A journal containing the thoughts and experiences of a young airman from Hamilton during World War II has been transcribed in the United Kingdom and now the owners are looking for the man's living relatives and an appropriate resting place for the treasure.
John (Jack) Crawford served as an RNZAF wireless operator on board a Lancaster bomber performing offensive operations over Germany. He died when he was shot down on March 4, 1945, during one of the final air raids of the war just three weeks before it all ended.
Despite being engaged to a Kiwi woman when he set out to war, the engagement was broken and Jack became engaged to Englishwoman Edna Edwards, and the journal passed to Edna's daughter, Rose, who in turn lent it to friend and amateur historian John Herbert.
It took John 18 months to transcribe the text and on the wish of Rose, he hopes to find a museum or gallery to display the diary and the few of Jack's personal possessions that were returned to his widow.
"I want to return it to New Zealand," said Rose. "It's something I think Mum would have liked. They were met, married and lost in only a few months. When she did talk about him it was very short but you could see she was very sad.
"I have a vision of the journal in a glass case with Jack's mouth organ. It's too important to just leave in a drawer."
John said transcribing the text was a very personal experience.
"You get to feel like you know the man, then suddenly your realise there are no more pages. It's very sad how it just comes to an end."
John said one of Jack's observations that struck home was his description of the Germans after a successful bombing run: Have to hand it to those Jerries; they can take it. They call them fanatics but if they were on our side they'd be heroes.
Jack's escapades included guiding his aircraft to the wrong airfield after a bombing mission when he mistranslated his instructions.
"They never lived long enough to be up in front of the commander."
As the journal progresses, Jack begins to record the deaths of his friends and countrymen, and as time progresses his recordings become chillingly matter-of-fact: Had a letter from Allan Hart. Wally Barnes, Stan Shutt, Henry Faulkner, Te Waaba, have all gone. Letter from Stan Poter. Bruce Tees, Hugh Linn, Bercuson, Robertson and Whitmack are all killed.
But John said this was not cold-heartedness or disinterest.
"The only way they could deal with it was to think of the seven men in their crew. The only way they could get through it was to blank it out of their minds. I don't think you could do the job if you didn't."
John was able to track down Lee Thompson, whose uncle Tom was killed in the same operation as Jack, and together they were able to piece together how the men died.
"Lee had talked to the pilot. The way the Germans attacked the gunmen used to have upward shooting machine guns. They wouldn't have had any warning. The pilot ordered the three men in the cockpit to bail out, but the three in the middle of the plane did not."
Edna, Jack's widow, wrote an epitaph in 1974 - 29 years after Jack's final entry - as a means of finishing a story which ends with only unfilled pages telling the reader Jack's fate.
She was visited by the four survivors of the crash, who were taken as prisoners of war, and describes the last moments as they were recounted by Tom Thompson.
"[Tom] bailed out. But of course he had no way of knowing the other three were trapped in the smoke, which mercifully must have overcome them before the plane crashed in flames.
"He gave his life trying to save his two buddies who were trapped in the tail part of the plane."
She said she knew the exact moment Jack's plane was shot down because their love was so strong.
"We had only known each other three weeks, Jack and I, and what a wonderful life we had - we lived for each other. I would have given my own life for his - if I could have saved him. I felt like that in those days and still do although all these years have passed.
"I was 20 when we married, I was not 21 when he got killed - my birthday was 13 days after. So the gold locket he had bought me and left in the jewellers' to be engraved, he didn't ever see me wear."
She recounts how she met Jack when she went out for a drink with friends.
"Once I saw him the challenge was too much for me, and being a happy go lucky girl I was then, Joyce, Peggy and I soon got to making him feel less shy."
Three days later Jack asked Edna to marry him. "We were sitting on an ant hill at the time with the moon looking back on us. I was so amazed and happy."
Edna remarried but kept Jack's name. She had two daughters and a son, who was born years later on the same day Jack died.
The pair do not have much to go on for finding living relatives. Jack's mother's name was Elizabeth Crawford, but from later letters it would seem she remarried to take the name of Lewin or Lewis. John believes Jack had a sister named Phyllis, and also possibly a brother named Barry, although the journal doesn't make clear if it's a brother or nephew.
John said he had read a number of soldier's memoirs in the past, but these were always retrospective. He said it was a very different experience to follow a man as he set off from Auckland through the Panama Canal to Canada and the USA for training and finally the UK for active duty.
Jack now rests side-by-side with the three other men killed in their final operation in the Reichswald Forest British Cemetery, RAF Section, on the borders of Holland and Germany.
To read Jack's Journal, go to www.jackcrawford-ww2-journal.net.