大象传媒

My uncle, Charles Davies, joined the RAF in 1941 as an 18 year old from Liverpool, for pilot training. After eighteen months training in this country, in Canada and the USA, he was finally seconded as a Sergeant Navigator to 429 (RCAF) squadron based at RAF Eastmoor, Yorkshire. As navigator on Wellington bomber BK163 he took off on 26th January 1943 for a raid on Lorient, France. The aircraft failed to return. It was his first sortie. He was 21.
I have the letters which he wrote to my mother during his period of training and intend taking the opportunity offered by this site to transcribe them. Even in an edited version they include many mundane and inconsequential details, but they give an idea of the character of this fine young man and offer an individual record of bomber crew training during the early years of the war.

Air Crew Receiving Centre, Regents Park.
July 15, 1941:- Dear Nell, I arrived in London at 2.30 am and proceeded to find something to eat and view the town, after which I made my way to Lords and arrived there at 5 o'clock. After being detained there for about 4 hours signing papers and waiting to be taken to our billets we finally had something to eat in a cafe which had been turned over to the RAF. Taking things as a whole this place is not too bad. It looks as if it was intended to be luxury flats. There is hot and cold water and bathrooms. The only thing that is lacking is electric lighting. The chaps down here are a fine lot of fellows. They have all been in decent jobs before volunteering and are really a lot of decent and intelligent fellows. . . .

July 18, 1941:- ...This receiving centre is the only one of its kind in the country and is composed of about a dozen luxury flats housing about 3000 men. . .The day after arriving kit and uniforms were issued and after trying on the clothes in one of the tailors which are permanently attached to the RAF they were taken back for necessary alterations to make a decent fit; we will receive and wear them tomorrow. The boots we kept and have been breaking in all week and are now quite comfortable.. . . The NCO's here are top of the world, especially our own corporal who as yet I have not heared utter one swear word. We only do 3 hours work each day, finishing at 4 pm and being free until 10.30 when we must be back in our billets. . . .There are all sorts of people here with occupations which would have meant exemption from the army for the duration of the war. There are even public school boys here who were still waering their school colours. . . P.S. Have you had the wireless on lately? I haven't hearwed a note of music since I arived here.

The American Eagle Club, Charing Cross Rd.
28 July, 1941:- I have just discovered that I have taken your margarine coupons away with me and am sending them forthwith. The train that I caught was very fast, arriving in London at 9.30 am after leaving Liverpool at %.30 am. We will take things very easy until we leave London and proceed to an ITW (Initial Training Wing) where we really get down to the business of training. We had a small raid last night and had to get out of bed and march down 5 flights of stairs. I am now situated at the top of the flats and after being awakened for about two hours I have been in a sort of daze all day. This letter is being written in the New Zealand club, being about the same as the club mentioned above except that the food is better and cheaper.
P.S. We have a very good pianist at the New Zealand club. Very, very classical. He is playing this moment. The strains are floating in to me.

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