Postcard from D-Day hero finally gets delivered after 78 years

A postcard sent by a D-Day hero to his family back in 1943 has finally made it to its destination.

Almost 78 years since Bill Caldwell, then 18, sent the postcard to his uncle Fred, the note made it to Fred’s house.

Unfortunately neither Fred nor Bill lived to see the mail finally arrive, but a family member was home to receive it.

The ‘lost’ postcard told of Bill’s naval training. Bill was deployed on a minesweeping ship for the famous D-Day operation.

And on Friday, 77 years and seven months later, the postcard was delivered to the house in Liverpool, where relative Jack Elomaa now lives.

Bill’s six children said they were “thrilled” to get the postcard, which is in surprisingly good condition.

The family is preparing for the anniversary of the death of Bill’s granddaughter Fiona ‘Fi’ Braidwood, who died in a car crash in March 2016 aged just 17, and so the postcard has been comforting.

Bills daughter, Elizabeth, 58, said: “It’s a crazy story and it’s hard to believe.

“On Friday night we were in our family WhatsApp group and my sister Jane forwarded a message from my cousin Dan.

“She was just staggered by what she saw. Dan’s stepson still lives in the house we grew up in. He had received in the post that morning this card from my dad so there we were reading a message that my dad had written nearly 78 years ago. We were just thrilled.

“My dad died over 20 years ago in 1996 and he loved to tell stories but he didn’t write. My mum wrote letters and postcards but Dad never wrote.

“To actually see his handwriting was beautiful. We worked out that he would have been 18 and in his first week of training. He joined the Navy and was desperate to join.

“As soon as he could he joined the Navy and he was down in Plymouth HMS Raleigh the training facility.

“He wrote to uncle Fred and we were quite surprised about why he would have written it to him but it seems uncle Fred had also done national service.

“He was a young lad, an 18-years-old, and some of the message is naive – when he said he didn’t realise it would be this busy – but he’s also trying to reassure so we absolutely loved it.

“It made us all become very very excited and we made contact with the family so it’s been lovely to be back in touch with them.

“To get this little message from my dad felt like a really special thing for us all.”

The postcard features a photograph of soldiers marching at HMS Raleigh in Cornwall where Bill was training.

It reads: “Dear Uncle Fred, Well here I am in blue at last.

“I did not think it would be like this, you don’t get much time for yourself do you but I like it alright. I will write a letter to you all when I get half a chance so will you hold on a bit.

“I have 19 weeks here yet. Give my love to everyone. Love Bill.”

Royal Mail has said that it doesn’t know why the postcard took 78 years to arrive, but that maybe someone found it and posted it themselves recently.

Bill swept for mines ahead of the D-Day landings and later served in Japan, which had been devastated by nuclear bombs.

There he transported prisoners of war to safety.

He achieved the rank of Able Seaman in the navy and was awarded four medals for his service.

Elizabeth said: “He had an amazing life. That generation lived through such history. Dad was on a minesweeper we know that he was at the D-Day landings where his boat was sweeping the mines.

“He went to the Pacific and travelled all around there. We know that he was in Nagasaki five days after the bomb was dropped. We know that he picked up prisoners from Japanese prisoner of war camps and took them to Australia.

“He had such an impact on us and our kids he was such a great role model.

“Mum wrote on his gravestone ‘a Liverpool gentleman’ and that’s what he was. He would give anyone the time of day and that’s why it’s so magical to get this glimpse of him.”

In 1946, after his time in the Navy, Bill returned to England to work as a plumber at his father’s firm. In 1964, the family moved to Somerset.

His children now live all over England, in Surrey, Norfolk, Somerset and Gloucestershire.

Elizabeth explained that their brother, Michael, had died at the age of six.

“It’s been a very emotional and special time for us and has brought lots of things up,” she said.

Jane Eales, another of Bill’s daughters, said: “This feels all the more special because we’re running up to the anniversary time.”

Fi’s mum, Vicki Caldwell, and other family members have set up a charity, FEES Fund – which raises money to help children and young people take part in extracurricular activities.