Letters of Ronald Henry Etherton, January - February 1944 - Part 3 of 7

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70 

Miss Jean Ayre
13007 - 122 St
Edmonton
Alberta Canada {*FORREC*} 

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Sender's name and address:- 
Aus 423088 
Sgt Etherton RH 
RAAF Base R.P.O 
London England 

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Letter 71 
Monday 17 January 
Dear Jean,
Gee, I've been lazy this
evening. All I've done is lay round,
read newspapers from home and 
browse through some of your letters.
What did you think when I first
started going out with you? Did
you realise that I had fallen. If
I was anyone other than just me I guess I'd
have told you then. I told you
once before about thinking that
maybe I'd meet someone with whom
I'd fall in love while I was away from
Australia and wondering what I'd
want to do if I did. I didn't know
what it is to be in love else there
wouldn't have been any wondering to
do. Anyhow, on the boat from
Australia, I spoke had spoken to
a chap, Jim Bateman, about it. Soon, 

2. 
just a couple of weeks, after I met
you, I told him I thought that
it had happened. Now that I'm
so sure I wish I had told you
then. Or was there any need for
me to tell you? But, Gee, I was a
sap the way I left you. All I said
was that going away I'd soon
know for sure how I felt about
you. What was the good of that.
It certainly wasn't long - about
ten minutes I guess. And then the
best I could do was tell you by
letter. When I come back, for the
first evening, let's pretend I haven't
been away at all and that it's
the 24th July '43. We shan't even
mention how much I've missed you
or anything we've written, or anything
that's happened since. I wish that
could be tomorrow. To hold you
close and feel your soft warm lips

3. 
on mine. That would indeed be
heaven. My heart races at just the
thought of the ecstasy of it. Oh
Jean, am I worthy of you? I love
you so much but you are
deserving of so much that sometimes
I wonder. I'll try hard to be. I
wish it could be as easy as it
is to love you - as I do
Ron 

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AWM2016.832.1 

BY AIR MAIL 
AIR LETTER 
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED 
THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT 
BY ORDINARY MAIL. 
________________ 

71
Miss Jean Ayre
13007 - 122 St.,
Edmonton
Alberta Canada 

← Second fold here → 
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Sender's name and address:- 
Aus 423088 
Sgt Etherton RH. 
RAAF Base P.O 
London England 
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Letter 72
Wednesday 
19 January '44

Dear Jean,
I'm getting very impatient with
the mail service. It's quite a few days
since I received a letter from you.
Today there was a bunch of Canadian
ordinary mail that you couldn't jump
over but none of them were for me.
I hope that there has not been
something to stop you writing. I
know, I'm very impatient. There
might be some tomorrow - I hope.
Last night we went to the
show in camp. I forget the name
of the first film. I'd seen it
before. The second film was
Sonja Henie in "Katina" Have you
seen it? The skating was grand.
Bill Brownlee, our tail gunner is
a Canadian. I think the skating
and snow scenes made him 

2. 
homesick. When we get leave, he and
I are going to Aberdeen and go ice
skating. That's the nearest rink.
Like to come? Wish you could.
Bill comes from a place near
Montreal. His people have a farm.
He's a good scout and a good
gunner, too. He's very keen. The
other day he paid us a very
high compliment. He told one of
the other fellows that he didn't
expect to live to return to Canada
but since he found out what a good
crew he had he thinks there's a
reasonable chance of surviving. I
hope he' s right. He'll probably
change his mind one of these
nights when I'm not right on the
button and run him into the
heat of a nest of night fighters.
That's the trouble with being the
navigator. Everyone in the crew

3. 
knows quite a bit about all the
jobs except navigating. It's practically
impossible to teach them much besides
keeping myself up to scratch. I'm
supposed to teach Sammy as he is
regarded as 2nd nav. I'm a patient
teacher but I'm very discouraged.
He has the extremely rough and
ready technique of all Bomb Aimers.
A couple of miles is neither here
nor there in his point of view. In
the past month I've impressed on
him what we had in the first two
days at AOS. About 1965 I expect
we'll be starting on the elements
of astro nav.
I've been swatting tonight
and did not start to write until
late. It's well past my bedtime
Goodnight, my
sweetheart
Ron. 
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BY AIR MAIL 
AIR LETTER 
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED 
THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT 
BY ORDINARY MAIL. 

72
Miss Jean Ayre
13007 - 122 St.,
Edmonton
Alberta Canada

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To open cut here → 

Sender's name and address:- 
Aus 423088 
Sgt Etherton RH 
RAAF Base P.O 
London England 

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Letter 73
Thursday
20th January
Dear Sweetheart,
Gee, I'm a lucky
fellow to be able to address a
letter to you like that. I'm even
luckier still today 'cos I received
six letters from you. That's a
swell treat. They're all wonderful
letters but that's only natural
because you're a very wonderful
person. I don't think any more; I
know that you're the sweetest
girl in the whole world. Every
time I look at your photo's I
wonder how you can be both so
sweet and so beautiful.
I'm glad you had a good
time over Christmas and new Year.
I can easily understand why your
Pop's friends want to come back
to see you but tell them I 

2. 
said to beat it, or else. And if
they're too big, well, our Mid Upper
Gunner is big too, and he's a
Welshman, and he used to be
a London policeman, and he used
to be was runner up to the Empire
boxing champ. and I'll tell him
to beat them up. There!
Do you mind if I cut this
short? We got back to camp late
from a visit to a hush hush
plant. I want to read your letters
at least once more before I go
to sleep and I don't want to keep
the light on too long.
Goodnight. I'll be dreaming
of you
Ron 
x x

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BY AIR MAIL
AIR LETTER 
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED 
THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT 
BY ORDINARY MAIL. 

73
Miss Jean Ayre
13007 - 122 St.,
Edmonton
Alberta Canada 
← Second fold here → 
To open cut here → 

Sender's name and address:- 
Aus 423088 
Sgt Etherton RH 
RAAF Base P.O 
London England 

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Write the address in large BLOCK letters in the panel below. 
The address must NOT be typewritten

To:- Miss Jean AYRE 600
13007 - 112 St., DATE STAMP
EDMONTON 25 JAN1944
Alberta Canada
_________________________________________ 
Write the message very plainly below this line.
_________________________________
Sender's Address Aus 423088 Sgt Etherton RH RAAF Base P.O London Eng. 
Letter 74 
22nd January 
Saturday
Dearest Jean,
Tonight would have been an excellent
opportunity to write two letters in an effort to
stop your score overhauling mine. That is, if I had not
left it so late in starting. I've been fixing your
photo's on the inside of my locker door so I can
see them without them being exposed to the dust
and so on. I've just put in the case the two of
you in your costume - (I should have written "suit". 
That's what you called it.) and hat. You didn't like
the photo's, did you. I still think they're good.
Yesterday was our day off. The whole crew except the
mid-upper went to Nairn, and Inverness in the
afternoon. Went to a show there. "Hangmen also die"
I bought you a silk tartan scarf. At least, that's
what I bought it as but you know the trimming
on the ends. That's like what's usually used
on table runners. Hope I'm wrong Love Ron
_______________________________________________ 
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Letter 75
22nd January
Dear Sweetheart,
No letters for a nearly
a week, six on one day, then no
more for a few more days. I wish
that, instead of that, I could have
one letter each day. I just can't
ration them out to myself. I read
them all once, then again, and again.
But often I forget to answer something
you've asked. I'll just read thru'
those six to see if I'm forgetting
something now. No, I don't think so.
But I guess you didn't receive my
cable before X'mas. That's too bad.
I hadn't sent you a card, neither.
I sent you a card yesterday by
air mail. Do you know what it's
for? I hope it gets to you in 
time.
Can I keep the fires going? 

2. 
Say, I'm an expert fireman. I lay
the fire in our room so well that
when we want it we just put a
match to it and up it goes. How
do you keep your fires going all
night? Don't you think it would
be better to have gas? Isn't it
cheap in Edmonton? It's cleaner
and far less trouble. It'll be great
fun making a home with you.
When I've finished writing, I'm
going to start amuse myself
sketching plans.
[?] I've still no idea what sort
of a job I shall try to get. I
guess it'll be quite a while
before I settle down. We won't
be able to be married until
then, you know. You'll be able
to wait, won't you? There's lots
to do but you have to work