Copy of letter to Ian Wynn's wife
Title
Copy of letter to Ian Wynn's wife
Description
From Air Ministry casualty branch reporting that the Royal Air Force Missing Research and Inquiry Service in Holland had located husband's grave in Venlo. Goes on to describe graves of aircrew recovered from same crash. Mentions some facts about crash.
Creator
Date
1946-04-13
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
One page typewritten letter
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
SWynnIA146838v10002
Transcription
COPY.
GERrard 9234
P.404570/43/P.4..R.2.
AIR MINISTRY
(Casualty Branch)
73-77 Oxford Street
London, W.1.
13th April 1946
Dear Mrs Wynn,
I have to refer to previous correspondence from this Department concerning your husband, Pilot Officer I.A. Wynn and to inform you that the Royal Air Force Missing Research and Enquiry Service in Holland has now located his place of burial.
The Officer conduction the investigation into the fate of your husband and his crew, visited Venlo and found the graves of Flying Officer Petts and Pilot Officer Russell, the navigator and air-bomber in the crew exactly as they had been reported by the International Red Cross Committee. In addition were two graves, 280 and 281 in row 25, marked with the same date, that is 26th May 1943, but with no names inscribed. The Secretary of the Burgomaster of Venlo stated, however, that the two graves contained further remains recovered from the same crash.
According to his records the aircraft had crashed in the middle of a fir tree forest near Vlodrop, 17 miles south-south-east of Venlo, and from statements later obtained from various eyewitnesses, it is unhappily concluded that the circumstances made the survival of the crew impossible. The Germans arrived at the scene within a few minutes and refused to allow any Dutch civilian access, these, however, were informed later that the whole crew had perished.
The Germans, apparently, had been able to identify only two of the crew, namely Flying Officer Petts and Pilot Officer Russell and the further remains recovered were buried in graves 280 and 281 and Venlo cemetery.
In view of these distressing facts I’ve had no alternative but to assume that the five remaining members of this crew, including your husband, are represented by the remains in these two graves, and arrangements have therefore been made for collective crosses to be erected over them and for them to be registered accordingly by the Graves Registration Authorities.
May I extend our very deep and sincere sympathy with you in the tragic circumstances of your loss.
Yours sincerely,
R.W.Maddock
Mrs. I.A. Wynn
“Sunny Brae”, Norley
Frodsham, Warrington, Lancashire.
GERrard 9234
P.404570/43/P.4..R.2.
AIR MINISTRY
(Casualty Branch)
73-77 Oxford Street
London, W.1.
13th April 1946
Dear Mrs Wynn,
I have to refer to previous correspondence from this Department concerning your husband, Pilot Officer I.A. Wynn and to inform you that the Royal Air Force Missing Research and Enquiry Service in Holland has now located his place of burial.
The Officer conduction the investigation into the fate of your husband and his crew, visited Venlo and found the graves of Flying Officer Petts and Pilot Officer Russell, the navigator and air-bomber in the crew exactly as they had been reported by the International Red Cross Committee. In addition were two graves, 280 and 281 in row 25, marked with the same date, that is 26th May 1943, but with no names inscribed. The Secretary of the Burgomaster of Venlo stated, however, that the two graves contained further remains recovered from the same crash.
According to his records the aircraft had crashed in the middle of a fir tree forest near Vlodrop, 17 miles south-south-east of Venlo, and from statements later obtained from various eyewitnesses, it is unhappily concluded that the circumstances made the survival of the crew impossible. The Germans arrived at the scene within a few minutes and refused to allow any Dutch civilian access, these, however, were informed later that the whole crew had perished.
The Germans, apparently, had been able to identify only two of the crew, namely Flying Officer Petts and Pilot Officer Russell and the further remains recovered were buried in graves 280 and 281 and Venlo cemetery.
In view of these distressing facts I’ve had no alternative but to assume that the five remaining members of this crew, including your husband, are represented by the remains in these two graves, and arrangements have therefore been made for collective crosses to be erected over them and for them to be registered accordingly by the Graves Registration Authorities.
May I extend our very deep and sincere sympathy with you in the tragic circumstances of your loss.
Yours sincerely,
R.W.Maddock
Mrs. I.A. Wynn
“Sunny Brae”, Norley
Frodsham, Warrington, Lancashire.
Collection
Citation
R W Maddock, “Copy of letter to Ian Wynn's wife,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 25, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/26825.
Item Relations
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