RCAF Overseas
Oct. 6, 1943
Dear Bill,
I received your letter the other day and also your swell parcel for which I want to thank you very much. You may be sure I enjoyed everything that was in it and I'm smoking one of your cigars right at the moment. That hair tonic came just at the right moment also, as I had just run out of the last bit of Vasoline I had and it's practically impossible to get that kind of stuff over in this country.
Judging from your letter, you certainly must have had a swell time when you were down in New York. It seems that you saw a lot more of the city than I did. I have been to London a number of times since I came to this country but I have never found it as interesting as New York. Perhaps some day you will get a chance to see London for yourself. At the present time, I'm living in a very large and old mansion and I've been messing around all afternoon trying to get the darn fire in the fireplace to go. I've finally succeeded, in case you are interested. This place is supposed to be haunted, but so far, we haven't seen anything of a ghost. I guess we just aren't lucky enough. It's really a beautiful old place with lovely grounds. It's really a pleasure just to walk around and enjoy the scenery.
I suppose you are wondering what it is like flying over here, and I can tell you it's pretty exciting and also very grim. As we are on the night shift, we see very little of the country, but there is more than enough to keep us busy when the searchlights cone us and shrapnel is bursting around us and night fighters are constantly on our tail. Indeed, it's not a very pleasant business at all, and believe me, you are lucky you are not in it. I could put those planes you used to fly in between the wheels of the one I'm flying. It seemed funny at first to be sitting twenty feet off the ground, but I soon got used to it.
Congratulations on getting through your cooks course so well. You certainly do seem to work long hours. Are you going to be at Camp Borden very long?
Well, I guess that is about all I can tell you for now, so cheerio and write again soon.
Your brother,
Arthur
