My father Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson sent a letter home to his folks and kid sister Dian in Bismarck, ND on March 17th, 1944. It was about a week before he would fly his first combat mission. That one would be over Cazaux, France piloting the B-17 Mirandy (42-31992). One B-17 was lost and thirty seven damaged. Compared to the following 34 missions to come, that was an easy one.

In the March 17th letter he anticipated an easy go. What comes off when first reading his words, is a cocky and very self assured 21 year old pilot. His mention of fighter cover making the missions far safer may be true in a sense, yet not really when you look at the B-17 losses in early to mid-late 1944.

This is the period my father flew his 35 missions with the 95th Bomb Group out of Horham Airfield in England. On many of his missions he flew, anywhere from 10 - 60 bombers were lost in any given 5 - 7 hour flight of a mission. Ten men crews per B-17 and the numbers of lost airmen are staggering.

But I know why his bravado was so forthcoming in the letter. He was protecting his mother Clara, pictured below in an October 1943 homecoming with her son when he was on leave shortly before he reported for combat flying in England. She worried about her son, like any mother would. When taken in that context, the letter comes of rather sweet and innocent.

The truth was for Clara to read in the daily papers of the 8th Air Corps successes and losses. It must have been rough on her, yet she prevailed like my father did surviving so many missions unscathed. In late 1944 her son came home for a visit before he reported for his next assignment. That homecoming was quite the joyful experince for his mom and father Frank and his 4 year old sister Dian.

Here's the transcription of letter:

March 17th, 1944
England

Dear Dad, Mom and Dinny,
Still haven't had any mail since I arrived at my new and permanent post. Before I forget, I'm enclosing a piece of metal paper (chaff) the Germans drop to confuse British Radar. I found it outside the barracks. (attached below is the chaff he found in 1944)

I hope to get some mail tomorrow. Say, how about sending me a whole bunch of writing paper and envelopes. Try to get the type without lines. Try to get a little heavier grade than this. I'm having a hell of a time with stationary, so you can expect letters on almost anything soon.

Be sure to conform to postal regulations and also be sure to wrap it well. If you want you can have Joe out at Fraine Barracks wrap it up. He's got a lot of good stuff to do it. They don't seem to have any writing paper here at all.

Candy is hard to get, but I don't miss it like I thought I would. Never have milk as most English cows have T.B.

I get very good food now. About the best available. You see I'm at a base now that sends crews out over Germany and they try and feed them well.

I hope you haven't been worrying about me. I haven't been on any raids yet. I imagine you've been reading the news about the Big Berlin raids and you probbaly thought I was on some of them. However, by the time you get this I'll have had a taste of combat.

I'm not worried at all. Most of the time we have good fighter cover as you've probbaly read in the paper. It's just the long grueling hours of formation flying that ages a fellow, plus the flak and weather and stuff.

It's not bad though. I'll get a pass at the end of my fifth mission. May go to London. I've been here almost a month and have been to town only once. That was while I was at another base. The weather is getting a lot better lately. That's one good thing! At least when the weather is nice a fellow can enjoy himself when he gets time off.

Will go to bed pretty soon.

What do you think of this last sheet of paper? Pretty crumby, isn't it?

Tell everyone hello. What's Dinny doing? Acting smart, I'll bet.

Love,
Ernie

Attached below is an October 5th, 1944 Bismarck Tribune article. "Lili of the Lamplight (44-6085) was Lucky Lady," Pilot Says