Letter to Mrs S. Scrimshaw

EDoubledayAWScrimshawS440814.jpg

Title

Letter to Mrs S. Scrimshaw

Description

The letter advises Chris' wife that her husband is missing.

Creator

Date

1944-08-14

Temporal Coverage

Language

Type

Format

One 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.

Contributor

Identifier

EDoubledayAWScrimshawS440814

Transcription

Reference:
61S/1000/230/P.
No.6l Squadron,
Royal Air Force,
SKELLINGTHORPE,
Lincoln, Lincs.

14th August, 1944.



Dear Mrs. Scrimshaw,





It is with the deepest regret that I have to confirm the sad news which you will have received by telegram, that your husband, Flight Sergeant C. Scrimshaw, is reported missing with all his crew from air operations on the night of 12/13th August, 1944.
He was detailed to attack Russelsheim on that night, and after the aircraft left this Station nothing more was heard of it, this in itself is not necessarily final as wireless silence has to be maintained on operations to prevent the enemy easily ascertaining the position and intentions of our aircraft. There is therefore, every reasonable chance that your husband and his crew may have escaped by parachute, as so many others have, in which case there should be good news of them. This news usually takes from six weeks to two months to come through, though the International Red Cross do all in their power to hasten news of prisoners-or-war. We must therefore hope and pray that there may soon be good news of your husband and his crew.
Your husband is a highly skilled Air Gunner and this was his twenty sixth operational sortie, all the others having been highly successful. We also valued him as a fine type of N.C.O. His loss is indeed a great blow to the Squadron.
It is desired to explain that the request in the telegram notifying you of the casualty to your husband was included with the object of avoiding his chance of escape being prejudiced by undue publicity, in case he was still at large. This is not to say that any information about him is available but is a precaution adopted in the case of all personnel reported missing. Furthermore, for reasons of security it is regretted that the names and addresses of the next-at-kin of the remainder of the crew cannot yet be divulged.
The deep sympathy of all members of this Squadron is with you in this anxious time of waiting, which we earnestly hope, will soon be happily terminated by good news.
Believe me,
Yours sincerely,



(sgd) A.W. DOUBLEDAY

Wing Commander, Commanding,
[underlined]61 Squadron.[/underlined]


Mrs. S. Scrimshaw,
48, Parsons Lane,
[underlined]ALFORD Lincs.[/underlined]

Citation

61 Squadron, “Letter to Mrs S. Scrimshaw,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 29, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/28350.

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