{"id":98027,"date":"2023-08-26T10:36:42","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T10:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebritycovernews.com\/?p=98027"},"modified":"2023-08-26T10:36:42","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T10:36:42","slug":"raf-airmans-letter-to-mother-of-killed-comrade-in-wwii-set-to-be-sold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebritycovernews.com\/world-news\/raf-airmans-letter-to-mother-of-killed-comrade-in-wwii-set-to-be-sold\/","title":{"rendered":"RAF airman&apos;s letter to mother of killed comrade in WWII set to be sold"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Heartrending letter RAF airman sent to mother of comrade who was killed when their plane &#8216;blew up in mid-air&#8217; after being hit by German fighter fire in WWII is set to be sold at auction with his medals for up to \u00a3600<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Note sent by Flight Officer Paul Bunn to the mother of Sergeant Douglas Timms<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Sergeant Timms was killed during bombing raid near Stuttgart in January 1945\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A heartrending letter sent by an RAF pilot to the mother of a comrade who was killed when their Lancaster Bomber was shot down over Germany in the Second World War has emerged for sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The handwritten note was sent by\u00a0Flight Officer Paul Bunn to the mother of flight engineer Sergeant Douglas Timms, who was killed during a bombing raid in January 1945.<\/p>\n<p>Flight Officer Bunn revealed that his plane was hit in the petrol tanks and &#8216;immediately caught fire&#8217; before the aircraft &#8216;just blew up in mid-air&#8217; over the German town of Goppingen.<\/p>\n<p>He said he was blown out of the plane with the navigator and bomb aimer, but Sergeant Timms &#8216;collapsed&#8217; and slid into the aircraft&#8217;s nose.<\/p>\n<p>That was the last he saw of his comrade, who was later buried in a church graveyard by the Germans before being re-interred after the war in an Allied cemetery.<\/p>\n<p>Flight Officer Bunn, who was taken as a prisoner of war when he landed with his parachute, added that he would have written to her earlier, but for his feeling that he would be &#8216;rubbing salt into an open wound&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>The letter is being sold with Sergeant Timms&#8217;s war medals, log book, flying jacket, a photo of him and his grave, and the initial telegram sent to his mother informing her of her son&#8217;s death. The lot is expected to sell for up to \u00a3600.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/21\/10\/74550131-0-image-m-14_1692608420032.jpg\" height=\"847\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>A heartrending letter sent by an RAF airman to the mother of a comrade who was killed when their Lancaster Bomber was shot down over Germany in the Second World War has emerged for sale. The handwritten note was sent by Flight Officer Paul Bunn to the mother of Sergeant Douglas Timms (pictured)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Flight Officer Bunn&#8217;s letter was in response to Sergeant Timms&#8217; mother&#8217;s initial communication to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>READ MORE:\u00a0&#8216;I am deeply touched&#8217;: Churchill&#8217;s original signed letter to well-wishers after Britain&#8217;s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two is valued at $200K\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>He reassured Hilda Timms that her son son, who died aged 26, would not have suffered.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He was killed along with wireless operator Sergeant Jack Ernest and air gunners\u00a0Sergeant William Cook and Sergeant Ronald Poulsom.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Flight Officer Bunn&#8217;s full letter reads:\u00a0&#8216;Dear Mrs Timms,<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I was very pleased to receive your letter. Frankly I cannot understand why the Air Ministry haven&#8217;t communicated with you.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I would have written to you earlier only I felt that perhaps it would only be rubbing salt into an open wound.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Well now on the night of Jan 2nd we were caught by fighters and were hit in the petrol tanks which immediately caught fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Within a few seconds\u00a0the aircraft just blew up in mid-air and myself, navigator, bomb aimer were blown clean out of the airplane.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Now at the time your son was sitting next to me and when he got the burst from the fighter he collapsed and slid into the nose of the A\/C and that was the last I saw of him.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/21\/09\/74550123-0-image-a-1_1692607364774.jpg\" height=\"845\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/21\/09\/74550129-0-image-a-6_1692607396806.jpg\" height=\"845\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Flight Officer Bunn&#8217;s letter was in response to Sergeant Timms&#8217; mother&#8217;s initial communication to him<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I did my best to find out from the Germans exactly what happened to them and they told me definitely that four of the boys were killed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Well now again they said that the boys would be given a decent funeral like their own people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There is another consolation and that is none of the boys could possibly have suffered in any way and were killed outright.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We were shot down near a small town called Goppingen about 20 miles S.E. of Stuttgart.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;In closing please accept my sincerest sympathy and in future if I can possibly help you please don&#8217;t hesitate in writing as I would only be too glad to do anything for you.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The brief telegram sent to Sergeant Timms&#8217;s mother said:\u00a0&#8216;Regret to inform you that your son 546594 Sgt Douglas Joseph James Timms is reported missing from operations on night of 2nd January 1945.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/21\/09\/74550127-0-image-a-7_1692607407359.jpg\" height=\"476\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The letter is being sold with Sergeant Timms&#8217;s war medals, log book and flying jacket. Above: The 1939-1945 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medal, and War Medal 1939-1945<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/21\/09\/74550125-0-image-a-8_1692607421904.jpg\" height=\"476\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The brief telegram sent to Sergeant Timms&#8217;s mother said: &#8216;Regret to inform you that your son 546594 Sgt Douglas Joseph James Timms is reported missing from operations on night of 2nd January 1945.\u00a0Letter follows immediately. Any other information received will be communicated to you immediately pending receipt of written communication&#8230;&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/08\/21\/10\/74550131-12428375-image-a-17_1692610390718.jpg\" height=\"916\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sergeant Timms was initially buried at the church cemetery of Schlierbach, a few miles from Goppingen. His remains and those of his comrades from the same plane were re-interred at Durnbach War Cemetery outside Munich in 1948\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Letter follows immediately. Any other information received will be communicated to you immediately pending receipt of written communication&#8230;&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Sergeant Timms was initially buried\u00a0at the church cemetery of Schlierbach, a few miles from Goppingen.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His remains and those of his comrades from the same plane were re-interred at\u00a0Durnbach War Cemetery outside Munich in 1948.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Richard Bromell, of Charterhouse Auctioneers and Valuers, said:\u00a0&#8216;Sergeant Timms was an engineer flying in a Lancaster who was sadly killed in action near Stuttgart on January 2nd 1945.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The Lancaster was caught by German fighters and hit in the fuel tanks which caught fire and within seconds the plane blew up in mid-air.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The pilot, navigator and bomb aimer were blown clear out the Lancaster and survived only to be captured when they landed by the Germans, but Sergeant Timms and three crew from the plane lost their lives immediately.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The lots &#8211; which have been put up for sale by a distant family relation of Sergeant Timms&#8217; &#8211; will feature in a two-day auction starting on August 29 at Charterhouse&#8217;s sale rooms in Sherborne, Dorset.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12428375\/Heartrending-letter-RAF-airman-sent-mother-comrade-killed-plane-blew-mid-air-hit-German-fighter-fire-WWII-set-sold-auction-medals-600.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heartrending letter RAF airman sent to mother of comrade who was killed when their plane &#8216;blew up in mid-air&#8217; after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>RAF airman&amp;apos;s letter to mother of killed comrade in WWII set to be sold - Celebrity Cover News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/celebritycovernews.com\/world-news\/raf-airmans-letter-to-mother-of-killed-comrade-in-wwii-set-to-be-sold\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RAF airman&amp;apos;s letter to mother of killed comrade in WWII set to be sold - Celebrity Cover News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Heartrending letter RAF airman sent to mother of comrade who was killed when their plane &#8216;blew up in mid-air&#8217; 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