Letters relating to William Arthur Allsopp - Part 6

411063 Allsopp W.A.
R.A.A.F.
Base P/Office
Ottawa
31 October
‘41
Dear Mum;
Thought I had better write
again seeing its a few days since
I last wrote, but have been going
along just as usual and keeping
pretty shipshape.
Have just completed
ten days of flying and it was pretty
good and broke the monotony
of the course. We didn't strike
real good weather for it, but still
its an experience to be cruising around
above the clouds some of the trips
being over the border and into the States.
but naturally the country is the same
both sides of the border. They put
us on our wood in this flying as
we put into practical use all the
theory we have digested over the
last few months and the exercises
consist of contacting the ground
station and setting up the
 

transmitter and receiver for two way
communication and then a few
exercises of finding out where you
are. A few of the boys were airsick
but the planes couldn’t fool around
too much as they have about
50 feet of aerial trailing out behind
so there wasn’t any looks done.
I took a few snaps but I dont think they
would let them of out of the country
so I will keep them for a while.
I still havent received the Red
Cross Comforts fund, or whatever
Mrs Edwards was sending, so if
she asks you and is maybe
wondering why I hadn’t written
to thank ^her, just explain someone
must have a great collection of
things like that as most of the
fellows have had things
coming for months but they
never arrive. Dont forget to tell me
if the papers and Saturday evening
Post is arriving as I sometime
 

think it is a waste of time posting
them.
Hows things at home? Pretty good
I hope and also hope Pop is getting
onto a few winners I had a big
plunge on Rimveil in the Epsom
and won 60 cents off one of the boys
but if I had been at Randwick
most likely would never have
thought of it. They keep us well
supplied with sporting over
the  radio, but havent had the luck
to see a newsreel of any of our races
yet.
Well mum this is only a note
as we have to do a bit of night
work now, so I will say goodbye for
the present with best wishes to
all at home and give my regards
to the neighbours.
Love to Yourself
Bill.

4110633 L.A.C. Allsopp W.A.
R.A.A.F.
Base Post office
Ottawa.
28th October
Dear Mum;
Been quite a while since
I wrote and during that time
received a supplement of the “Northern
Daily Leader” from Jack. It was
great reading and thank Jack for
me as I might not be able to
write to him for a while, as we
will be a bit busy for a while
Fancy Roa and Phil doing the deed
eh? I still dont don know what
Rod is doing as you didn’t
say what he had been accepted
as in the air force, also didn't
know what Pauline was doing
maybe some of your letters have
gone astray. Jack was saying
that Reilly had received my
letter so ^tell that ice merchant to
write and tell me a bit of
 

the local doings, I receive the
papers you post pretty regularly
and at last the “Leader” makes
good reading, and also serves
to put between the blankets when
it gets a bit cold and the heat
is a bit slow in coming on.
I saw in it, where that old fellow
went and got himself killed at
Carrabubula; that was bad luck
but I suppose it couldn't be helped.
Well Mum, at last we have
shifted from Winnipeg and are
at a place called Paulson, a
couple of hundred miles from
there and almost directly north,
closer to the Pole, and still in the
same state. They split us up pretty
well. And there are only a few of
us here at this school and so
far havent seen any other Australian
flights about. We left Winnipeg
in what we thought was pretty
 

cold weather and as we got
out of the bus, the first decent snow
I have seen began to fall, but
didnt have much time to admire
it as we had to clear out pretty
quickly. All the trains are heated
so it wasn’t as bad travelling,
but when we hit the cold air at
5.30 next morning damn near died.
The airport is a fair way from
town and the only conveyance they
could find was an open truck for
the trip and we damned near died
with the breeze blowing off patches
of snow but managed to arrive
here O.K. ‘It’s’ got a pretty fair name
as a camp, with a small town
a few miles away and a big lake
where they do the gunnery practice
Just over the way and the first
hill we’ve seen for five months
in the distance, so should do
alright here.
 

They have not yet installed
the hot air system of heating, so
should grow fat from tucker cooked
on the big oven that is used as
a heater, and its better in the way that
it makes you appreciate the good old
fire as a system of heat, which seems
to be almost forgotten in this country.
I finally got around to getting a
snapshot to send home to you
its from the one taken for identification
and is not real bad. I seem
to get a hell of a lot of photo’s,
and am sending home a few more
as I will only lose them. I hope
you have got the ones I have been
sending and if you the censor
doesnt take a liking to them,
you can see the places we do
our training in, and a few views
of the countryside
 

This letter is being written in
instalments but they keep us hopping
here so I do a bit every now and
again. It began to snow here today,
and its still got me beaten how
it never snowed at Tamworth,
as some of those bleak days
were colder than the last few
days here; its still snowing now
but only very lightly and it seems
as though we left Winnipeg
just in time as I was reading
in the paper where they had 7½
inches of snow there, so our luck
as regards the weather is still
holding pretty good. We have
been out in the open a fair bit
and its quite an experience with
the snow falling all round you
and everything covered in white.
The old hands say it is here to
stay now so it looks like a bit
of “skeing” being done during
final leave.
It’s a relief to be doing
what we are now after five months
of radio and morse and seems
to be getting somewhere at last
 

There is a lot of flying attached
to this part of the course and our
training is done in pretty fast
crates – most of them having seen
actual combat last year at
Dunkirk, and its pretty good peppering
away at targets on the ground
and the “drogue” – a thing like a
sausage carried behind another
aircraft - with a machine gun.
The pilots like to get the exercise
over as quickly as possible and
then most of them “go to town” as
its pretty monotonous for them just
flying around the sky with a green
gunner in the back making them
take repeated runs at the targets
They specialise in imaginary dive
bombing, and got through as many
aerobatic’s as they think we can
take without being airsick, and they
certainly so roll the planes about
but up to date I have not been sick.
A few of went and looked the
town over yesterday and it’s about
as big as Bendemeer and just
 

As deserted, with the exception
half the town is composed of Churches
of every denomination, as the Country
people around here come from all
the points of the earth
The northern lights are now
seen at their best and today when we
were over the lake we saw where
it was covered in ice and it’s a
pretty big expanse of water, so I’ve come
to the conclusion that we have
become acclimi acclimatised, as it
doesnt seem to be that cold.
I see where Pop’s “little yellow beggars”
are getting cocky again but I hope
they keep quite for a while yet though
I think they would get a hell of
a shock at Singapore & Malaya
and not only from Australian troops
if they should decide to start anything
I have not heard anything of the other
Tamworth boys and think they must
have left the country, though I am not
in the position to know anything as
the we have not seen any Australians
from other schools for months.
All going well within a month