There is no reason whatever to be worried about not receiving letters. If there is ever a move either way it would not affect the R.F.C. to any great extent. It couldn’t improve German Archie shooting or anything of that sort. No fighting on the ground can reach us, and in a big bombardment it only means that we are kept fairly busy directing the fire of our batteries, etc.
* * * * *
“Missing.”
Sorry I shan’t be able to write you to-day except this rough note written in my biplane. I have finished my job, and am writing in the hope of catching the post. There is bad news to-day. My pal B., who was on a bombing stunt this morning, has not returned, so I am afraid he may have landed in Hunland. I am just doing a long glide down to the aerodrome; my passenger has asked me not to spiral down as he has got a bad head. I enclose his note. His writing is better than mine, as he has written on a soft pad. (Enclosure:—“Got a rotten head, so go steady, will you?”)
* * * * *
I’ve got a top-hole souvenir now. It is a machine-gun bullet which my rigger found in my fuselage—that is to say, the aeroplane fuselage. It is bent “some,” as it smote something rather hard—a bomb.
I went up to take some special photos for the C.O. to-day, but the weather was very bad, and the sky as smothered in clouds as I was in Archie, and that is saying a good deal. It took me three trips over the line to get five photos. Four came out, including on them corners of clouds I was dodging. The Huns got our range to a nicety, but there was not a scratch on the machine. One Archie burst just in front of us, and I looked up to see the corporal I had as passenger disappear in the smoke as we actually went through it. It was like going through a tiny cloud. I have heard and seen plenty of Archie before, but never before smelt it. The C.O. was rather pleased, though only one photo was really of any use.
The engine in my machine has put up a record for the squadron. It did over a hundred and ten hours’ running without being touched or even having the sparking plugs changed. It was still going strong when we changed it and put a new one in. I have tested the new one and flown with it, and it is very good.
We are kept well up-to-date with the London theatre news by the fellows who come back from leave. They also bring the records of them back for the gramophone, and now the camp resounds with music from “The Bing Boys are Here” and “Mr. Manhattan.”
To people who think this branch of the Service the most dangerous, you can say I’d sooner be here than in the trenches these days, and I think the opinion of the whole corps is the same.