July 4: I wonder if your gift of Psychic told you what was happening between the hours of 6 and 6.15 this afternoon, as it has about other great "days in my life. For today one of the greatest ambitions of my life has been fulfilled, I was involved in an air battle with the enemy for the first time in my life,
of its way my cup of joy, for seen lat Providence went out, was the type of engagement that every fighter dreams about and longs for, but very seldom gets these days—fighter v. fighter in a dog fight spread all over the sky—each man for himself. At about 6 o'clock this evening I led five of our fighters into action against nine Italian fighters over their own aerodrome in Libya—the whole thing only lasted about six minutes—though it seemed like half-an-hour, We shot down the whole nine, I having the luck to account for four of them. Our chaps put up a wonderful show and we had no losses, though one pilot had use his parachute on the way home because his aircraft was damaged, I write this by the light of a candle I stuck in a bottle on our landing ound a few miles from the Front, is a glorious starlit night and looking back the whole thing looks like an unreal dream. When it wi all over, looking down and seeing six smoking piles on the ground, and the relief on counting the remaining aircraft and all our boys were safe. Do you remember that film "The Dawn Patrol"—the atmosphere is just the same though more so, and to add to the drama as we were sitting round our mess tent this evening, an Italian pilot was brought in who had been shot down this morning,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.