Saturday Night, September 8th.
Many thanks for your long and newsy letter. Today has also been "dud " and we were not up. This A.M. I walked into a nearby town and bought some small kit. On the way back our General picked me up in his car (three of us); he asked me when I joined the squadron and if I came out with the first Canucks. Also my name - he seems to take a personal interest in everybody. His name is Longcroft.
So far I have been unable to get my Hun confirmed, worse luck; however, the other chaps in the scrap saw me on the Hun's tail going earthward "hell bent for election". I'm sure that Hun will never be seen in the air again!! I'm still hoping to hear from the French whether they saw Fritz crash. Oh, yes, I received about 300 cigarettes yesterday, and pardon me saying so, but they were unsmokable. Never buy Players or Gold Flake unless in boxes of 50 - The small packets are awful - I gave them to the mechanics in the Flight!!!
Today Guynemer came in on us for tea. You should see his ribbons; gee, some kid! He looks very frail but has an eye like an eagle. Believe he is a dead shot. They say that when he goes to a theatre in Paris, everyone gets up and cheers! He showed us a photo of a scrap he had with a Hun; the plane was on fire and the Hun was jumping, or rather had jumped out of the bus. He has a special camera fitted to his bus, and therefore his victories are always confirmed. Quite good, eh! He also did some fine "stunts" over the aerodrome. Quilter who came over with me is missing since Thursday A.M. Awfully hard luck; very stout chap and keen as mustard. We did some patrols here together.
Well, I guess this is all for tonight as I'm tired and must hit the hay. We had some guests for dinner and I got away from the mess quite late.
By the way, I sent a cheque to a tobacconist last evening and am having some smokes forwarded. Please don't trouble sending any as I will have this firm forward them regularly. You can send me a couple of tubes of Kolynos, though, as I cannot get any decent dentifrice here.
Don't worry about me. I have a good gun and a good bus; I fired two hundred and fifty rounds on that fair morning!! The gun didn't jam once.
It is quite a nice day but not for flying. I am "orderly dog" today and there is not much to do but censor the mechanics' mail. Did you hear of the chap who wrote "Dear Mother - This war is hell. I am sending five francs but not by this letter!!"
