After my father died in 1990 we found letters written by his brother Flying Officer James Frank Ineson to their parents, William and Sarah J Ineson.
There are several letters and I treasure them now, I never knew my Uncle as I wasn’t born until 1948 and he was killed on 3rd May 1944 when his plane was shot down in France on the raid on Mailly Le Camp, that night 42 Lancasters were lost, my Uncle’s being one of them.
I have the last letter written before the raid where he states he is not taking his usual plane ‘D for Dog’ that night. I often wonder if it caused bad luck not taking his usual plane. He took off from 9 Sqn in Bardney and is buried in Normee, Chalons en Champagne. My Father nor my Grandparents ever visited his grave, but myself and my two sons have been several times and in 1992 we were honoured to meet the Priest who buried my Uncle and his four members of crew. Two escaped, one (a NZ airman) was taken POW, the other (British) was helped by the Maquis and on the 50th Anniversary of the raid, 1994, we went to Mailly Le Camp with the U.K. survivor and he met with members of the Maquis who had helped him. I am currently writing the story of my Uncle and hope to have it published eventually.
These are the letters my Uncle left in case he didn’t come back. (Mick was his pet name for his wife Monica), the reference to Poli was Mr Pole, a fun loving family friend and in the text regarding books EI was my father.
Copyright: Jennifer Ineson-Graham
