This page contains a list of links to images of some of the original letters and telegrams found on this site that I thought might be of interest. The entire collection of letters was transcribed by my wife and I several years ago and the originals were placed in individual plastic slip covers for their protection. The least possible handling of the original letters would aid in their longevity, so with the use of the transcribed versions saved on disk, we have minimized that handling.
Some of the files of the scanned letters are quite large. I did not want to compromise the quality and readability,and wanted them to be shown as accurately as possible. Therefore, I kept the size large. Since these letters are unique, it is worth the extra time it takes to download them to your browser.
To view an image, just click on the links below and the image will appear in a new window. When you have finished viewing the image, just close that window to return to this index.
| October 8, 1941 | Front of postcard sent from Dearborn Station in Chicago, IL (note the price on the stamp) |
| October 8, 1941 | Rear of postcard sent from Dearborn Station in Chicago, IL |
| October 15, 1941 | First page of letter written on official Royal Canadian Air Force stationery |
| November 6, 1941 | Telegram from Bournemouth, England |
| November 14, 1941 | Letter written on a page from a notepad from the American Eagle Club in London, England |
| November 16, 1941 | Letter written on a brochure from the American Eagle Club in London, England (this is one side of the brochure) |
| November 16, 1941 | The reverse side of the letter above which describes the American Eagle Club |
| December 1941 | This is the form which my father filled out for sending a telegram to his family. From Bournemouth, England. A copy of the received telegram doesn't exist. |
| February 5, 1942 | Telegram sent from London, England |
| February 5, 1942 | This shows the reverse side of the telegram with my grandmother's reply message to be sent back to my father in London |
| March 18, 1942 | This is a portion of a letter (second page) which shows how my father's letters were censored while in the CTC. The areas that appear black in the image are actually parts that were physically cut out from the page by a censor at the CTC Headquartes in Bournemouth, England. Return addresses were always removed to keep the location of the CTC schools secret. The censor would sometimes write in a return address (which would be the Headquarters' address in Bournemouth). If there was a reference in the letter to towns or landmarks in the vicinity of the CTC school, that would also be cut out. Letters written on both sides of a piece of paper were especially hard to read since they could get chopped up from both sides. |
| April 16, 1942 | Telegram from Aberdeen, Scotland. Note the 'sansorigine' in the return address. This was to keep the location secret in the event that the transmission of the telegram was intercepted by the Germans. The identity of towns and locations that had anything to do with radar stations was protected in this manner. |
| May 24, 1942 | Telegram from Northern Ireland. May father had some furlough time and went to visit relatives there and take in the sites. |
| June 29, 1942 | This is a telegram sent to my father from St. Paul, MN - Note the British Telegraph company |
| January 6, 1943 | Telegram from Malvern, England - Note 'AMGIBO' in the return address field. That was an military code name for the location. This was from the time my father was assigned to TRE (Telecommunications Research Establishment) . |
| February 8, 1943 | This image is of a 'V-Mail', the high-tech version of mail delivery at the time. The author would write his letter on a prepared form whichi was normal page size (8-1/2" X 11"). This form would be photographed with 35 mm film. The film, which would contain a large amount of letters written that day, would then be flown across the Atlantic to New York. The film would be processed and printed. The resulting prints , which were 4" X 5", would then be delivered to the addressee. By having the letters carried by plane as opposed to crossing the Atlantic by boat (which was the normal means of delivering mail), The V-Mail was faster and didn't run as high a risk of being sunk to the bottom of the ocean by German submarines. |
| May 15, 1943 | This image is of the 'V-Mail' Wedding Invitation that Edward sent to his family and relatives back in the States. Although he writes in his letters about his wedding being in June, he actually got married on May 22, 1943. There was some sort of security issue that kept him from being able to reveal the true date of his wedding, so his parents didn't know until his return to the U.S. in August of 1943 that he was actually married in May. |