Letter to Arthur Steainstreet's Wife from Air Ministry

Letter to Arthur Steainstreet's Wife from Air Ministry

The letter advises that her husband is still missing believed killed.

1945-07-06

Two typewritten sheets

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EEvansCSteainstreetME450706-0001, EEvansCSteainstreetME450706-0002

TELEPHONE NO.: GERRARD 9234
TRUNK CALLS AND TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS } "AIR MINISTRY," LONDON

AIR MINISTRY
(Casualty Branch)
73-77 OXFORD STREET
LONDON, W.1

P.403606/1/P.4.A.2.

6 July, 1945.

Madam,

I am commanded by the Air Council to refer to your recent letters to the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Air Ministry, and to inform you that they have with great regret to confirm the subsequent telegram in which you were notified that your husband, Pilot Officer Arthur Steainstreet, Royal Air Force, is now believed to have lost his life as the result of the air operations on 16th March, 1945.

Reports have now been received from the three members of the crew of the aircraft in which your husband was flying who have now returned to this country. They state that the aircraft was hit in the rear turret by enemy fighters when nearing the target area. The pilot then ordered the crew to bale out and Sergeants Burn, Cady and Kirk did so successfully, but were captured. They were afterwards told by a German interrogator that the four other members of the crew
/were

Mrs. A. Steainstreet,
21, Town Street,
Canklow,
Rotherham, Yorks.

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were killed, and they were shown photographs of the deceased which they knew to have been carried by them.

Although there is unhappily little reason to doubt that your husband did lose his life, the casualty will be recorded as ‘missing believed killed’ until confirmed by further evidence, or until, in the absence of such evidence, it becomes necessary, owing to lapse of time, to presume for official purposes that death has occurred. In the absence of confirmatory evidence death would not be presumed until at least six months from the date when your husband was reported missing.

The Air Council desire me to express their deep sympathy with you in your grave anxiety.

I am, Madam,

Your obedient Servant,

Charles Evans