OSE WWI Transcriptions from the Archives

05: J. C. Bush – No. 22 Squadron, R.F.C. – 08 Aug c.1916-1917 My dear Warden,

I have been meaning to write to you for some time but never seem somehow to have bought it off. I don’t know if you know I chucked my A.D.C. [aide-de-campe] job in Egypt after 6 months. I couldn’t stand doing nothing any longer and felt I wasn’t earning my pay, so came home to start flying in September last year. I only got my wings in April, nowadays it is a very long and strenuous course, and one really has to work hard as apart from the actual flying there is a tremendous lot to be learnt – aerial fighting and formation flying being comparatively new subjects. I had 5 weeks technical course at Oxford, I was living at B.N.C. [Brasenose College], it seemed very incongruous to be learning the theory of flight etc. at B.N.C.. I went up to school nearly every Sunday evening and used to enjoy it awfully, Mr Ferguson [Warden, 1913-1925] was always very kind. I had one bad smash while I was learning and was removed on a stretcher from beneath the debris, however after 10 days in hospital and a month’s leave, I carried on the leave [which] included Christmas, which was rather nice. Raywell [OSE], by an extraordinary coincidence, arrived the same day as I did having been torpedoed en route from Egypt. I am afraid he is in rather a bad way, permanently unfit for flying and indefinitely unfit for general service; at present he is on the instructional staff at Oxford and is kept pretty busy. I ran across Hughes [OSE] and C. L. Bleaden [OSE] at Oxford, and K. Harding [OSE] and Beaumont [OSE], mi that was in Town the day before I came out, the latter had just qualified and was joining the R.A.M.C. [Royal Army Medical Corps]. One of the greatest blows I’ve had was the death of Charlie Bridson he was my best and oldest friend, and a man I had an immense admiration for. I met Mr Bridson in Oxford although they’ve left, he was wonderfully cheery considering he has lost 2 sons. I was very sorry to see L. C. Blencome [OSE] has gone West, that’s both of them, isn’t it? Sometimes one feels one has really no business to be alive! Oliver is still out here and is the proud father of a daughter, it makes one feel quite ancient having gone up a generation! I have been out here now 3 months and am enjoying life immensely. This is the game, and we make war like gentlemen. We have just been reequipped with the very latest 2 seater fighting machine and I and my observer have had many a glorious mad 10 mins. Our old machines were out of date although they had been out here longer than any other and had put up a finer show and we did lots of good work on them but now, thank goodness, we can attack instead of waiting to be attacked! There is no doubt the Hun has a very wholesome respect for us. All our scrapping is done over on their side as we generally chase them out of the sky. All our work is done between 10,000 and 14,000 feet although during a fight we very often get down to 5000 or even 3000. Their Archie is wonderfully accurate, and one always comes home shot about a good deal. We have the speed and climb of, I think, any Hun in the sky, and can out dive them, we can dive at something over 200 miles per hour, the hour the excitement and exhilaration of these long swoops to Earth beggar description, especially if you are sitting on a Hun’s tail and see him go to pieces in the air. I have had my usual wonderful luck and have not had to leave a formation through any damage. We live very comfortably, here we are in huts in an Orchard as there is an occupied farm just by where we can get butter, eggs, and milk, etc., the 3 things one misses so awfully when one can’t get them. The spot we were in when I just got out was too depressing. Everything ruined for miles around but one store or another in the villages, the country [is] in fact nothing but a nasty mess! I can’t speak too highly of the courage of the French peasant they were beginning to come back and live in the ruins of their old homes and had already started cultivating the law again. They can teach us a lesson in industry. I expect you knew that Father has at last got his heart’s desire and taken a living in North Wilts at Seend. It is a most beautiful spot, and it has taken years off his life he has always longed to have his own show to run. We were of course all very sorry to leave Salisbury, it having been home all our lives. I don’t think I have any more news now.

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