Pilot: F/L James Francis., known as Jimmy, Munro, Flight Engineer: F/Sgt William George Waller, Navigator: F/L Arthur James Wyndham, known as Jimmie, Silk, Bomb Aimer: F/L Frank Peter Burbridge,
W/Op: F/Sgt James Noel Underwood, M/U Gunner: F/Sgt Ronald Sydney Bennett, Rear Gunner: W/O Wellington, known as Weasel, Hill
Jimmie Silk flew his first tour with the crew of P/O D.I. Jones: Sgt Maurice Hemming (F/E), F/O T.Hodkinson, Sgts J.L.Hannah, F.Strange, and J.Brierley.
Biographical Details & Letters
Jimmie's full name was Arthur James Wyndham Silk, and he was known to his family by his first name of Arthur. He had a home in Brighton, at 49 Stafford Road, and a local newspaper clipping, shortly after he was awarded his DFM at the end of May 1943, describes him as having been a shipping clerk in London before the war, and having taken part in several of the London to Brighton walks as he was a keen member of the Surrey A.C.
Jimmie was married to Isobel, who was living in Scotland with their daughter Hilliary. He had five sisters and a brother, some of whom are referred to in the following letter which is thought to be the last that Jimmie wrote to his family. From the letter It can be seen how much the whole family was caught up in the war.
A guide to the people referred to in the letter:
Sisters - May, Ena, Marjorie, Doris, Maudie.
Brother - Ben who was in the Australian Navy.
27th October 1943
Officers' Mess
Royal Air Force
Bourn
Cambridge
Hello All,
Many thanks for your letters; as I have a night free from duty I thought I could use it in no better way than to get up to date with my correspondence.
I am pleased to hear that you are all getting along so well and that things are much about the same. You certainly had a narrow escape from that air raid. That is the trouble with these sneak raids, you never know just where they are going next.
So Leslie [husband of Doris, and in the Army] is home on a spot of leave, that is fine and I hope that they really enjoy themselves. I have written to him so that is why I have had no reply from him, he must have gone on leave. Yes Marjorie it must be nice for Valerie to see her Daddy [Leslie] again, but don't fret Dear your turn will come, and oh what a day that will be, you two together [Marjorie and her husband Charles who was also in the Army] with your dear son [David] will be able to commence life all over again and you will soon forget all about the things that darkened your happy life. All I can say to you Dear is to keep faith with God, he will guard your man and you yourself must keep your chin up and smile.
The two babies down there are so like the two in Scotland, my daughter is more like David and she gets up to all the mischief and her cousin [Pam, daughter of Isobel's sister Jessie] just looks on and is kept in fits of laughter by the antics she performs. Isobel tells me that she is now on the floor and can get away on her tummy, so she should not be long before she is standing up. She cannot say Mum or Dad yet but no doubt she will soon.
My dear May how silly of you to think that you offended me, I knew that you mistook the time, as a matter of fact I really thought that I would have seen you at the station, but forget all about it. It was great to see you all, and I was more than delighted to see how great you are all getting along so well together. I wonder if you could get me a few more razor blades as I am getting rather short, but let me know how much they cost this time.
And how is Ena and Maudie getting along? I suppose Maudie is still working as hard as ever but keep smiling Dear you are doing a good job of work Dear and one day you will be rewarded for all your labour. I don't hear much from Ena but I expect she is always thinking about me. I hope I shall see you all again soon.
I have not been around to see the Pays' since I came back but I am busy these days but am not on operations so that is one consolation, but I get so fed up when I see the boys off and just have to wait until they come home again, but I shall finish and get away from here, and then I shall feel more contented.
Oh well I must say Bye Bye, as I said I have many other letters to get through. So God bless you all and keep you free from the peril of war. Keep smiling and chins up,
Your loving brother,
Arthur
PS Isobel and baby Hilliary send their love to you.
(In brackets in Majorie's handwriting, "This is probably the last letter Arthur wrote. M."
The following condolence letter was sent to Jimmie's sister May, the writer calls him Johnny and was evidently very fond of him.
The Cottage
Caxton
Cambs
18-12-43
My Dear May,
My wife and myself were honoured for only a short while to know your brother Johnny, but during that brief period we were great friends and looked forward to some other happy evenings together with his pals at Bourn.
It was a great shock to us when we heard of his loss the following day and, May, it was also a great loss to the Royal Air Force. Johnny's name was known to all at Bourn Camp for his achievements in connection with Navigation and instructional work and I have heard more than once from Senior RAF Officers that your brother was the best navigator that they had flown with, and as you know he had made great strides since he had joined the RAF and also, May, Johnny loved his work, every minute of it and saw no fear, this he told me.
Here at Caxton we look upon you, May, now as one of the family, and Mother writes and tells me how kind and good you are in helping my dear Father and Mother over a job of work I feel they should not be doing. Please believe me that all these things are appreciated by us here.
Please accept our most sincere sympathy in your dear brother's Johnny's loss, also of our friend.
We remain yours very gratefully
Joey and Billy Pay
Jimmie's DFM
The recommendation for the DFM, Non-Immediate Award, was made on 30th May 1943, and contains the following information:
Number of Sorties: 23
Total hours flown on operations: 134.25
This NCO has now completed 23 successful sorties as Navigator. He has attacked many of the heavily defended Ruhr towns, Kiel, Italian towns and other objectives.
Sgt Silk has shown great determination and his navigational ability has materially helped his crew to attain their many successes.
The form is signed by Air Commodore Bennett
Maurice Hemming wrote of Jimmie Silk, "Nowhere in my numerous photos of the crew is there one of our navigator, F/Lt Jimmie Silk, DFC. He was the best of navigators, but a real loner - never going out with us on no-ops nights. ... he decided to carry on when we finished, crewed up with Jimmy Munro, and ... they were all KIA on his first trip with them."
(N.B. as Jimmie Silk's daughter Hilliary was later to discover, Jimmie actually flew 3 ops with Munro: Nov 17/18, Nov 18/19, and Nov 22/23 which was the final sortie.)Biographical Details & Letters
Jimmie's full name was Arthur James Wyndham Silk, and he was known to his family by his first name of Arthur. He had a home in Brighton, at 49 Stafford Road, and a local newspaper clipping, shortly after he was awarded his DFM at the end of May 1943, describes him as having been a shipping clerk in London before the war, and having taken part in several of the London to Brighton walks as he was a keen member of the Surrey A.C.
Jimmie was married to Isobel, who was living in Scotland with their daughter Hilliary. He had five sisters and a brother, some of whom are referred to in the following letter which is thought to be the last that Jimmie wrote to his family. From the letter It can be seen how much the whole family was caught up in the war.
A guide to the people referred to in the letter:
Sisters - May, Ena, Marjorie, Doris, Maudie.
Brother - Ben who was in the Australian Navy.
27th October 1943
Officers' Mess
Royal Air Force
Bourn
Cambridge
Hello All,
Many thanks for your letters; as I have a night free from duty I thought I could use it in no better way than to get up to date with my correspondence.
I am pleased to hear that you are all getting along so well and that things are much about the same. You certainly had a narrow escape from that air raid. That is the trouble with these sneak raids, you never know just where they are going next.
So Leslie [husband of Doris, and in the Army] is home on a spot of leave, that is fine and I hope that they really enjoy themselves. I have written to him so that is why I have had no reply from him, he must have gone on leave. Yes Marjorie it must be nice for Valerie to see her Daddy [Leslie] again, but don't fret Dear your turn will come, and oh what a day that will be, you two together [Marjorie and her husband Charles who was also in the Army] with your dear son [David] will be able to commence life all over again and you will soon forget all about the things that darkened your happy life. All I can say to you Dear is to keep faith with God, he will guard your man and you yourself must keep your chin up and smile.
The two babies down there are so like the two in Scotland, my daughter is more like David and she gets up to all the mischief and her cousin [Pam, daughter of Isobel's sister Jessie] just looks on and is kept in fits of laughter by the antics she performs. Isobel tells me that she is now on the floor and can get away on her tummy, so she should not be long before she is standing up. She cannot say Mum or Dad yet but no doubt she will soon.
My dear May how silly of you to think that you offended me, I knew that you mistook the time, as a matter of fact I really thought that I would have seen you at the station, but forget all about it. It was great to see you all, and I was more than delighted to see how great you are all getting along so well together. I wonder if you could get me a few more razor blades as I am getting rather short, but let me know how much they cost this time.
And how is Ena and Maudie getting along? I suppose Maudie is still working as hard as ever but keep smiling Dear you are doing a good job of work Dear and one day you will be rewarded for all your labour. I don't hear much from Ena but I expect she is always thinking about me. I hope I shall see you all again soon.
I have not been around to see the Pays' since I came back but I am busy these days but am not on operations so that is one consolation, but I get so fed up when I see the boys off and just have to wait until they come home again, but I shall finish and get away from here, and then I shall feel more contented.
Oh well I must say Bye Bye, as I said I have many other letters to get through. So God bless you all and keep you free from the peril of war. Keep smiling and chins up,
Your loving brother,
Arthur
PS Isobel and baby Hilliary send their love to you.
(In brackets in Majorie's handwriting, "This is probably the last letter Arthur wrote. M."
The following condolence letter was sent to Jimmie's sister May, the writer calls him Johnny and was evidently very fond of him.
The Cottage
Caxton
Cambs
18-12-43
My Dear May,
My wife and myself were honoured for only a short while to know your brother Johnny, but during that brief period we were great friends and looked forward to some other happy evenings together with his pals at Bourn.
It was a great shock to us when we heard of his loss the following day and, May, it was also a great loss to the Royal Air Force. Johnny's name was known to all at Bourn Camp for his achievements in connection with Navigation and instructional work and I have heard more than once from Senior RAF Officers that your brother was the best navigator that they had flown with, and as you know he had made great strides since he had joined the RAF and also, May, Johnny loved his work, every minute of it and saw no fear, this he told me.
Here at Caxton we look upon you, May, now as one of the family, and Mother writes and tells me how kind and good you are in helping my dear Father and Mother over a job of work I feel they should not be doing. Please believe me that all these things are appreciated by us here.
Please accept our most sincere sympathy in your dear brother's Johnny's loss, also of our friend.
We remain yours very gratefully
Joey and Billy Pay
Jimmie's DFM
The recommendation for the DFM, Non-Immediate Award, was made on 30th May 1943, and contains the following information:
Number of Sorties: 23
Total hours flown on operations: 134.25
This NCO has now completed 23 successful sorties as Navigator. He has attacked many of the heavily defended Ruhr towns, Kiel, Italian towns and other objectives.
Sgt Silk has shown great determination and his navigational ability has materially helped his crew to attain their many successes.
The form is signed by Air Commodore Bennett
JIMMIE SILK
Far left, first row,
whilst training in Canada
Far left, first row,
whilst training in Canada
Jimmie training in Canada, first left, front row
Battle of Berlin - November 1943-March 1944
