Aug 17/44

My Dearest Mother & Sister

Hello Mom & Ruth I am sorry I haven't written before but it has been absolutely impossible to write we have been operating steadily with no time in between flights except to sleep. We are on now but there is a time between take off so I can dash off this letter.

I believe the last time I wrote my total of ops. was 9 well it has jumped up to 22 now and if every thing goes okay we ought to be finished pretty soon. So far we have been attacked by fighters twice and both those guys will never fly again. Last night I went on a trip and was attacked by a J.W.88 I opened up and set the guy on fire and watched him go down in flames and hit the sea and explode.

We have been doing a few battle front trips and it was really a pleasure to do them. I was talking to a Canadian officer in the army and he was telling me it was worth going over there just to see all the kites going over and knocking the living daylights out of Jerry.

What is the idea of saying I was in a Halifax bomber. Now that is an insult to us "Lancaster!" boys and there is a sore point between the Hally & Lanc squadrons. So don't make the mistake again cause we are in aeroplanes and not flying Jalopies (Hallies).

I met Virg Fernquist and we had a darn good natter over old times. It was really good to see him again. We ran into one another in a pretty small town too. So you can see it is a pretty small world.

Well Mom I have to run now so I will sign off.

With All my Love
Jack