Browse Items (11 total)

Map (Newcastle to Prague) with five photographs overlaid with lines leading to their locations on map. Top left - a town with destroyed buildings below a wide river with a bridge. Aircraft port outer engine and wingtip visible. Captioned 'Emmerich'.…

Starts with apologies and arrangements for upcoming events. Mentions no operations since Bremen but is now doing supply drops in the Netherlands. States he has done 13 2/3 operations but missed his crews last three due to illness. Talks of taking a…

Opens apologising for writing in pencil and mentions he has made a model Lancaster and that he does not know when he will get leave. Goes on to say that his skipper is in contact with a pal who is trying to wangle them onto his squadron which will…

Writes of flying in bad weather and very low temperatures. Says he has not had time to visit relative in Peterborough. Writes of absolute confidence in skipper and crew. Mentions no dates for squadron and no sign of leave until they get to new…

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…

Writes that he has been flying 8 hours a day repatriation allied prisoners-of-war from Juvincourt near Reims in France. States that the civilian population is short of essentials and that anything can be had for a bar of soap, although as the…

Starts with apology for not writing but has been constantly flying to France to repatriate allied prisoners of war. Mentions typhoid injection to prevent crews catching it from ex-prisoners. Writes that he believes they will stay in UK but rumours of…

Written while under training at RAF Chedburgh. Thanks her for food she sent. Not flying yet but relates that he is very pleased with results crew obtained in examinations which shows they should be a good crew. Writes about their 'Geordie' engineer…

Writes that prisoner of war repatriation task is now over and that they now going to do a sort of Cook's Tour of Germany including the Ruhr. He goes on to discuss upcoming dates for birthday, anniversary and leave. States he may not be able to use…

Writes about return journey back to camp. Says they are going to France the next day to fly up to 24 prisoners of war back home. Mentioned that last time they did this they were stuck for two days in bad weather. Speculates that squadron will stay in…

Three page letter envelope from John Brittain to his mother. He mentions the bad weather and that he might sell his car. He tells her of the devastation that he has seen while flying over Germany.