Letter to Dorothy Wilkinson from Donald Flett

Letter to Dorothy Wilkinson from Donald Flett

A letter and transcript to Charlie Warner's sister from Donald Flett. Donald was the sole survivor of the Lancaster crash.

1945-07-08

Three handwritten and one printed sheet

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22 Bangholm Bower Ave.,
Edinburgh, 5.
8th July 1945

Dear Mrs. Wilkinson,

Thank you for your kind letter & I hope you will forgive me not replying sooner. I have received a letter from your brother in Italy and I have just written to him telling him what I know the night 3rd 4th Sept. 43.

Two days ago I was sent back home, on indefinite leave to await release from the service, and have applied for a job in Cambridge. Should I get this post I will be staying not very far from you & will be very pleased to see you at any time.

Charlie has done four “ops”, & we coped [sic] it on the fifth “op”.

The first one was to Peenemunde on the Baltic coast, just north of Stettin. It was a grand raid maybe you remember

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reading about it in August 43. All the newspapers were full of it & the R.A.F. had given them photographs of the actual fighting over the target area to print with the various accounts of the raid. Then more recently, within the last two months actually, there have been various reports praising the work the boys did that night, when we ruined Jerrys secret equipment laboratories which were working on what we now know as VI & VII. As I said it was a lovely night – a full moon, no clouds, & just like daylight just the night fighters paradise.

Next we went to Munchen-Gladbach on the Rhur [sic] & had a pretty rotten night – heavy cloud all the way, but got our target all right.

Our next trip was the big city – Berlin & after a fairly hectic night we arrived home safe & sound.

The fourth was Leverkussen & the target was some chemical works.

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The fifth and last as you know, Berlin again.

I knew the boys had been buried at Lingen, the Germans told me, about three weeks after my capture. I don’t think we had any snaps taken of the crew after Charlie joined us at “con-” unit, and as you possibly have never seen any of us, I am enclosing two snaps for your mother. One was taken at O.T.U. in April 43 & shows “Mac.” the rear gunner, Jack Billington the wireless operator, myself, David Carpenter the pilot, & Jim Waterman the navigator.

Neither David Brown, the mid upper gunner, nor Charlie was with us at this time. The other snap is of my wife, son, & I, after being repatriated. If you could spare me a snap of Charlie, I would be extremely grateful.

Thank you for your good wishes & kind invitation, & if I get down to your part of the country I will certainly avail myself of it.

Yours sincerely,

Donald Flett

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[underlined] Transcript of Donald Flett’s letter to Dorothy Wilkinson [/underlined]

22 Bangholm Bower Avenue
Edinburgh

8 July 1945

Dear Mrs Wilkinson,

Thank you for your kind letter and I hope you will forgive me not replying sooner. I have received a letter from your brother in Italy and have just written to him telling him what I know of the night 3/4 September 1943.

Two days ago I was sent back home on indefinite leave to await release from the service and have applied for a job in Cambridge. Should I get this post I will be staying not far from you and I will be very pleased to see you at any time.

Charlie had done four “ops” and we copped it on the fifth “op”. The first one was to Peenemunde on the Baltic coast, just north of Stettin. It was a great raid, maybe you remember reading about in in [sic] August 1943. All the newspapers were full of it and the RAF had given them photographs of the actual fighting and the target area to print with the various accounts of the raid. Then more recently, within the last two months actually, there have been various reports praising the work the boys did that night when we ruined Jerrys secret equipment laboratories which were working on what we now know as VI and VIIs. As I said, it was a lovely night and a full moon, no clouds, just like daylight, just the night fighters paradise.

Next we went to Munchen-Gladbach in the Rhur [sic] and a pretty rotten night – heavy cloud all the way but got our target all right. Our next trip was to the big city – Berlin and after a fairly hectic night we arrived home safe and sound.

The fourth was Leverkusen and the target was some chemical works.

The fifth and last as you know, Berlin again.

I know the boys had been buried at Lingen, the Germans told me, about three weeks after my capture. I don’t think we had any snaps taken of the crew after Charlie joined us at the unit, and as you possibly have never seen any of us, I am enclosing two snaps for your mother. One was taken at ATU [sic] in April 1943 and shows “Mac” the rear gunner, Jack Billington the wireless operator, myself, David Carpenter the pilot and Jim Waterman the navigator.

Neither David Browne, the midupper [sic] Gunner, nor Charlie, was with us at that time. The other snap is of my wife, son and I after being repatriated. If you could spare me a snap of Charlie, I would be extremely grateful.

Thank you for your good wishes and kind invitation and if I get down to your part of the country I will certainly avail myself of it.

Yours sincerely,

Donald Flett