South Yorkshire Times – July 25, 1942

Airgraph Message.

The following is an extract from an airgraph letter sent by Sig. Cecil Machin, son of Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Machin, 70, Piccadilly Road, Swinton, to his parents from the Middle East:

“I have had bad news to-day. All mail sent by boat since January, including papers and airgraphs sent between April 4th have not reached me and never will. Before they got to me, the truck in which the mail bag was being conveyed received a direct hit through the engine by a German shell, and had to be abandoned at Mersa Matruh.

The sergeant who had to leave it remarked quite jovially, “I had a walk back a few days later and saw the Germans reading the ‘South Yorkshire Times.”

I hope you are all well and happy.”

Sig. Machin, who is 23, joined the R.A. in May, 1939, prior to which he was employed at Kilnhurst Colliery. Since then he has seen service in India.