From Horham Airfield in England

My father Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson's May 19th, 1944 letter from England to his folks and four year old sister Dian (Dinny) in Bismarck, North Dakota. By the time he had written this letter my father had been at Horham Airfield in England with the 95th Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force for over three months and had just completed his 14th mission over Osnabruk in northwest Germany not far from the border the Netherlands.

Ernest had piloted the ship "Mirandy" (42-31992) on May 13th, 1944 flying with the 334th Squadron. The "Mirandy" was one of 199 B-17s dispatched to hit the marshaling yard at Osnabruck. 178 ships hit the primary target and 21 ships bomb targets of opportunity. One B-17 is lost and 61 damaged with 2 airmen wounded in action and 10 airmen went missing in action.

My father often wrote these letters from the barracks or the mess hall at Horham.

May 19th, 1944     England
Dear Dad, Mom & Dinny,

Just a note to let you know every thing is going okay. What do you think of the flashy blue paper? The paper we buy here isn’t too bad except that it’s too small.

It’s almost noon now, not flying today. Most of the other fellows are. You see the same crews don’t fly on all the missions!

We’re going to eat in a few minutes. Will mail this at the mess hall. How’s the weather been back there? By the way, my crew is due for a flak pass in a week or two. We are sent to a rest home, it lasts about seven days.

Say hello to the folks. Give Dinny a boot in the pants from me.

Love, Ernie