When my father died in 2019, I inherited the 500+ letters that he had written to his family between joining the Army as a Private Soldier in 1940 until he was demobilised in Germany as a Major in 1946.
Together they covered his training; the involvement of his Infantry Brigade in the development of the concept of an Armoured Division; and the subsequent campaign in Europe which took him from Normandy to Flensburg on the Danish border. Each of the letters was carefully crafted and provide a fascinating insight into life on the Home Front, behind the lines, and during the subsequent occupation of Germany. Together with the diaries that he had kept in England and his many carefully indexed photographs, they provided the material for a coffee table book that I compiled for the family on his life during World War II, bookended by what he did both before and afterwards. His letter describes the spontaneous celebrations which took place on VE Day. He was on leave in England on VJ Day.
Andrews VE Day letter
Another letter was written on 23 May and describes his involvement in the “liquidation” of the German High Command and Government headed by Admiral Dönitz who was Hitler’s appointed heir and which was operating from Flensburg.
Andrews Dönitz letter
