Amazing what comes with the morning post, a veritable cornucopia of goodies, that always gets the Spaniel parked below the cage into which the letters drop. It’s there because he’s an equal equalities dog, and wants his mail. I keep telling him that 1 – dogs don’t do letters and 2 – they are there to be read not chewed. This morning brought the usual mixed bag of bank statements, freebies advertising everything from Viagra to sausage rolls.(my head tells me there are some fearful linkages there but I decline to go further). Mixed in with the bunch – a plain white envelope in a hand I did not recognise. Opening it and reading the contents stirred up the dust so much in the kitchen that my eyes were severely irritated for a few minutes. It was simply some documents that related to a Dornier shot down at Rochfort in October 1942 by an AC2. I will of course be putting it in the Flash. Possibly the first Enemy aircraft shot down by the Corps – 357 rounds of 303. Wasn’t that that caused the eye infection, it was the last paragraph, in which the sender Mr L Pearce, apologised for his hand writing, as at 92 his hands were not as good as they used to be. “We stand on the shoulders of giants” is a much used phrase when today’s serving members talk about my generation. These were the men on who’s shoulders we stood, and pretty big shoulders as well. The Americans have a saying where they thank their veterans for what they have done. I am never an avid devotee of the Cousins ways, but in this case, “Thank you and the thousands like you Mr Pearce, for the service you gave”. Per Ardua