Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Title
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
He describes his journey back to camp.
Creator
Date
1944-06-18
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
Two double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
Publisher
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
EDarbyCAHWellandJ440618
Transcription
[inserted] 18-6-44 [/inserted]
[postage stamp] [postmark]
Miss. J. Welland.
7. Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey
[page break]
P/o. J. Darby 154676.
Officers Mess
R.A.F. Station
Barford St John.
Oxford
18.6.44
Dear Jean,
Heres a few lines to let you know I made camp O.K after one or two minor mishaps.
After I left you we had a good trip to London and after waiting for a non-existent taxi I decided to ride, luckily all the streets were deserted and I hardly met a bus or car. It took me about half an hour and I arrived at Paddington at about 11.10.
[page break]
2/
I met two other members of the crew, the pilot and wireless operator. We decided to get a cup of tea and after queueing for some time the alert went and the buffet people downed tools and would’nt sell any more, so we went along to the forces canteen. After we had left Paddington we saw another buzz-bomb, the Bofors boys were certainly going to own, there was tracer everywhere. The train was late arriving at Banbury and after we had got going on our cycles my back tire blew out about 1/2 mile from the town, fortunately it went down slowly and by going hell for leather I just made camp but it
[page break]
3/
was 4.A.M. and I did’nt get much sleep. Luckily we were on lectures and not flying today so it was’nt too bad, anyway I did’nt feel tired expect the effect will be more felt tomorrow.
How are things progressing round your part of England, had many more raids? We've heard nothing here so their range must be limited
Well, must pack up now as I want to catch the first post in the morning.
Cheer’s for the moment, take care of yourself.
Yours
Jack
[postage stamp] [postmark]
Miss. J. Welland.
7. Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey
[page break]
P/o. J. Darby 154676.
Officers Mess
R.A.F. Station
Barford St John.
Oxford
18.6.44
Dear Jean,
Heres a few lines to let you know I made camp O.K after one or two minor mishaps.
After I left you we had a good trip to London and after waiting for a non-existent taxi I decided to ride, luckily all the streets were deserted and I hardly met a bus or car. It took me about half an hour and I arrived at Paddington at about 11.10.
[page break]
2/
I met two other members of the crew, the pilot and wireless operator. We decided to get a cup of tea and after queueing for some time the alert went and the buffet people downed tools and would’nt sell any more, so we went along to the forces canteen. After we had left Paddington we saw another buzz-bomb, the Bofors boys were certainly going to own, there was tracer everywhere. The train was late arriving at Banbury and after we had got going on our cycles my back tire blew out about 1/2 mile from the town, fortunately it went down slowly and by going hell for leather I just made camp but it
[page break]
3/
was 4.A.M. and I did’nt get much sleep. Luckily we were on lectures and not flying today so it was’nt too bad, anyway I did’nt feel tired expect the effect will be more felt tomorrow.
How are things progressing round your part of England, had many more raids? We've heard nothing here so their range must be limited
Well, must pack up now as I want to catch the first post in the morning.
Cheer’s for the moment, take care of yourself.
Yours
Jack
Collection
Citation
Jack Darby, “Letter from Jack Darby to Jean,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 16, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/40074.
Item Relations
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