Chapter 10 - War exacts a price.

Eric's brother is killed in action. Jane relates the experience in letters home.

 

            1943 was pretty much a continuation of the previous year as far as living life in wartime was concerned, but by this time Eric, as we know already, is busy doing war work at home, his sister Vera decided that she wanted to work more closely with the war effort, and worked at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, the secret intelligence organization of which Churchill said, "Bletchley Park is my golden goose that lays eggs but never cackles". It was at Bletchley that the German 'Enigma' code was broken by British cryptologists, and this played an enormous part in defeating the enemy. Brother Edward was serving in the Royal Artillery, Anti-Aircraft division, while Reginald, the youngest brother, was serving with the 7th Rifle Brigade, D Company, M.E.F., as he had since 1939.  A career soldier, Reginald fought in Africa and stayed in the army after the war, attaining the rank of Major.

Eric’s brother Charles, Edward’s twin, was a cryptologist at Bletchley until 1941, but left in order to join the R.A.F.V.R. He was sent to Canada for training as a Fighter Pilot, but it was found that he would be more suitable as a bomber Pilot/Navigator no doubt as he was in his late twenties. Charles was a brilliant academic, and was appointed a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge at the incredibly early age of 24 (which would have been in 1935). He was an internationally well-known scholar of Middle Eastern ancient languages, particularly Coptic and Syriac. His translations of the Manichaean Hymn Book were a monumental achievement. He was fluent in French, German and Italian, and lectured in these languages. His place in his particular field has never, to his widow Pat's knowledge, been filled.

            So, we can see that everybody with the family was ‘doing their bit’ in one way or another, and of course this was a situation repeated in countless thousands of families right across the British Isles. Those not serving in one of the armed services were usually doing something else to help the war effort, even if it was only working in a communal vegetable garden to grow food, or making bandages, knitting socks for soldiers, or just saving anything recyclable; paper, cardboard, aluminium and jam jars. 

            Rationing was still in force, and foodstuffs, clothing and other necessities were becoming more and more scarce as the war continued.  But British women were undaunted and continued to learn how to make ends meet by adopting all sorts of alternative methods of making food last longer, or go further, or by producing their own.  By 1944 a quarter of Britain’s egg production was laid by hens kept in garden sheds.  Home gardeners managed to produce an estimated million tons of vegetables annually.

            Jane was no exception to this, and as we have seen, she was continually finding ways of providing food for her family, no matter how austere things became.

            Her letters, too, were becoming a little rarer as well, and we only have ten for the entire year, but they continue to give us an accurate insight into how life was for her, Eric, Richard and Gillian.            No doubt the added burden of having an extra person in the household has cramped Jane’s letter-writing time, too.

            They continued to live at 4 St Mary’s Place, Portobello in Edinburgh for the next few years, and things settled in to a quite normal routine.  Jane’s life is very organised, as usual;

 

            Monday February 15^th, 1943.

            Darling Mummy, I’ve been having the time of my life for the past four weeks, which is why I haven’t had time to write to you for all that time.  However, I’ve just had a letter from you, saying you haven’t written for three weeks, so we are just about quits.  This letter must be written in two goes, because it is 1.30 now, and I must feed Gillian at 2, and then sleep from 3 to 4.  I find I can’t manage without this hour’s sleep, so I take it whenever I can �" not too often, I fear.  When I wake I get Richard up and we have tea together and then play games and sing at the piano till 5.30, then he has his bath and I do all the blackouts.  Then I give him his supper �" a plate of cereal and a mug of Ovaltine.  He eats that while I feed Gillian then the pair of them go off to bed, and I get the supper �" and that’s that.  I am sticking to a rigid routine, which only deviates from the straight and narrow when Eric needs a bit of extra spoiling.  That isn’t often these days, as I see very little of him, less than ever before.  However, I've been having some Social Gaiety, which is a wonderful help.

 

Then in April Jane wrote about various matters, including her spring cleaning the house as well as this piece of bad news:

 

This has been an utterly miserable week and if I start telling you about it at length I’ll probably cry all over the place, a thing I’ve avoided so far, despite strong inclinations.

Pat’s brother stayed here overnight on Monday on his way to Aberdeen, bringing the awful news that Charles is missing after last Saturdays’ heavy raid on Essen.  About 22 planes were lost, which is an unusually heavy rate, and everything seems a bit blasted.  Eric went off to Aberdeen on Tuesday morning with Bob, and Mrs Robertson doesn’t come on Tuesdays, so I was all alone on Tuesday with my thoughts and felt wretched.  I couldn’t plunge into a lot of work because of my stiff back, so I wrote letters to Pat and her mother, and then Eric’s family, feeling worse every time I mentioned it.

Today has been a bit better, what with company and a bit of work.  Pat has only been married for 7½ months, and her baby is due in July, and oh golly, it’s enough to break anyone’s heart.  There is always the hope that Charles is safe in Germany (as much as anyone is, there) so we’ll just have to hang on fiercely to that chance, until we get definite news.

Fortunately Vera was home on sick leave when the news came, so she can give her mother help and support, though not much, because she is being x-rayed for her appendix, which is causing a lot of bother, poor lass.  I don’t know why she hasn’t had it out, seeing that it’s troubled her for months, with sickness and whatnot.  Poor Mrs Allberry must be in an awful state, with all these things happening at once.  Fortitude is not her strongest point, and it will be very difficult for Vera and her father to be of any help at all.  No one can really help another person at these times, except by trying the keep the atmosphere normal, and so on, and I can't see that that will be particularly easy.

 

Of course, the news of Charles’ death turned out to be true, and the family was devastated at the news.  To make matters worse, the whereabouts of Charles’ plane, or its occupants, was not known, only that the plane went down ‘somewhere over Holland.’  The following excerpt from a book written by his widow Pat tells what was known at the time.  The book is Charles Allberry �" A Portrait, privately published by the author, in 1984;

 

He joined his Squadron at Linton and wrote highly of his crew. Their plane didn’t return on the 3rd of April. It was on a mission to Essen, and was brought down on the outward or return journey, we do not know, in Holland. The crew were reported ‘missing, presumed killed.’  When the War was over we were told that all the crew had been killed and placed in the War Cemetery in Eindhoven. A Dutch girl guide called Constance Strybos wrote to me to say she had adopted Charles’s grave and placed flowers there regularly. We have been friends ever since.

David, our son, was born on 31st July 1943. I took him in November 1946 to a Memorial Service in Christ’s College Chapel for College members killed in the War. He remembers it, but vaguely. He remembers more clearly ‘the present that Dr. Plumb put in my pocket.’  I also took him to Eindhoven. The R.A.F. paid for his education at the local Convent, Whispers Preparatory School, and Stonyhurst College until he was eleven.

 

            Remarkably, 50 years later, there came to light a graphic eye-witness account of the night during which Charles' plane was shot down over Holland. It tells of the mission to bomb the town of Essen in Germany and how Nightfighter planes of the German Air force took chase. The account also tells where the plane was found the next day, and where the crew were buried:

 

Parts of an eyewitness-account. Witness: Lei Breukers.

Saturday evening 3-4-1943 at 23.30 hrs. British planes are returning from a bombardment of Essen. We see a plane bur­ning, but the fire extinguished shortly after its beginning. We found the plane Sunday morning, it was broken in 4 pieces, near the Colusdljk in Nederweert. 3 pieces were lying in a pine forest and one piece, in which the body of Lt. Allberry, had come down in a meadow. Somewhat deeper in the forest Sgt. Webb was lying. He was heavily wounded at his head. He was still sitting in the tail in his gunners position. His watch had stopped at 23.40. We took him out of the tail of the plane and laid him down on the grass. Then came some German soldiers. It was nearly 12 hrs. The Germans took very good care of Sgt. Webb. Chaplain Jansen fortified him with the last sacraments. Webb was then brought to the hospital in Weert, where he, as Chaplain Jansen said afterwards, died at 18.30 hrs. During the next week the different parts of the plane were collected by the Germans. They were scattered over about a length of 2 km. The body of Sgt. Dunlop was found at the 6th or 7th of April. This all, according to Lei Breukers, who was at that time about 15 years old.

 

However, at the time that this eyewitness account surfaced, it had accompanying it some extracts from official reports at the time the plane went down:

 

1/

Date : 3/4-4-1943

Time: 23.30 hrs

Place: Nederweert, Colusdijk

Plane: Halifax RU JB-845 code EL 78 sq Handley Page Halifax

Base : Linton on Ouse

Target: Essen

Cause of crash: In air battle shot down by nighthunter of

Germany:        Major von Boniri

Crew: F/L Richardson T.H.O. (P) age 37

F/O Allberry C.R.C.A. (nav) age 28

Sgt Kernick R.J. (nav-B) age 20

F/O Shadwell L.R.C. (wop/ag) age 23

Sgt Mc Cormick J. (ag) --

Sgt Webb T.H. (ag) age 22

Buried:            Eindhoven, war cemetery Woensel

Sgt Dunlop R.O.M. (F/e) age 28

Buried:            War cemetery Groesbeek

 

remark: In this night 12 Halifaxes were lost.

88 citizens- 16 Flak gunners- 2 railway employees and 16 French workers (forced labor) were killed, 458 people were wounded.

 

2/

From: Die Wehrmachtberichte of 4-4-1943 (The German Army News)

British bombers attacked different places in west Germany last night. Larger damage occurred in the town area region of Essen. The population suffered losses. Nighthunter (planes of the German air force) and artillery shot down at least 21 of the attacking planes.”

 

3/

From: “Kriegstagebuch des O.K.W. (War diary of the Ober Kommando der Wehrmacht = the Highest, Central, Command of the German Armed Forces):  In the night before 4-4-1943 there were flights of planes into the Ruhr-area, central target: Essen. 200 bombs and aerial mines, 48000 incendiaries and 10,000 phosphor incendiaries were dropped. 120 houses completely destroyed, 4000 were heavily or to a lesser extent and or slightly damaged.

100 large fires and 300 fires of a lesser extent and still smaller fires. Of Krupp 27 industrial buildings were hit, one third of these were damaged more heavily by explosive bombs and incendiaries.

4 planes were shot down by Flak (air defence artillery) and 15 by nighthunters.”

 

Of course we have to remember that Charles was only married shortly before he was shot down, and his wife Patricia suffered quite badly as a result.  The whole family rallied around her, but she was slow to respond and everybody was quite worried about her ability to cope with the situation, nor to mention being pregnant. Jane was no exception to this show of familial support, and she relates the following in a letter to her mother in April 1943:

 

I’m feeling less miserable this week, though I’m still pretty worried about Pat.  In case my last letter didn’t arrive, I’d better tell you again that Charles is reported missing after a big raid on Essen.  Pat’s baby is due in July, and so the poor lass is in a bit of a state.  I had a letter from her mother this morning. She and I are pretty good pals, and I wish she was my Ma-in-law. She says Pat is not too grand, and requires very careful nursing, so it is as well that her mother is an ex nurse,, and not one to over-coddle Pat, either.  She says that Pat won't take much interest in anything or anybody, which is understandable, when the news is only a week old.  Just before all this, Mrs Sandbach [Pat’s mother] wrote and asked me to go down there for a holiday with the babies in June, because she thought that I’d be needing a spell (which I do) but I was of two minds about it because of the awful task of travelling with two babies and no porters to help me change trains twice.   Now I feel that if Pat is still brooding too much, but otherwise fairly fit, I shall jolly well go down in May and snap her out of it �" whether she likes it or not.  I can well understand that there won't be much to jolly her along in a household devoid of other young people, and with both her parents too concerned about her to be light-hearted themselves.  So I think I’ll write to her mother and see what happens.  Pat was such a wonderful help to me when Gillian was coming.  I feel I’d like to put myself out to help her just now, and there’s practically nothing I can do.  If I took the babies down Richard would keep her laughing, and Gillian would be at a fascinating stage, so between the two of them they might take Pat’s mind off herself.  Their house is in the country, and very quiet, so I can imagine Pat sitting around all day, overwhelmed with unhappy thoughts, and only making herself more miserable. I must try to write to her a couple of times a week, and talk about everything except husbands and babies.

 

And later the same month:

 

I've been so obsessed with thoughts about Charles being missing, and so miserable thinking about little Pat, who has been quite ill, with some nervous prostration that has affected her speech and her legs.  She is recovering now, and the baby has survived the shock and should arrive according to plan in July.  I was to have gone down in June for 3 weeks holiday, but that is cancelled now, of course, as Pat has to kept nourished and kept quiet, and a horde of wild babies would be no help to her.  I’m sorry not to be going, because I do love Pat, and we get along so happily together, and her Mama is such a dear too.  However, in a way I'm glad I haven’t got to journey anywhere with two babies, and I've persuaded Eric to put the money that would have been spent on fares into War Savings, so as to put the finishing touch to this accursed war.

 

During the first two weeks of May 1943 when news was received confirming the death of Charles and the rest of the aircrew  Jane and Eric, of course, wrote to Eric’s parents expressing their sympathy.  The following letter was sent to them from Eric’s father:

 

68 King William St., EC4.  11^th May, ’43.

My dear Jane and Eric, thank you both so very much for your kind and sympathetic letters.  I wonder if you will understand me when I say that the fatal news was in some ways not such a terrible blow as when we first heard 5 weeks ago that he was missing.  We hoped and prayed that he might be safe although a prisoner, but during that time of anxiety Mother and I often wondered whether he might have been terribly wounded, fearfully unhappy or ill treated, whereas we now know that he has gone to another land away from this sinful world.

When the first shock of his life having been given for a just cause, Mother and I both said there is no need to worry about him and we must do all we can for dear Pat.  When speaking to Mother on the phone last night she said it was terrible to see her for she was unable to walk alone and able to mumble only a few words, and that today would be the crisis, but I am glad to say this evening when I spoke to Mother, she said the doctor was pleased for she was a little brighter, and he suggested that Vera should come home on Friday, for although she had done Pat a lot of good, he thought that if Vera saw her again in 2 weeks time it would be something for her to look forward to.

I very much appreciated your remark, Jane, about “being a part of our dear family” and I can assure you that you and your dear children are a great joy to us. 

Now Eric, I will certainly discuss with you your part in this terrible struggle, but rest assured that you have nothing to reproach yourself with, for not everyone can fight when other important work has to be done.  I had a notice put in the Times and the Telegraph about our dear son’s loss, and if you like I will send you a copy.  I heard from Snow this morning that Mr. Grose, Charles’ tutor, has sent the Times an obituary notice, but they are unable to say that they will have room to publish it for want of space, but I think they will.

We are looking forward very much to our visit. With my fondest love to you both, ever your affectionate, Father.”

 

            Enclosed with the letter was a copy of the Times obituary, written by Mr. S.W. Grose, M.A., Charles’ former tutor at Christ’s College, Cambridge:

 

May I, as his former Tutor, write to say that we learn with profound sorrow of the presumed death in his thirty-second year of Charles Allberry, Fellow of the College, in air operations during the night of 3-4th April. One of the most talented, perhaps the most talented of the younger scholars at Christ's during the last decade, Charles had at this early age and at a single bound attained a position in the front rank as a Coptic scholar by his edition in 1938 of the Chester Beatty manuscript of hymns of a new Manichaean Psalter, a work which brought him the highest praise from leading scholars both of the language and of Oriental religions.  Having occasion the next year to inform myself of their views I found nothing but the highest praise and an anxious desire that he would be able to continue in kindred studies expressed by Mr. Walter Crum, Dr Alan Gardiner, Sir Stephen Gaselee, Sir Herbert Thompson and others. Professor Schaeder wrote to me from Berlin that judged by their standards Allberry would be considered worthy of professorial rank in Germany and from different angles Vogliano in Rome and Franz Cumont were both much impressed. Professor A D Nock also had in mind the possibility of a chair in America.

Starting here as a classical scholar, and with an interest developing in classical philosophy, Charles had originally contemplated ordination, but after a long period of indecision he found himself unable to proceed with that intention. Meanwhile he had become interested in Manichaean philosophy, and as the opportunity occurred for him to edit these new Coptic texts we were glad to elect him first Fellow on the Lady Wallis Budge Foundation which had recently been established by Sir E Wallis Budge's bequests for the study of Egyptology here and at the University College, Oxford.

The Manichaean hymnbook and a survey of the present position of Manichaean studies which he contributed to the 'Journal of Theological Studies’ led to an invitation to become editor of 'Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'. He had now decided on Egyptology as, if possible, his permanent career and looked forward to the commencement of study of hieroglyphics under Dr Alan Gardiner, a project which would have been carried out earlier had not the opportunity to edit the texts not intervened. On the outbreak of war, sad as he was at the turn of events after his till recent long stay in Germany, he offered his services, and was inclined to chafe when they were not immediately accepted. Eventually he was employed for which his good knowledge of German was of particular use. But his heart knew its own bitterness, and although many would have judged him temperamentally unsuited - perhaps because he so judged himself - he desired combative service. Unknown to us he joined the Royal Air Force. It is characteristic that while at previous stages of his career he had anxiously sought advice at every turn and had found it difficult to set the course best suited to his talents, this decision he made himself, leaving a post for which his knowledge so well fitted him, and in which he could have honourably have stayed in safety, for the post of danger.

No account of Charles would be complete without some mention of his competence at many ball games. He had played for the University against Oxford at lacrosse; there are those who thought he might have gone near to a place in the XI had he chosen to devote the time necessary to that searching test. But he loved the game more than the prize. The senior members of the College will think primarily of the young scholar of such brilliant promise whom we have lost, but a larger number will best remember the batsman at the wicket and the flashing strokes with their accomplished ease. But one and all we shall treasure the memory of a winning personality, the memory of a friend not less gallant than dear.

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