Sunday

In England late in the evening, Kenneth Cline wrote in a letter to his wife . . . . .

From the way things are beginning to shape up, we probably won’t fly any more missions or at the most not over a few. I really doubt that there will be any more. As it is, we haven’t flown a mission—I mean the Group, since last Tuesday. Most of the idleness is due to weather but some to lack of targets. So, it looks as though I’ll finish with 12, which may or may not count as half a tour. If I could only get one more in, then from what I can find out, I’d have completed a half tour here, but it may be 12 won’t be enough. Even this half tour business is based on 25 as a complete tour which was length of a tour here up until last September.

He also commented on the status of his brother, Arthur Cline . . . . .

Art is somewhere in the Mariannas, but I wonder just where! Apparently they were on the boat for a long time and he said now he was a member of the Society of Golden Dragons¹ since he crossed the Date Line — they gain a day there, you know. He said they had plenty of sun and good food and played casino and cribbage all the time. Part of his letter was censored. I believe he’d rather have his set-up in Hawaii.²

Ken finished his letter around midnight. Before mailing the letter the next day, he wrote the following in the margin of one of the pages:

Gen Spaatz³ just announced American A F as far as heavy bombers go are thru over here!!!

Notes & Commentary

¹ Society of Golden Dragons. For more information, see “Domain of the Golden Dragon“, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 16 July 2013. (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Domain_of_the_Golden_Dragon&oldid=564521028 : accessed 11 April 2015).

² His brother is stationed at Admiral Nimitz’ forward headquarters on Guam.

³ General Carl A. Spaatz. See “General Carl A. Spaatz”, U.S. Air Force. (http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/Biographies/Display/tabid/225/Article/105528/general-carl-a-spaatz.aspx : accessed 11 April 2015).