This was the true story about a girl and two brothers during WW2 that involved the trio in love, honour, bravery and tragedy as told by guest speaker, Heather Wylde.
It only came to light following the passing of the speaker’s mother, Viv. Her father, having previously passed away it was necessary to sort through her mother’s effects. Some items were packed off to her brother in Australia and some, including an old diary, were put in a case and consigned to her loft. In a phone call from her brother, he encouraged the speaker to read the diary wherein she discovered a record of the misfortunes of war during 1941.
Just before the outbreak of the war, Viv and Les Butcher were persuaded not to get engaged as Viv was only seventeen. Les and his older brother, Ken, were apprenticed electricians and both joined the RAF with Ken providing electrical technical training throughout the hostilities while Les became a navigator/observer joining 103 squadron flying Vickers Wellington bombers.
The diary showed there had been much correspondence between Viv and Les and their plan to get engaged that summer with their marriage to be in the summer of 1942.
On a raid over Dusseldorf Les’ Wellington bomber was shot down into the river Rhine and the six-man crew perished. Three bodies were eventually brought ashore and were subsequently buried in a cemetery close to the Dutch border. Of Les there was no sign, and the dreaded telegram was received “missing in action”. He was one of over 55,000 air crew in RAF Bomber command who lost their lives in the war. The diary showed that it took several months for Viv to accept that Les was lost to her.
Fast forward to 1942 and Viv married Ken with the eventual birth of the speaker and her brother. Ken always knew that he was not the first love of Viv, but it was not known if he had read the diary. But the speaker accepts that she and her brother would not have been born had Les survived the war.
Probus Club of Basingstoke 
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