The article published in The Cornishman newspaper in 2010 explains the circumstances in respect of the letter. My sister, June, kept the letter all her life and it would seem that it was one of the last letters, dated 27th May 1944 that Jack wrote before he was killed. He survived the D-Day Landings on 6th June 1944 but was killed at the Battle of Saint-Lo in France on 18th June 1944 aged twenty three years old.
We looked after American soldier Jack Potts like a brother because my family were away serving the country in World War II. My father served in the Royal Navy in World War I and was in the Merchant Navy during World War II. He was a sailor on the Empire Tide on the Russian Convoy and was on her during P Q 17, ” The Convoy to Hell”.
One of my brothers was a boy seaman on the Prince of Wales. He was on board when Winston Churchill met with Franklin D Roosevelt in August 1941 at Plancenta Bay. He survived the sinking of the Prince of Wales by the Japanese off the Malayasian Coast in December 1941. At the time he was just aged seventeen years old. He lived until aged ninety two.
My other brother was on Operation Pluto.
My wife, Diana, and I returned to Penzance permanently after I had worked away from 1953 to 1990. This included twelve years in the R.A.F. with two overseas tours 1956/1959 Air Sea Rescue R.A.F. Marine Craft during the E.O.K.A. campaign in Limassol, Cyprus, then 1961’1963 Aden and Oman.
