Churchill (Winston Spencer) & John Rupert Colville

Typed extract of a letter from John Colville to Leslie Rowan [Churchill's Principal Private Secretary], reading in part "Our American Allies definitely increase the hazards of war. Yesterday I honoured them by flying over their positions and, unable to recognize a Mustang or distinguish the blatant allied markings, they retaliated with all the flak they could produce [...] We have lost a good many aircraft, mostly from flak, and shall have quite a struggle to keep the squadron in the air. In spite of what the newspapers say, the Luftwaffe has been a good deal 'en evidence', especially as far as we are concerned because we have to penetrate fairly deep. I haven't met any yet, though most of the others have. But we don't feel very enthusiastic about such encounters, because our aircraft have grown slow through age - thus stultifying the theory that the Tac R. Squadron should be able to outrun anything if they had important information to bring back - and we don't stand much chance against the FW190 or the ME 109, especially as the Huns now hunt in large packs", with three red ink annotations in Churchill's hand, three pages, 4to, 22 June 1944, together with: a typed letter to Rowan dictated by Churchill and marked 'Secret', reading "You might make a note about the equipment of the Tac R. Squadron, and how it compares with the ME. 109 and the FW. 190, and I will see how these inquiries are to be made without indicating the source of our information", one page, 4to, 24 July 1944; a typed note from Rowan to Air Ministry Chilver, one page, 8vo, 30 July 1944 and the typed response from Chilver, three pages, 4to, 2 August 1944; also included is a slip of paper with Winston Churchill's black ink signature "Your Royal Highness's devoted servant Winston S. Churchill", likely clipped from a letter (5)