Saturday 14th July, 1945

Dear Mum and Dad,

Just a note to let you know that I arrived back at Winterton bout midnight last night. The trip over Germany was grand; I enjoyed every minute of it despite talks of "air sickness" and it being "Friday the 13th".

We were at RAF Wyton and went to the briefing at nine o'clock and were introduced to our crews- two of us to each three Lancs, our was "H" for Harry. The Co-pilot looked after Jessica and me and took us to get our parachutes, helmets and "mae wests" (life jackets) in case we had to bale out over the sea. By the time we were all dressed up it was very hot although we were in our shirt sleeves, it was 10:30 and we took off. At first we sat just behind the pilot but when we were airborne the co-pilot moved and we sat in his seat where we had, had a good view for miles around.

We flew across England and came to the sea just north of the Thames Estuary. Most of the way we flew at between 3,000 and 4,000 feet. It was very hot with the sun beating down through the perspex nose.

We crossed the Dutch coast at The Hague; it looked a fine town, but with large areas destroyed. We continued across Holland over flat fields all the same rectangular shape and size but with different crops. All were intersected by long straight roads and canals but were mostly unusable as the bridges were destroyed; also the railway tracks were non-existent. By the way people were working in the fields but in lots of fields were concentrations of bomb craters, the only evidence left of where V1 and V2 bomb sites had been.

After that we came to the Rhine and Arnhem where fields were littered with crashed gliders, a most depressing sight. It was then that the utter desolation started- very few signs of life, with towns, villages and even isolated farms wiped out, probably by shelling not bombing. Cleve and Wesel were next along the Rhine, they were almost all destroyed as was every bridge over the Rhine, apart from the famous one at Nimegen which had been patched up. We passed over Dortmund where the Dortmund-Emms canal is unusable and battered barges are high and dry on the banks. We were down to about 2,000 feet and it was such a clear day we could see most of the towns in the Rhur. Next we crossed some very nice country to Achen and Cologne which was badly damaged but we did see people walking about. The cathedral still stands and is a landmark for miles around.

From here we started our return journey. Jessica and I were lying on cushions in the nose where we had a fine view as well as being comfortable. We came back over Holland to Antwerp and Walchern Island where the sea walls were breached and the country flooded, just red roofs of the houses above the water. Over the sea we both dozed off for a few minutes we were so comfortable. It was good to see England again and activity below after all the desolation. On our way back a Mustang tried to "shoot us up" and we banked, it was strange to look up and see the earth not sky.

All things end and our "tour" did about three o'clock with a perfect landing. We then had our long journey back via Peterborough. Thank you for your letter waiting for me when I got back,

Fondest Love,

Phyllis.