Joe the Pilot

Letter from Keith to his mother, 19 January 1945.
'I guess you know by now that we have got a new skipper his name is Watson, “Joe".'

Keith's final letter home (undated, probably late March 1945)
'Say this new pilot “Joe Watson” is really a good pilot & he has proved it in many ways such as landing in fog as thick as soup etc so you see you have nothing to worry about.'

The Magnificent Seven ( 1 man and 6 kids)

A Lancaster Bomber required a 7 man crew. Keith was one of the 7 crew who all died when the Lane End Lancaster crashed on April 5, 1945.

The average age of the 7 crew on board the Lane End Lancaster was 22 years.

Joe Watson, the pilot, was the oldest member of the crew. He was 33 when the plane crashed.

If you exclude the pilot, the average age of the other 6 crew was 20.

Shooting down a Junkers 88

Letter from Keith to his mother, June 19 1944.
'Mary wrote me a very nice long letter ... she seems awfully nice & invited me down to their place when I get leave, the last letter too was from Phillip, he expects to move in soon, he shot down a Ju 88 over Caen on the second day of the invasion, he says it turned on its back & made a power dive into the deck, ... I think he must be a pretty good pilot.'

Here's a little tune about the Junkers 88, Germany's most prolific bomber plane.

Woody (Keith's inferior cousin)

Phillip was a real hero in Keith's eyes. He'd seen a lot of action during the war and was a grown man with a wife and child on the way.
Woody was a cousin on the other side of Keith's family. He was in the navy. Keith didn't think too highly of Woody.

Letter from Keith to his mother, 7 November 1944.
'Everybody seems to be getting themselves into an awful sweat over Woody. Holy cats what’s he ever done that’s so gosh awful heroic. I’d like to take him for a ride in one of these old Halifax’s we have on this station, they are just about falling apart I bet he’d s___ himself if he ever saw two out of the four engines stopped and mountains  all around.'

This photo borrowed from http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-travelling-bum/5174610501/

Potatoes, greens, more potatoes and greens...

Letter from Keith to his mom, June 19, 1944.
'You asked about the food we get, its terrible at this station I never saw potatoes done in so many different ways & greens that boiled …[?]... every meal every day we get greens. '

This newsreel makes the food look sort of okay. At least the potatoes tasted like potatoes. 

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/eats-for-lonely-men/query/army+food