'...Barbara Harper-Nelson (neé Rigby), was the one-time girlfriend, living in Liverpool, of 22 year old Francis Usai. Amazingly she still had the 350+ letters (over 2000 items of correspondence) from this witty and amusing young French airman exiled from his conquered country and based here near York, where he undertook nightly missions into the horrendous firestorm which was the Battle of Berlin.
'Along with her own diaries, these letters constituted a unique, evocative, often amusing, but highly readable two-way conversation between young people during a time unprecedented in history and with the daily threat of permanent separation, plus the very regular loss of close friends. (51% of all air crews were killed).
'With the help of Barbara herself, the letters and diaries were brought together by French filmmaker Genevieve Monneris (coincidentally, her father also a French airmen in Francis' squadron at Elvington), and translated into English by Michel Darribehaude, Senior Lecturer in British Civilisation Studies at the Université du Sud Toulon Var.
'In November 2010 the original letters were formerly placed on permanent loan from this Museum to Service Historique de la Defense at Château Vincennes in Paris (the French National Collection) and now constitutes probably the largest single social history documents of the period, in France.' (Publication summary)
