Letter from Albert Evans to Mary and Bill Edwards

Letter from Albert Evans to Mary and Bill Edwards

A letter from Albert to his sister and brother in law. He says he has not much free time to write and he is back on operations after a spell in hospital. The second part of his letter was written after an operation to Stuttgart. He describes coming back in daylight and seeing many other aircraft returning to England.

Four handwritten sheets and an envelope

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EEvansAEdwardsW-M[Date]-010001, EEvansAEdwardsW-M[Date]-010002, EEvansAEdwardsW-M[Date]-010003, EEvansAEdwardsW-M[Date]-010004, EEvansAEdwardsW-M[Date]-010005

[postmark]

Mr & Mrs. W. Edwards,
2 Leabrook Road,
(Nr. Boat Inn)
Leabrook,
Wednesbury.
[underlined] Staffs. [/underlined]

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P/O Evans. A.

OFFICERS’ MESS
R.A.F.
DUNHOLME LODGE
LINCOLN

TELEPHONE: SCAMPTON 274

[underlined] Wednesday night. [/underlined]

Dear Mary & Bill,

I had your letter of last Thursday on Monday morning, and now having a few minutes to spare I’ll answer it. But don’t be surprised if I have to hurry it up towards the end, because I haven’t too much time and I daren’t be late on tonight’s “mission”.

You do know now that I’m back on ops, but its nothing to be afraid of because I shall get through this lot alright. It has been a long time since I started, but that’s because my hospital “do” kept me off for so long. There hasn’t been any news from Josh or Reg yet, and I don’t expect anything will come through for several days, but I hope they’re safe. I’ve got two good boys for replacements, one that I’ve known for a long time and who was in the crew

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[underlined] 2 [/underlined]

that Reg was lost with.

I remember Harold Taylor alright, because he used to work at Wiley’s offices, but it was his brother Len that I used to knock around with while I was at the green.

Yes, Mick has told me that I’m about to become an uncle, and if you want to know my opinion, well, I’m very pleased. I’ve wondered whether you’d beat [indecipherable word] to it, or she really would be first, but now I’ve no more need to wonder – you’re winner by several lengths.

Well, Mary, I’m afraid I’ll have to leave off the letter now, and finish it some time tomorrow, so goodnight for now and I envy you your chance to sleep tonight!

[underlined] Thursday. 5-30 pm [/underlined]

Here we are back again, having just got out of bed since half past nine this morning when I returned from Stuttgart. That’s why I said in my last paragraph that I envied you your chance to sleep

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[underlined] 3 [/underlined]

because I took off last night at 11 oclock [sic] and didn’t land until half past seven this morning. We had quite an uneventful trip, and although its long duration made it very tiring at times, there were one or two pleasant intervals. The first was going out, for after I’d climbed up through the cloud we were flying in wonderfully bright moonlight until we were well into Germany, and the second was our return because we were flying back low over England at dawn and later in daylight. Its quite fun coming back in the daylight, seeing all the other machines coming in from the coast and racing them back to base to get in before them. Where I imagine it must [indecipherable word] be quite a thrill for the people on the ground to see hundreds of our machines coming back.

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[underlined] 4. [/underlined]

Now beyond that news I don’t think there’s much to tell you because there hasn’t been much of interest. I haven’t done any trips since Leipzig until last night, because four of my crew are unfit, and even last night I had four fellows that I hadn’t flown with before. They were good boys though, with plenty of experience, so I didn’t mind.

You didn’t see Mick on Sunday after all, I notice, but she’s told me that she may be over on one of the afternoon’s so you may have seen her by now. I wonder if she’ll think to tell you that Jennis had spoken to general Montgomery?

And with that I’m afraid I shall close, so goodnight for now, keep yourself fit and keep smiling.

Your loving brother,

[underlined] Albert [/underlined]
xxxxx