Transcript
of an Armed Forces Air Letter addressed to Geale's mother, Mrs F.H. Hewson from F/O
Royce Johns, a very close friend of F/O Geale Hewson.
Belgum
Tues, Sept 19
Dear
Mrs. Hewson,
Long
before you receive this letter you will have received that curt official
notice so dreaded by mothers and sweethearts all over the world ....
"missing in action".
We
in this Squadron have been waiting for Hewie to show up again as we are
all quite sure he will.
I
can, even under strict censorship, give you some of the details of the
circumstances under which we had to leave Hewie out there alone.
Our
Squadron was engaged in carrying out an attack against an enemy position
in Holland when Hewie's aircraft was struck by a German shell. The
aircraft began to stream smoke so there was little else for your son to
do but bail out. He bailed out and his parachute opened easily at about
2000 feet.
One
of our pilots, Babe Swingler, flew past within a hundred yards of the
parachute and Hewie raised his arm and waived that he was OK.
As
our last Squadron aircraft was leaving the area, that small white
parachute was still drifting slowly down into enemy occupied territory
and we are quite certain that he landed unhurt.
What
follows then we shall have to wait to to hear.
Holland
has its "Marquis" as well as France and Hewie can do a mighty
fine job of taking care of himself.
I
do hope this letter has relieved your anxieties somewhat.
Hewie's
friend,
Royce
A. Johns
All
Photos
courtesy of G.W. Hewson Copyright © 2005. All rights reserved.
Tiger
Squadron
