Sgt. Joe Hicks' War -- Reading for your holidays
 

Many of you are familiar with my interest in -- obsession with? -- the
story Joe Hicks, a Canadian airman who was killed in the Second World
War during a mission to bomb the German city of Rostock. I came to
know about Joe through a picture postcard that I bought in an antique
store in 1998; Joe had mailed the postcard while he was in training
with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Regina,
Saskatchewan, in 1940.

My interest in Joe's story has now resulted in its publication in
\i{Papers & Records}, the annual historical journal published by the
Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society, in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

An editor of the journal contacted me more than a year ago to ask if I
would write an article based on my web site about Joe Hicks. I readily
agreed, for I felt that it would be a worthwhile tribute to Joe and to
the thousands of other young Canadians of the Royal Canadian Air Force
who sacrificed their lives during the war. \i{Papers & Records} is an
especially significant respository for Joe's story, because he was
born and raised in Fort William, which along with Port Arthur was
amalgamated into the city of Thunder Bay on January 1, 1970.

The article has now been published, in Volume XXXV of the journal.
Given that historical journals are about as close as possible to being
"permanent," I'm pleased that Joe's story is now a "permanent" part of
the public record, far more permanent than any webpage or magazine or
newspaper article.

I invite you to read Joe's story at your leisure. It's not short, but
it contains information and images that have never before been
published. I hope that you find Joe's story to be as fascinating and
moving as I have. I've uploaded a 2.5 Mb PDF version of the article to
my web site, at http://www.ingraham.ca/bob/~IMAGES/Joe_Hicks_article.pdf}.

(Note: Long-time members of RCSD may well have read earlier versions
of Joe's story on my web site or in the Canadian Stamp News. A member
of this newsgroup, Mette Heindorff, who lives in Copenhagen, was one
of the first people to help in the early stages of research into Joe's
death. There is a lot of new information in this latest incarnation,
including information about how Joe's bomber came to grief and new
details about events following the crash in Denmark.

Best regards, and Happy New Year!

Bob Ingraham
Vancouver

P.S. If anyone is interested in buying a copy of the journal (CDN $10
plus P&H), contact me and I'll send you contact information for the
museum.