7 November 2012 Last updated at 08:42

In pictures: Letters home from the front

A letter written in the shape of a kiss, by George Hayman, in June 1916.

The Imperial War Museum has gathered a collection of tens of thousands of letters from British and Commonwealth troops serving on the front line, from World War I to the war in Afghanistan - a selection of which have now been published in a book called Love, Tommy. This letter - written in the shape of a kiss - was sent by a private in the Lancashire Fusiliers to his wife in 1916, before he was sent to France. He died two months later.

An illustrated letter from France during WWI.

Reverend Canon Cyril Lomax served as an Army chaplain in France between 1916 and 1917. Many of his surviving letters are illustrated, providing his family with an insight into life on the front line. "Everybody too hates mud, but we bathe in it, wade in it, sleep in it and clods of it adorn the most secret recesses of one's clothes, books and papers."

Like many pilots and servicemen during WWII, Pilot Officer Michael Scott wrote a final letter home, to be delivered if he was killed in action. His parents received it following his death in 1941 while serving with Bomber Command. He thanked them for being "splendid... during this terrible war" and wrote: "As a family we are terribly afraid of showing our feelings, but war has uncovered unsuspected layers of affection beneath the crust of gentlemanly reserve."

Captain Christopher Cross of 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, relaxing and writing. He took part in the glider landings across Normandy in 1944.

Captain Christopher Cross took part in the Allied airborne operations in Normandy in June 1944. A letter home to his parents described his air sickness during the glider flight. "The whole business was a bit nerve-wracking... we were not told exactly when D-Day was to be, and then, when we were told, the whole thing was put off for a day." The casualty figures from D-Day are estimated to be around 10,000 servicemen killed and wounded.

Bob Connolly, an NCO with 8th Battalion, Rifle Brigade, on his wedding day.

Bob Connolly was part of the 11th Armoured Division that landed on Juno Beach in June 1944 and took part in battles around Caen. He wrote home to his wife: "It's such a crime that some of these lovely little villages have suffered so much in the cruel blows of warfare... hedges and fields stand out beautifully and defiantly as nature's reply to mans' wilful and wicked destruction."

Reverend Don Siddons, Staff Chaplain at Eighth Army HQ, conducting a community service in the desert during WWII.

During WWII the struggle in North Africa surged back and forth between Tripoli and Tobruk. Reverend Don Siddons was a Staff Chaplain in the Middle East and letters home to his wife reflect his fears for the future. "You might not hear for some time if I become a prisoner but you must try not to become too worried."

A trooper of the 8th Battalion, King's Royal Irish Hussars writes a letter home while serving in Korea.

The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 caught British forces unprepared. Lieutenant Bob Gill was called up to serve as a platoon commander with the Ulster Rifles, and was on the front line as the Chinese launched an offensive in January 1951. He wrote to his girlfriend from 'Middle of Nowhere': "It is rather grim with mud everywhere and now we have had a heavy fall of snow. Settled sleep is out of the question because we are expecting the Chinese to come along here anytime."

British soldier from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment in a Warthog armoured military vehicle, 2010

There has only been one year since WWII when British servicemen have not been killed in action - 1968. The war in Afghanistan continues and British forces are committed to the fight until 2014. "The land here is barren rock and desert for the majority with dust and sand in the air at all times, you stay clean for about five seconds once you step out of the gate, your lungs are filled with it all and the sun is blinding." Captain Kit Kyte, of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, Afghanistan, 2008.