Draft letter form Mervyn Adder to Mr and Mrs Moodie

Draft letter form Mervyn Adder to Mr and Mrs Moodie

Letter and explanatory note. Draft incomplete letter of condolence about Arthur Moodie reported missing from operations. The rest of the crew did not fly with Arthur on the night he went missing.

Writing wallet cover, three page handwritten letter and printed explanatory note

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SAdderM175073v10079, SAdderM175073v10078

[N.A.A.F.I. crest]

Royal Langley

WRITING WALLET

[inserted] 16 Mar
Watch
16 sees show 1300 hr

Roland

conscientious
conscientious [/inserted]

[page break]

Dear Mr & Mrs Moodie,

It is with deep regret and rather mixed feelings that we, Arthur’s crew, [deleted] have [/deleted] write this letter [deleted] & to tell you how much greatly [inserted] to [/inserted] say how sorry we are to have lost we hope just for the time being, the companionship and friendship of our skipper and join with you in [/deleted] but we wanted you to know during what must be a very anxious time for you that we are full of hope that we might again enjoy the companionship and friendship of Arthur a great skipper and a [deleted] great [/deleted] [inserted] one of [/inserted] the best. [deleted] We want you to know that there are [deleted] so many [/deleted] [inserted] lots [/inserted] of our chaps, [inserted] at this time [/inserted] making there [sic] way across Europe and that there is always hope that Arthur will be doing this, & it may [/deleted]

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[deleted] be that he is a prisoner of War, and if this should be the case we should appreciate it very much if you could let us know so that we can again make contact with our friend and crew mate.

We have been with Arthur for the last five months and in this time have become one very happy body and this spirit we carried with us in the air. [/deleted]

Arthur has been our pilot for the last five months and we could not have hoped for a better one, nor for a better comrade and friend, as during this time we had become staunch friends and want you to know how pleased we are to have [deleted] been [/deleted] had Arthur’s companionship and for such a grand skipper.

[deleted] We have said so little [/deleted]

We did not fly with Arthur on this particular night but for the first time had to be split up and go with different crews. Arthur was very keen

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and happy to be doing his particular job [inserted] in this air on a very important target [/inserted] and only hope that we can continue and emulate [deleted] from [/deleted] his fine spirit and the standard he set us.

If you have any news of Arthur could you please let us know so that we can again make contact with our friend and crew mate, and until then [inserted] may [/inserted] we join you in our hopes for Arthur’s safety and well being.

Arthur’s Crew Mates

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This is a draft copy of a letter written by Mervyn to his missing pilot’s parents. As we see overleaf he didn’t make it.