January 13, 1939

ROYAL AIR FORCE STATION,
HAL FAR, MALTA

Dear Dad:

Received your cutting re new car today and she is a dandy.

Glad to hear you had such a good Christmas. I'll bet you had a great time playing with Ronnie's toys!

I am enclosing a couple of pictures taken in Alexandria. One taken in a café showing from left to right Flying Officer Garlick, self, F/O Bell (the villain) and an officer from a Destroyer whose name escapes me. That is Abdul and Achmed behind. P. S. Those glasses are shortly to be filled with cooling draughts of beer.

The other picture shows Alex at night - a beautiful city.

The log of the Fall Cruise I had with Mediterranean Fleet is as follows:
16 September 1938 left Malta 12 hours notice - arrived Vatika Bay Greece
September 18 - Crisis developed and we left Greece on the 21st and raced full steam to Alex, arriving 22nd.

We left Egypt Nov. 5 and arrived Malta on the 9th of the same month.

Last night 802 carried out night squadron formation flying over Malta again and then quick landing practice.

This morning we carried out dive bombing attacks on fast armoured motor boats off Delimara Point east of Kalaframa - later my flight took off for flight formation practice and we did flight aerobatics followed by individual flying. I took my machine to 1,5000 feet and practised inverted spinning - decidedly uncomfortable.

You turn over on your back and push the stick forward and kick on full rudder. The machine stalls and spins. The spin tends to force you out of the machine and you are slammed against your fighting harness.

I finished up practising upward rolls - dive, pull machine vertically up and over with stick and machine rolls - beautiful to watch from the ground, but the aeroplane must be very powerful and manoeuvrable.

The weather is grand - sun shines all day and I feel as fit as a fiddle - hope you are the same.

Write often. I enjoy your letters very much.

Love

Bill