COPY OF E-MAIL RECEIVED FROM MIKE BISHOP (Feb 13, 1999)
I came across your homepage and the illustration of the letter to
your father from the Caterpillar Club after he had bailed out and
been captured. I thought you might be interested to know that the
initials MEL in the bottom left-hand corner stand for Mary Evelyn
Lofts, my wife's mother, who ran the club for Irvin Parachutes during
the war (and evidently typed the letter). My wife still has one of
the caterpillar badges which was returned to her mother by the family
of an airman who was subsequently killed in action.
Best wishes,
Mike Bishop
o:o:o M.C. BISHOP >>Writer, Publisher, & Archaeologist
o:::o mcbishop@pobox.com <<>> http://pobox.com/~mcbishop/
o:::o Braemar, Kirkgate, Chirnside, DUNS, Berwickshire, TD11 3XL, UK
o:o:o Visit ARMAMENTARIVM: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~nantiq/arma/
An additional email from Mike Bishop also went on to tell me that:
"There is a picture of Mary in the book *Into the Silk* by Ian Mackersey, which was a sort of history of the Caterpillar Club and included various tales of those who bailed out and joined the Club. Her younger brother Peter was an airgunner in Swordfish and was killed on a raid (but not *the* raid) on Dieppe (I think)."
Comment: This was an interesting exchange of information, to say the least, and only goes to show how powerful the Internet has become.