The 770 letters from the Gairsoppa reveal the writers’ fears and dreams as war raged in 1940.

With Britain alone in Europe fighting Hitler under aerial bombardment, many letters referred to the humdrum of life in British-ruled India compared with conditions back home.

A letter to Kewman Melville in Edinburgh read: “The news from home is too dreadful and out here… it is difficult to realise the existing horrors in other parts of the world.”