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On top of this they had genuine hospitality. Main items of diet were fried potatoes, rice, pork, and herbal tea - also sour bread, goats' milk, butter and cheese. (A hamburger and coke would have looked good to some of the crew!) Communication was by the use of a small Russian-English dictionary, gestures and an R.A.F. interpreter.

Nick Honey as captain, returned with F/O Patience. S/L Hunter stayed to arrange details for the other crews, W/O Limpert and F/O Jack Bellis.

On another occasion being recalled from a flight to Murmansk due to a snow storm, the crew stopped at Lake Lachta en route and after all those flying hours wanted a bath. Billeted in a compound about half a mile from the lake, all the water used was carried from the lake by women with a yoke over their neck and shoulders...a very primitive place.

To wander out of the compound after dark was dangerous business because the Russian soldiers tended to shoot first and challenge afterwards. Bathing was done from the back of the aircraft while at Lake Lachta, considered preferable to the communal bath-house in the basement of the billet where tubs of hot water covered the floor, with men, women and children wandering around naked! Uniforms obviously made the man...in the picture below they appeared to be merely BOYS alongside six foot eight S/L Roger Hunter.

L. to R. McEwen (Flight Engineer), Corkindale, Beattie, RogerHunter, Knox (Navigator), Honey (SAAF) (Pilot), Patience (NZ) (Pilot), Shepherd (WOP)...September 4, 1942