I absent mindedly detached a long brown hair from my tunic - to the delight of a vulgar audience.

I’ll probably be ‘phoning you on Thursday evening although I’m afraid that I can’t guarantee any good news. I hope to get off early enough tomorrow to have another search in Gainsborough and am keeping my fingers crossed very very tightly for some success. Even Gainsborough isn’t really terribly handy but it is the nearest town and at least it has a railway station. I don’t think there is very much doubt that we shall have very little to do in the way of work over this weekend although next week promises to be pretty hectic. If only they had a room in the pub up the road everything would be bang on. However I’ll see what I can manage. And if bribery and corruption will help at all - well, I guess I wouldn’t be above that.

As for your insinuations that i might have a pretty WAAF up here and am trying to avoid the spectacle of two females scratching each others eyes out - well, I won’t even trouble to refute it.

I think I had better start saying goodbye …as it’s getting rather late - apart from playing some strenuous table tennis I’ve also managed to dash off three letters before this.And don’t start thinking that I ought to have written this first because I always save the nicest things till the end, Dearest. Besides., I still write about three times as many letters to you as I do to everyone else put together. Cheerio for now…

I have been waiting most of the evening to ‘phone you. Your Mother will have told you the news already - that this weekend seems to have had it. Frankly I just done know the score - whether we will be working or not. Until after dinner this evening I was sure that we would be so didn’t go out on my search as I had planned. we heard that our fun and games were bending the kites too much and are not at all sure whether the flight still exists = or what will happen to us. A heck of a mix up altogether and non one knows anything. I had at last managed to fix the dates of my next leave today - from the 7th to the 14th August inclusive - but I shan’t know whether that still holds good until we find what we are to do.

If you can make head or tail of this letter you’re lucky - I’m darned if I can.

… such information as I have been able to get hold of this end is definitely not very encouraging. The Lake District idea that I mentioned over the ‘phone has turned out absolutely nil results. The other “one or two ideas” that I mentioned … have also gone down the drain, much to my disgust. I have not as yet been able to ‘phone Barnby Moor, but will try to have another shot at it before the post goes tomorrow … If that doesn’t bring any result … I guess Bunbury is indicated. Frankly Bunbury, for some reason, rather appeals to me but I’m not quite sure of your ideas about going somewhere where you are known.

…I’m hoping my leave will start after duty on Monday 7th, in just over a fortnight, how about you coming up here on the Saturday before - if I can wheedle round some hotel’s reception clerk here? Although I’d warn you that “hotel” is rather a high falutin’ and flattering description of the best of them.

I think I’d better let the old eyes have their way and get some sleep, especially as it’s around 1am and Sunday to me is going to be just another day of toil. so I’ll say “Goodnight”… Keep an open for me in those dreams of ours…I shall very definitely be looking out for you.

I’d better get to bed earlier than last night … despite a very firm resolve to get up at seven thirty, I didn’t wake up until a quarter past eight. The result was that I came very near creating a record for getting up, washing, shaving, cleaning my teeth … getting dressed and being on my way to breakfast in 17 minutes flat. Admittedly the shave could have been better…

… I’d better try and … report progress so far. I rang up Ye Olde Bell Hotel this evening (another bob for the P.M.G.) and rather imagine it was Ye Olde Belle herself who was at the other end. Whilst she won’t actually say no she was very dubious and suggested a further enquiry nearer the actual date…. I don’t fell too hopeful. Besides, it’s leaving it a bit fine.

This is the letter that I promised last night… and also to thank you for one you wrote on 5th June and which has reached me today after wandering around most of Lincolnshire - though goodness knows why.

… we have been pretty busy this week, not finishing most evenings until around half past six or seven so that by the time we have got back to the mess, cleaned up and changed, had dinner and a cigarette, it’s been practically bedtime - and I’ve been more than ready for it.

…my fingers are crossed very tightly indeed for your efforts at Bunbury and some reasonably decent weather…. I’ve heard that Lincoln is not too bad a place in which to find somewhere for you, so I’ll go in there wither on Friday or Saturday and see what I can manage… I’ll let you know the result as soon as I can.

I had a letter from mother in which she said she had received the book and your card quite safely and was very pleased with them. she also enclosed the prints of those photographs I took when we went to Oxshott Woods one Sunday morning - remember? - but they don’t seem to have come out too well. I rather think that the film was in the camera too long. Incidentally, I have been investigating the possibilities of getting hold of a 120 film for your camera and I have made contact which I’m hoping will produce one.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed now that your aunt has been able to get up fixed in that pub - and I’m awful proud of myself for a last finding somewhere not above providing a Muswell Hillite with a bed and a roof over over her head. This is the Saracen’s Head at Lincoln which I understand is quite a respectable place - and what I have seen of it doesn’t seem too bad. I’ve booked for Saturday and Sunday night provisionally, as I hope to be able to get away on Monday.

..after a very long arduous week’s work, I was given a day off yesterday and visited Elsham, for auld lang syne and all that, and also for one or two business matters. The last ‘bus back, which I now know runs at 8.45 pm, left without me and, as the first bus on a Sunday doesn’t run until the afternoon and there wouldn’t be any work today anyway, - well, I found myself a spare bed and took two days off. Which accounts for a somewhat weary R.A.F. type trying to write a sensible letter when he really should be in bed.