Letter from Donald Baker to his mother

Letter from Donald Baker to his mother

Reports arrival of letters written after hearing that he was alive and well. Assumed it was a shock and did not know how the mistake happened, Mentions mail restrictions being lifted. Says he had his hair shaved off and there had been the first snow. Says he has sufficient clothes to keep warm and that they had good supply of Red Cross parcels. Says living 90-100 per room is not comfortable but al were cheered up by news from North Africa. Catches up with other news.

Handwritten prisoner of war letter form

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.

SBakerDA19210428v20096

[five ink stamps]
[postmark]
[underlined] MIT LUFTPOST AB KAIRO [/underlined]
[underlined] Kreigsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
LUFT POST AIR MAIL
MRS. C. BAKER
CHARLTON
INYAZURA
S. RHODESIA
SOUTH AFRICA
[postmark]
[ink stamp]
Absender:
Vor und Zuname: P/O DONALD ARTHUR BAKER.
Gefangenennummer: 665
Lager-Bezeichnung: M.-Stammlager Luft 3
Deutschland (Germany)
[page break]
My Dearest Mother, Have just received two letters from you, both written after hearing that I was alive and well. Did you receive my message sent through the Red Cross. What an awful shock you must have had. I just can’t think how the mistake occurred. Am glad to hear that you are all well. I did not know that you had stopped writing for so long as I just presumed that your mail had been held up owing to the mail restrictions which were lifted entirely yesterday. I hope they remain so. Why did the Greens give up the pub at Headlands? I was looking forward to a beer there! Had all my hair shaved off yesterday and look a very queer sight I can tell you. However it makes a change but it is pretty cold as the first flakes of snow fell a few days ago. Expect it will be bitterly cold here soon but I have sufficient clothing to keep warm, and we have a fair supply of Red Cross parcels. Received an Egyptian parcel yesterday. The cocoa packet had broken & everything was covered in cocoa but it was very welcome nevertheless. Life here is much the same. Living 90 – 100 per room is not very pleasant. We are all very much cheered by the recent news from North Africa. I am sure Prisoners of War are the greatest “Arm-Chair strategists” in the world, or would be if we had the arm chairs. Anthony Parker keeps well. We always discuss our news from letters. Have now reduced my War Estimate to 1 year from now. Hope to goodness its not much longer. I trust this finds you all in the best of spirits & health. Much love & best wishes to you all from your loving son. Donald.
Am enclosing a snap. Its rather good I think or I hope.