Letter from Jack Darby to Jean

Letter from Jack Darby to Jean

He has been into Bury for a meal, cinema and beer. They went on a Cook's tour over Germany.

1945-05-28

Two double sided handwritten sheets and envelope

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EDarbyCAHWellandJ450528

[postage stamp] [postmark]

Miss J. Welland
7. Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey

[inserted] 28.5.45 [/inserted]

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F/O. C. Darby. 154676.
R.A.F. Station,
Stradishall
Newmarket,
Suffolk.

Sunday.

My darling Jean,

Thanks so much for your last letter which arrived on Saturday, fancy you turning your hain [sic] inside out, its news to me, I thought [deleted word] a vacuum turned inside out was still a vacuum, alright I know I’m coming home on Friday, you can deal with me then.

We went into Bury yesterday had a meal and went to the pictures, saw ‘Can’t help Singing’ thought it was pretty corny, afterwards we had a thirst and retued [sic] to the Plough at Woolpit where we spend the rest of the evening.

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On Friday we did a bomb damage tour of Germany, was quite a journey, over 1,000 miles, we were flying at about 1,000 feet and had a good view of the damage, we visited the flying bomb sites at Cap Griz-Nez and went on to Coutras, Aachen, Duren to Cologne, thence up the Rhine via Bonn and Coblenz to Wiesbaden and Frankfurt. From there to Hanover, Hamburg and Bremen, then back to the Rhine via Munster and Dortmund, after leaving Duisburg we came back to base via Wesel and Rotterdam. The damage is simply dreadful, whole towns are

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completely devastated, in the Rhine practically every road and rail bridge has been destroyed, it will take years to rebuild Germany, I doubt very much whether Germany will want to start more trouble, at least not for some time.

Am so sorry to hear about Dads knee, had hoped it would have been quite well by now.

I think it’s the best thing to leave the reception for the time being, I’ll tell you all about whats going on, anyway, we’ll put the [indecipherable word] up when I get home also get cracking on the kitchen.

Well, darling, not any more news at the moment, hope to see you on Friday, would you like to catch the 6.12 from Surbiton?

All my love, dearest,

Yours

Jack