Edwin's letters : a fragment of life, 1940-43 (Military Memoirs)
Edwin Thomas was killed at the age of twenty-one with six other airmen who formed the crew of a Hali...
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Edwin Thomas was killed at the age of twenty-one with six other airmen who formed the crew of a Halifax bomber. His early ambition was to be a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm, but he never attained it. His final rank was Sergeant Wireless Operator/Air Gunner. But in the end neither rank nor brevet mattered. Death for Edwin and his friends was a common denominator.This chronicle is but a fragment of the great sorrow caused by the Second World War. Edwin Thomas's service in the RAF was undistinguished - except by his sacrifice of life - and his death was merely one among tens of millions who died tragically between 1939-1945.Here, quite unadorned, are the official letters of call-up, Edwin's own letters home to his mother over two and a half years (meticulously preserved by her until her dying day), the telegrams warning that he was 'missing in action', and finally the official and personal letters of condolence that only served to twist a knife in the family's wounds.
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