November 11, 1915
2 RFC
Hesdigneul, France

Father,

I have received your letter of the 3rd, inst. You ask about the "Fokker Scourge," the press coverage of which is apparently unsettling for Mother. I can imagine. I assure you that I am fine. I'm much safer here, than I was with my battalion. I pity my friends, the few who remain alive, who are still with the first battalion, Royal Scot Fusiliers. Transferring to the flying corps probably saved my life. From what I've heard, my old unit was recently gassed near Ypres.

Our squadron operates between the river Lys and Arras. I've been flying daily here since early August. We have lost two pilots during that time, but not to Fokkers. One went down from either Archie or our own artillery shells during a spotting mission back in September. Another of the chaps crashed during takeoff, probably from a engine failure.

I have seen Fokkers on several occasions (three exactly), but usually at a distance. Only once did a Fokker actually try to attack me. I suppose these monoplanes are lethal, with their forward firing machine gun, but there are apparently not many of them at the front. They are also SLOW. My BE 2c is very slow, but these Fokkers are not much faster. When I see one I point my trusty "Quirk" west and go into a shallow dive. The Bosche follow for a while, but after you cross the front lines into our territory, they usually turn and head east.

Frankly, I don't understand all the hype.

Your son,

James Ingraham

PS: Since I'm the only Scot in our mess (what a change after service with the Fusiliers), the chaps have given me the oh, so original nickname "Scotty"!