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Sailor's Prisoner of War letters discovered in cornflakes packet
A set of wartime letters written from behind the wire by a captured sailor to his devastated new bride have been found inside a cornflakes box.
The chronicle spells out George King's experience of life inside prisoner of war camps in Italy and Germany at the height of the Second World War.
The Royal Navy seaman married his sweetheart Miriam just three weeks before he set sail on the ill-fated mission in 1942 - his warship was sunk off Sicily in the Mediterranean.
"The shock of course was great, but I am not alone in this, as all of us are here. Please, darling, do not worry as all is well, and soon our day will come."
The perfectly preserved letters have been discovered more than 60 years on after gathering dust in a chest of drawers.
RAF bosses have now launched an appeal to reunite the handwritten notes with the family of Mr King, who was held in a number of PoW camps during three years of captivity.
The letters, which give a fascinating insight into life behind the watchtowers, were found by RAF serviceman Tony Roe when he and his partner moved into their new home near Diss, Norfolk.
Mr Roe said they were hidden in inside of a cornflakes packet in drawers left by the previous occupants.
The package contained a number of letters from Mr King, who was held first in Italy and then, when the Italians surrendered in 1943, in Germany.
Other than the information within the letters, little more is known about Mr King and it is hoped his family can help fill in the many gaps and complete the picture. Mr Roe, the station warrant officer's gang chargehand at RAF Honington, Suffolk, hopes to reunite the war hero's letters with his family.
He is believed to have relatives living in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and Beccles, near Lowestoft, Suffolk.
If he is unable to do that, he plans to hand the priceless and precious memories over to the Imperial War Museum.
Mr King was fighting aboard HMS Bedouin, a Tribal class-destroyer, when it was sunk by an Italian Navy torpedo south of Pantellaria, near Sicily, on June 15, 1942.
One of his letters, sent from a German PoW camp, is dated April ~45 just weeks before the European war ended in May.
It is thought that Mr King made it home to England to be reunited with his wife Miriam.
A set of wartime letters written from behind the wire by a captured sailor to his devastated new bride have been found inside a cornflakes box.
The chronicle spells out George King's experience of life inside prisoner of war camps in Italy and Germany at the height of the Second World War.
The Royal Navy seaman married his sweetheart Miriam just three weeks before he set sail on the ill-fated mission in 1942 - his warship was sunk off Sicily in the Mediterranean.
"The shock of course was great, but I am not alone in this, as all of us are here. Please, darling, do not worry as all is well, and soon our day will come."
The perfectly preserved letters have been discovered more than 60 years on after gathering dust in a chest of drawers.
RAF bosses have now launched an appeal to reunite the handwritten notes with the family of Mr King, who was held in a number of PoW camps during three years of captivity.
The letters, which give a fascinating insight into life behind the watchtowers, were found by RAF serviceman Tony Roe when he and his partner moved into their new home near Diss, Norfolk.
Mr Roe said they were hidden in inside of a cornflakes packet in drawers left by the previous occupants.
The package contained a number of letters from Mr King, who was held first in Italy and then, when the Italians surrendered in 1943, in Germany.
Other than the information within the letters, little more is known about Mr King and it is hoped his family can help fill in the many gaps and complete the picture. Mr Roe, the station warrant officer's gang chargehand at RAF Honington, Suffolk, hopes to reunite the war hero's letters with his family.
He is believed to have relatives living in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and Beccles, near Lowestoft, Suffolk.
If he is unable to do that, he plans to hand the priceless and precious memories over to the Imperial War Museum.
Mr King was fighting aboard HMS Bedouin, a Tribal class-destroyer, when it was sunk by an Italian Navy torpedo south of Pantellaria, near Sicily, on June 15, 1942.
One of his letters, sent from a German PoW camp, is dated April ~45 just weeks before the European war ended in May.
It is thought that Mr King made it home to England to be reunited with his wife Miriam.
