Letter from John Brittain to his mother

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Title

Letter from John Brittain to his mother

Description

Starts with domestic matters. Writes about recent operation to Heligoland which was unopposed. The attack involved 1000 Lancasters dropping 5000 tons of bombs on submarine pens and enemy troops. Mentions that he was on operation to Bremen the previous day. Concludes with catch up with family and friends.

Date

1945-04-23

Temporal Coverage

Language

Format

Three page handwritten letter

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.

Identifier

EBrittainJTBrittain[Mo]450423

Transcription

Sgt. Brittain J.T.
Sgts Mess.
195 Sqdn.
RAF Wratting Common
near Cambridge
Cambs.
23/4/45.

Dearest Mum

Many thanks for your letter of the 19th. I certainly hope that for your sake G.Pa is able to return to Rhos.[?]

Glad you were able to get in at the Cumberland as, from all reports, it is still excellent. Very pleased to hear that the shirt is so good.

We went to Heligoland

[page break]

a few days ago. The island was lost in clouds of smoke and was absolutely pitted with craters. It was the biggest prang I have ever seen and there was no opposition whatever - not even flak - There were 1000 Lancasters over the target and they dropped over 5,000 tons of bombs on the island which is only 1 mile long x 600 yards wide!!! - We bombed the U boat pens and also 20,000 troops who were there en route for Kiel and district.

Yesterday we went to

[page break]

Bremen to bomb the town before Monty moves in!!

Yes I wrote to Phil 10 days before his birthday, so hope it arrived in time.

I am still trying to get Bruce fixed somewhere but no luck yet - By the way he sends a wag of his rudder!!

Would you mind asking Joyce Barratt to the party as she would even things up a bit in the younger end of the party - After all we don't want older people altogether - do we?? Ask Dad if he

[page break]

[page(s) missing]

Citation

John Taylor Brittain, “Letter from John Brittain to his mother,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed December 14, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/9929.

Item Relations

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