Internal and informal casualty reports

[Jon Miller]

I would like to know the likelihood of the following scenario...

Pilot is shot down and killed over Belgium. His friend, who joined the RFC at the same time, and originally trained with the now deceased pilot, and is still in the same training squadron back home, learns of his friend's demise before the day is out.

This would mean that his friend would know about the pilot's death before his family did, but it seems to me quite possible that somewhere along the lines of communicaton, someone would decide maybe only in the odd case, or as a general policy, to inform the home training squadron of the loss of one of their number via the 'old boys network' (telephone, of course) which would be the work of only a few minutes.

I wouldn't have thought this sort of thing, if it did indeed happen, was noted down anywhere, but by putting one or two sources together, it might be 'proved' that it did. Has anyone come across that sort of scenario, effectively enough to persuade them that this informal reporting was par for the course?

I would greatly appreciate any helpful comments that might decide this scenario's credibility or not, on balance.

Thanks

Jon.