<bgsound src= "inthemood.mid" loop="1"> "GENTLE ANNIE AND HER PIKCHORE



In the midst of a war a letter such as this must have been like a breath of fresh air, a little touch of the innocence that the pilots were fighting to keep alive and well in the world.
--Syd Edwards, webmaster




"Gentle Annie" (front) pictured with the mounts of other Group C.O.s
at the Bottisham Group Commanders Conference, circa Oct., 1944.

    To an overseas fighter station a few days ago came a letter postmarked Wilson, N.Y., and addressed in a childlike scrawl to: "Pilot of Gentle Annie, U.S. 8th. Air Force, England." Delivered promptly to Col. Harold Rau, who leads his Mustang Group (The 20th.FG) in the P-51, "Gentle Annie," the envelope contained a newspaper clipping, a photograph of a little girl in pig tails and this message:

    Dear Pilot,

    I saw the pikchore of Gentle Annie in the Buffalo Courier Express. My Mummy and Daddy call me Gentle Annie and I will pray that you don't get into as much trubol as I do. I am in the third grade.

Annie Croop

P.S.: Here is my pikchore. I am 7.


    Colonel Rau had named his plane originally for Ann Kenyon, of Providence, R.I., a Women's Air Force Service Pilot, but, he decided, "effective immediately, Gentle Annie is named for little Annie Croop, of Wilson, NY.

Reprinted from King's Cliffe Remembered Summer, 1996 issue.



RETURN TO THE TRIBUTE TO COL. RAU   RETURN TO THE 20TH.FG

Unless otherwise noted, all content © copyright The Art of Syd Edwards 1998-1999. All rights reserved and reproduction is prohibited.


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