Delta, Penna
Aug 1 – 1951

My Dear Mr. Hilbert –

            A recent conversation with Mrs. Reed about the loss of our son in Germany April 10, 1945, brought about the possibility of writing to you, with the idea, that we might make a contact thru which we might be able to find out what happened he, & his three companions, after they were captured, having had to abandon their Bomber which had been damaged & not able to go on.

            I am inclosing the first letter I received from a member of the crew. This gives the dates the approximate place the boys landed after parachuting. It was not to far from Hanover. There has been a thorough investigation by the Government. The fact that the area is now Russian occupied has been a handicap, in making a thorough search. But to date no one has been able to even pick up the trail of the four boys, after they were started back with a guard.

            I have spent a great deal of time and effort, trying to find out something whenever I heard of anything of anyone who I thought might be in a position to know something. I have made an effort to contact them. It has long been my theory, that one of the best means of locating & learning something about the boys graves would be to contact a reliable person of Germany, somewhere near the place this happened. I was greatly impressed with a letter you had written Mrs. Reed, & I felt that you were the good Christian type of person who could understand, the heartache, & great grief, the loss of our son has been to us, specially under these circumstances one expects to lose their child in war. Yet somehow our not knowing what happened him, or where his body rests has made our grief & loss a great deal harder to bear. I want to try & pick out important facts to give you. There is such a lot of things in my mind that its hard to know what would be really important & what would only prove to be misleading.

            The young man whose letter I am inclosing, was sent back to Europe after the war in the hope that he might be permitted to enter the territory as a member of a graves search team, he stayed in Paris quite a while. But never did get into the area to search although I learned from letters from the head of the American Graves Search set up in Paris that  a special team had been sent into the area to search for these 4 boys particularly. They never as I said before were able to find out anything. To give you some of the facts. The town the boys were taken to first was Beckendorf because of the facts of a windmill behind the town of Beckendorf. The three gunners were captured & taken to Eisleben. The other boys all were taken to Beckendorf. I have a map of Germany marked by some of the crew. So feel that these places are correct spot the Bomber came down. The place is much nearer Madgeburg than Hanover however I felt that you might know somebody or have relatives in or about the section that might remember the fact of a bomber & crew being captured on that date. I think the home guard unit was the outfit that finally took charge of the boys. I have also thought if it were possible to learn the name of the Commander of the unit or some official in the community, it would be helpful. The bomber fell & burned near Seehausen.

            There is the possibility that they may have gotten back quite a distance or that there may have been quite a few days before they met their fate. Those are the things that have been a constant worry to us & we realize make any investigation quite a big understanding.

            The names of the boys lost were Kenneth Lamer, Co-pilot, Engineer John H. Marks, SGT Charles Sarockas, & our son LT John S. Murphy 02071911.

            My object is writing you, is just to see if by some chance you may without to much trouble know of someone who might help us or be able in some way, to give us a clue as to the proper procedure to get started on such a search.

            I find this a very hard letter to write & after reading it, feel I can't give you enough information to be of very much help to you. After all, there is the one important fact, the boys were alive & unhurt, when last seen, the evening of April 10 - 1945. Since then they have to all appearances, disappeared off the earth. So I guess, the place & date are the really important things.

            If there is anything you can do for us, we would be very grateful to you for even your kindness in answering this letter.

            I realize there is just one chance in a million that you can tell us, anything. But I wanted to take that one chance. I will be happy to answer any questions, if I possible can. Thanking you for whatever you can do for us. I am

Mrs. J. Calvin Murphy
Delta York Co. PA.