Letter from the Air Ministry to Mrs F J Hobbs

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Title

Letter from the Air Ministry to Mrs F J Hobbs

Description

Confirms previous telegram that Flight Sergeant F J Hobbs now believed to have lost his life as a result of air operations on night 15/16 March 1944. Information received that Lancaster crashed at Blerancourt, France and all seven crew were identified and are buried at Bouguignon. Noted that previous telegram stated information came from International Red Cross was not correct. Little doubt about information but casualty will continue to be recorded as missing believed killed until further evidence available.

Date

1944-08-12

Temporal Coverage

Spatial Coverage

Coverage

Language

Format

Two page typewritten letter

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.

Identifier

ESmithJUHobbsKM440812

Transcription

AIR MINISTRY,
(Casualty Branch),
73-77 OXFORD STREET,
LONDON, W.1
Telephone No: GERRARD 9234
[brackets] Trunk Calls and Telegraphic Address: [/brackets] “AIR MINISTRY,” LONDON
P.414772/4/P.4.A.2.
12 August, 1944.
Madam,
I am commanded by the Air Council to inform you that they have with great regret to confirm the telegram in which you were notified that your husband, Flight Sergeant Frank James Hobbs, Royal Air Force, is now believed to have lost his life as the result of the air operations on the night of 15th/16th March, 1944.
Information has been received from a reliable secret source that a Lancaster aircraft crashed at Blerancourt, France, and that its crew of seven were killed, and were buried in the cemtery [sic] at Bourguignon. All seven were identified, and the names furnished are those of the crew of the aircraft in which your husband was flying. It is regretted that in the telegram it was erroneously stated that the information came from the International Red Cross Committee.
Mrs F.J. Hobbs,
32 Southcroft Road,
Tooting,
S.W.17.
[date stamp]
/Although
[page break]
Although there is unhappily little reason to doubt the accuracy of the report, 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,
[signature]

Collection

Citation

Great Britain. Air Ministry, “Letter from the Air Ministry to Mrs F J Hobbs,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/10136.

Item Relations

This item has no relations.