A Family At War

Jimmy's logbook.
His movement throught training to operational squadron no doubt reflected the expereinces of so many.
I asked an Ex. A/G instructor about the comment made on his appraisal at Dalcross and was told that this was the average mark given to the vast majority of aircrew who completed the course.

























July 43 saw him taken on by Maclaren at 20 OTU Lossiemouth and at 1658 HUC (RAF Riccall) they acquired their flight engineer.
Their only mishap there was having the rear wheel break away on one of their landings , no doubt a discomforting experience for the rear gunner.
The move on to 158 was to follow quickly , whilst they were judged to be "operational" they like all other new crews totally lacked experience and would have been really quite unprepared for what was to come.
Luck would all have been part of the learning expereince , if they could gain the expreience and learn from it their chances would increase , unfortunately for them the dice rolled against them.

The summary in 158 ORB on the Bochum raid.


That which recorded the last flight of HR715 "E" and her crew.

 

Bomber Commands assessment of the Bochum raid.
These papers are from Air 14/3411 held by the National Archives.
(Final sheet in A4 format is missing , will add a copy in due course).









( Last page will be added later tonight).

 

Their expereicnes as recorded in 158 ORB over Mannheim.



And how Bommber Command saw the raid.
The tactics to draw away the NJG failed , they could see the main raid developing over Mannheim and they got into the bomber stream and quite frankly cut them to ribbons.
It could be said that the belief "The Bomber will always get through" did prove true in that the raid attacked the target , but at what cost ?






Culled from various papers in the Air 14/3411 papers.

 

Lauren brought me this home ...my father post war when he joined the RUC - the photo is circa 1946-47.The other taken in the war - it did not reproduce too well owing to the non reflective glass in which it is housed.



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What an utterly superb thread.
Thank you James for posting this.



Just to second that.

 

I first wrote about my family here: BBC - WW2 People's War - One family, Five Sons, All Serving in H.M.Forces .

My nephew, Mike Goldstein CBE and former Vice Chancellor of Coventry University, has also written, movingly, about the loss of his father Sgt.Jack Goldstein in a bombing raid over Nuremberg in March' 45.
BBC - WW2 People's War - The night my father was killed in action

At the time, I thought that my family had made a not inconsiderable contribution to the war effort simply because five of us had served in the forces.

After you've looked at my story, scroll down until you read about another, larger serving family, the Leonard Smith family of 16 !

I wonder if there was an even larger family of serving members?

ps

Further stories contributed to the BBC Archives by Mike as "mg1939"

My only memory of my father
The traumas of evacuation
The telegram: "Missing...."
Our first trip to the war grave cemetery in Durnbach, Germany
The night my father was killed in action
A wartime letter from my father
Two fatherless children
Montefiore House School

 

Will certainly take a look Ron - the expereinces of famalies like my father's I view them as being like so many others and like so many others from WW1 time covers their tracks .

 

James, this continues to be a fascinating thread. Thanks for sharing all these treasures with us.

 

I have asked Soren if he can do me some art work to bring these folks together for me , which is something long overdue.
To give Soren something to work on I removedand rescanned the photo of my father , which I have posted again - much clearer this time , and one taken towards the later part of his life.



Dated faintly ( in pencil) , 1943.

My father had some good luck and some bad luck in his post war career as a policeman , given the sad recent history of Northern Ireland and what has taken place there over the past 30 years - hopefully now at an end.

Having been in the navy he was put on an ex seplane tender which another old hand from 1914-18 had been assigned to - this gent was just finishing up his last few years service.
Bob's time on Lough Erne ended abruptly when the old hand was having a sleep and Bob managed to run her aground - the air was quite blue I believe when the more senior man was awaken by the sound of his beloved running hard aground on an uncharted shallow.

His last eight years in the police were not happy ones he flet the strain of looking after "the young ones" as he called them , "keeping them right" , carrying a gun he never liked and half times he didn't bother.
He lost several of "his section" one young lad called Roy Leslie being shot in Abercorn Square Strabane - the dead of this youngman never really left him - he just saw it as an utter waste of a lad whom he viewed to have been "well reared with decency".
He retired in August 1976 and returned to work for the police authority two months later managing an admin section in Strand Road ( Derry / L'derry).
As luck / bad luck would have it several suspects arrested taken to Strand Road were walked past his office and when released reported back to "others" who they had seen and what he was doing.

A month later when openning his garrage door to go to work he moved what he thought was a small stone from the door way the mercury tilt switch in the "stone" activated approx 6 ounces of semtex and as one bomb disposal office wrote bombs have no pity.

The events of that morning are memorable to say the least - the explosive energy generated by the device heated tarmac beyond belief and whilst I won't decribe the scene in detail suffice to say that he was not outof hospial seven months and three months later he was learning to walk again with as he decribed it "a new undercarriage".

Being something of a stuborn old so and so he returned to work for the police authority again two years later staying on until 1987 when he finally retired.
His own view on what happened was simple - he had been incredibly stupid to have been caught like that especially in view of circumstances leading up to it

 

Not everything survives as it should - this was taken in 1947 , location most likely the "training centre" in Enniskillen , one time Army barracks for the "Inniskillenings"
He is wearing his best uniform and the car seems to have recieved a wash
My father told me it was on "VE" day which was marked for a few years following the end of the war by a parade and a public holiday type atmosphere , after a few years it fizzled out.

When looking for a phot I could not find I came on this.





The exact details of this phot are not presently known to me.

The details as per the reverse of the photgraph.

 

I have to say a huge thank you to our Dutch member Stevin for his PM and for sending me this photo of Sgt Raymond Farrelly - another name put to a face , I really am extremely pleased and very grateful to him.
Thankyou Stevin .

 

I could'nt resist it such a fantastic thread!

Seperate from my other project regarding The Stewart Brothers,
The Bomber Boys:

 

Thank you Soren , a very suitable way to remember the lads themselves.

 

I thank you for sharing their story with us, they are not forgotten

 

The more I look at them Soren , the more I like them , I think my father were he alive would have been delighted to see your work.

Looking forward to seeing them in due course , must find a home for them.

 

I like the drawings from this period, I hope that it captures the 'spirit' that these men had. I shall let the thread get back to the main subject after my diversion!

I hope that you have enough wall space, I've drawn your Dad's RUC portrait too!

 

Could'nt resist it again....

 

Poor guy

 

This is one I should have added earlier.
NP-G (JD300) , if you check back to the logbook enteries this is the aircraft they did most of their flying in both local and operational.
Note the life of this crew on the front line 15 days and they were gone , forgotten and replaced by another green crew facing the same odds against survival.
They took her Montlucon and to Mannhiem , she survived them and the war being scrapped in 1947.

In Feb.91* bought a copy of Ken Merrick's "The Handley Page Halifax" (Aston) , this photo was taken from it , seeing it made buying the book worthwhile - I never expected to see a photo of any of the aircraft they flew in.



Date - unknown , location , most likely Lisset , the bomb count is visible and is incomplete.



I usually date books to say when I bought them and occasionally make some not e about the day in question - God knows what my lot will make of me when they are sorting my junk out when I do " a Norwegian Blue".

 

These belonged to my father - a soldier serving in Strabane in the early 80's mounted them for him.
I am almost sure he had a bar for the Atlantic Star but it seems to have "gone west".

The last two are The RUC medal and a police service medal - the title I can't read owing to the mount - these were worn on Remembrance Sunday only - the only time he ever had them out of "the box" they reside "in the box" with his British Legion badge - none of which will be worn again.