Letter from Squadron Leader W A Williamson
Title
Letter from Squadron Leader W A Williamson
Description
With sympathy to Reg's mother following missing in action report.
Creator
Date
1943-07-10
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
One typewritten sheet
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
EWilliamsWAMuirPE430710
Transcription
[embossed crest]
No. 106 Squadron,
Royal Air Force,
Syerston, Notts.
EAW/DO.
10th. July 1943.
Dear Mrs. Muir,
I am writing to express my sympathy in the anxiety which must be yours upon receipt of the news that your Son is missing from an operational flight.
He was the Air Bomber of an aircraft which left here on the night of the 8th. July 1943 to take part in a bombing raid on Cologne. Nothing was heard after take-off., and I regret that the aircraft did not return. It is impossible to hazard even a guess as to what happened, but there is a chance that the aircraft force-landed, or the crew baled-out and although prisoners-of-war are quite safe. We all hope that this is the case.
Your son had been with my Squadron for only a few days and this was in fact his first operational flight. He came from his training unit with an excellent report and I was confident that he would have developed into a first-class member of an operational aircrew. It is indeed a pity that so many months of training should meet with such a poor reward.
Once again, both personally and on behalf of the whole Squadron, I offer my deepest sympathy.
Yours sincerely
W.A. Williamson
Squadron Leader Commanding
[underlined] No. 106 Squadron, R.A.F. [/underlined]
Mrs. D.E. Muir,
24, Holcroft Road,
London, E.9.
No. 106 Squadron,
Royal Air Force,
Syerston, Notts.
EAW/DO.
10th. July 1943.
Dear Mrs. Muir,
I am writing to express my sympathy in the anxiety which must be yours upon receipt of the news that your Son is missing from an operational flight.
He was the Air Bomber of an aircraft which left here on the night of the 8th. July 1943 to take part in a bombing raid on Cologne. Nothing was heard after take-off., and I regret that the aircraft did not return. It is impossible to hazard even a guess as to what happened, but there is a chance that the aircraft force-landed, or the crew baled-out and although prisoners-of-war are quite safe. We all hope that this is the case.
Your son had been with my Squadron for only a few days and this was in fact his first operational flight. He came from his training unit with an excellent report and I was confident that he would have developed into a first-class member of an operational aircrew. It is indeed a pity that so many months of training should meet with such a poor reward.
Once again, both personally and on behalf of the whole Squadron, I offer my deepest sympathy.
Yours sincerely
W.A. Williamson
Squadron Leader Commanding
[underlined] No. 106 Squadron, R.A.F. [/underlined]
Mrs. D.E. Muir,
24, Holcroft Road,
London, E.9.
Collection
Citation
Squadron leader, RAF Syerston., “Letter from Squadron Leader W A Williamson,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed December 14, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/42569.