The Snapshots in Time Collection

Handwritten Wartime Letter Discussing Combat Mission Tour Requirements, 1944

Handwritten Wartime Letter Discussing Combat Mission Tour Requirements, 1944

This handwritten letter, part of a 1944 correspondence collection connected to a B-24 belly gunner, discusses the anxious arithmetic of a combat tour: how many missions a crewman needed to fly before rotating home. Personal letters like this offer an intimate window into the daily hopes and fears of aircrew serving with the Eighth Air Force in England during World War II. Project: 218352