Description
Object description
Photocopies of correspondence relating to his service as an officer with the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (6th Airborne Division) in the UK and North West Europe, including his undated ms letter (2pp) to his parents, thanking them for their hospitality and "for being so absolutely wonderful about the coming offspring" and outlining the preparations "to get somewhere for Kay in Amesbury" until he leaves and for the birth in September [?1944] at the Radcliffe hospital in Oxford; a ms/ts telegram (1p, 17 June 1944) from the Under-Secretary of State for War to Mrs R C Belcher in Oxford, stating that her husband "was reported missing on 6th June 1944 the Army Council express sympathy"; and a ms letter (2pp, 8 July 1944) from Lieutenant Colonel Godfrey Stewart to Mrs Belcher, thanking her for her letter, stating that her husband ("Bunny") was "dropped with four of our men and five of a parachute Battalion early in the morning on D Day" as part of the Normandy landings and that "we are practically certain they were dropped very wide and in enemy territory", expressing the opinion that "we are very hopeful that Bunny is alive and well" and "will turn up" because a number of soldiers who were dropped into occupied territory are known "to be alive & hiding", and noting that "if he had been killed by enemy action, wounded or prisoner then we should have heard by now through the Red Cross".
Content description
Photocopies of correspondence relating to his service as an officer with the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (6th Airborne Division) in the UK and North West Europe, including his undated ms letter (2pp) to his parents, thanking them for their hospitality and "for being so absolutely wonderful about the coming offspring" and outlining the preparations "to get somewhere for Kay in Amesbury" until he leaves and for the birth in September [?1944] at the Radcliffe hospital in Oxford; a ms/ts telegram (1p, 17 June 1944) from the Under-Secretary of State for War to Mrs R C Belcher in Oxford, stating that her husband "was reported missing on 6th June 1944 the Army Council express sympathy"; and a ms letter (2pp, 8 July 1944) from Lieutenant Colonel Godfrey Stewart to Mrs Belcher, thanking her for her letter, stating that her husband ("Bunny") was "dropped with four of our men and five of a parachute Battalion early in the morning on D Day" as part of the Normandy landings and that "we are practically certain they were dropped very wide and in enemy territory", expressing the opinion that "we are very hopeful that Bunny is alive and well" and "will turn up" because a number of soldiers who were dropped into occupied territory are known "to be alive & hiding", and noting that "if he had been killed by enemy action, wounded or prisoner then we should have heard by now through the Red Cross".
History note
Cataloguer SJO