A wartime letter from my father

I have a very well-worn letter which my late father, Jacob (‘Jack’) Goldstein wrote to his oldest brother, Lou (originally ‘Levy’), while he was on a few days leave from the RAFVR. It is the only item which I have in my father’s hand. Like my father, Lou was born in Warsaw, Poland, and came to England as a young child in the early part of the twentieth century, just before the outbreak of WW1. As the two oldest boys of a family eventually of eleven children, they were particularly close.

The letter is dated “Wed 13th”. It is possible to pin this down further. My father enlisted (I believe after several unsuccessful attempts on account of his being Polish by birth) on 22 January 1944, and was killed in action on 16 March 1945. Between those dates there were only two occasions when 13th of the month fell on a Wednesday — September and December 1944. In his letter, my father says that on return from leave he was being posted to another station; his service record shows he was posted to 166 Squadron of Bomber Command (based at Kirmington, Lincolnshire) on 5 January 1945. He also mentioned the possibility of getting more leave around Christmas, so it is likely that the date of his letter was Wednesday 13 December 1944.

The text of the letter is as follows. I have added some comments in square brackets:

“Dear Lou

Thanks a lot for your letter which certainly came as a surprise, but was nevertheless welcome. I’m afraid letter writing is not one of my strong points, and if there is one who writes less than you, it’s myself.

I am glad to hear you have found yourself a job which must be more in your line than drill and P.T. and that you are feeling quite well [Lou was a Lance-Corporal in the Royal Army Service Corps, serving from 1941 to 1946]. I, myself, am feeling O.K and at present am writing this at home, where I am on leave for a few days. It’s a pity your leave does not coincide with mine, but I may possibly get some more leave round about Christmas, and will certainly see you if I possibly can.

I hope your family are in the ‘pink’. Leila and Michael will be coming home this Saturday, so don’t forget to pop round when you come home and bring the family with you. [My sister Leila and I had been evacuated to Blackpool during the bombings on London, and this must have been the time of our return home].

I have been doing a fair amount of flying lately, but nothing very eventful which is how I want it to be. I’m pretty confident I’ll get through it all O.K. [Tragically, this was not to be so. My father was killed in action in the last weeks of the war, on 16 March 1945]. We’ve got a very good crew, which is half Canadian and our pilot believes in taking no unnecessary risks. If I had to choose it all over again, I’d still prefer this to the army.

The reason I haven’t written my address on this letter is that I am being posted to another station when I come back from leave. I shan’t be sorry, as Sandtoft [Lincolnshire], my present station is miles away from anywhere and we hardly leave the camp. We spend most of our spare time playing 1d [one (old) penny] Solo, or going to the camp Cinema. [‘Solo’ is a card game rather like Whist, commonly played within my father’s community].

I’m glad to hear you manage to get a bit of time off and visit Brighton dog track, but believe it or not, I’ve lost all interest in the game and I’m …[words not clear]… certain it will never hold any attraction for me again. [Gambling on dog- or horse-racing events was a frequent past-time for the older boys and their father].

I visited the workshop this afternoon and they have twice as many workpeople, but turn out less than we used to. [The ‘workshop’ was the clothing factory my grand-father owned, and in which all the boys worked]. Sadie tells me Dave is rowing [arguing] all day long. [My mother was an accomplished self-taught seamstress, and worked in the family workshop during the war. I do not know who ‘Dave’ is].They sure miss you on the machine. However, it won’t be long now.

Sadie sends her love to you and the family.

All the best,

Jack”

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