Letter to Patch from Alec Coryton

Letter to Patch from Alec Coryton

A letter from Air Officer Commanding Alec Coryton to Patch. He compliments 50 Squadron on their bombing successes. He mentions Oxley who was the Commanding Officer of 50 squadron.

1942-09-13

One double sided handwritten sheet

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.

ECorytonAOCRAFSkellingthorpe420913-0001, ECorytonAOCRAFSkellingthorpe420913-0002

HEADQUARTERS,
No. 5 GROUP,
ROYAL AIR FORCE,
St. VINCENTS,
GRANTHAM,
LINCS.

Sunday 13 Sept.

My dear Patch,

I have just seen the plot of the night bombing photographs on Düsseldorf, and 50 Squadron's record with four out of eight on the aiming point is really magnificent. I feel the C in C's remarks to you yesterday may well have had a very special thought for Oxby and the aircrews of 50 Squadrons.

Words of mine are entirely superfluous, but I hope you all realize that you with 50 Squadron are setting an entirely new standard of night bombing, which must in the end be copied by all, and in consequence

[page break]

will be cause of perhaps entirely altering the course of this war. If this occurs, as I suspect it will, to [indecipherable word] the whole country will owe its thanks.

You have set yourselves a very high standard to live up to, and there is no doubt in my mind you will exceed it. Some people used to regard the Bomber Force as a myth, but now thanks to 50 efforts it is becoming the very opposite, and the ground personnel must also share the credit.

The very best of luck to You, Oxby & 50 Squadron.

Yours ever

Alec Coryton.