Your Air Force Relatives

Geoff,

Thanks very much for that information. I knew hat not all entries had next-of-kin details, but the handful that I’d looked at since the new format was up and running hadn’t included this information. Since I hadn’t seen any that included it, I started to wonder if they’d removed it. I’m delighted to hear that’s not the case. Thanks very much for setting me straight. The CWGC website is a superb resource and long may it continue to include new features.

An earlier Moggy

My late father joined up about 1942.

After initial training he was sent to Canada, where they were training RAF pilots at a base called Penhold, where he was a lowly ‘erk’.

On return in 1944 he ended up a Little Staughton a PFF base near Huntingdon, working in the MT section.

here’s a picture from Canada. Dad’s in the driving seat, no idea who the other guy was. Dad’s big mate was a guy called ‘Taffy’ He came from Wales and his surname was Jones. Doubt I’d have much chance of finding him. 🙁

RadarArchive,

I think that you were just unlucky re not getting next of kin info re Gibson’s Nav. A lot of the entries on the CWGC database don’t have details of n-o-k, but this is down to the families not answering, or supplying the info, when the CWGC tried to contact them after the war. See the ‘FAQ’ page for more info. I am still getting n-o-k info on the new website. Glad to see we can now seach by cemetery now, as well as by name.

I have a copy of the letter that was sent to the families by what was then the IWGC, which told them about the arrangements for marking the graves, and details of how they could chose a personal inscription for the base of the headstone. Out of interest the ‘example’ headstone is for P/O F.P Brown RAF, 15th September 1940, aged 21′, obviously a made-up casualty. I wonder if families of naval or army casualties recieved an ‘example’ from the appropriate service?

Geoff.

…hmm, we never did find out what happened to the rest of ‘Old Fred’, did we?!

Some great posts here everyone, by the way.

My grandfather trained as a “tail end Charlie” (rear gunner) in Lancasters but was invalided out with TB before seeing active service…

My great-uncle was RAF groundcrew – one of his roles was to collect together the belongings of aircrew who did not return and return them to their families, often in person. To return to a mother or a wife the few possessions that her son/husband owned, such as a watch, washing items, books etc was very hard for my uncle to do, for he was a gentle kind natured soul, who could hardly bare the pain and anguish so obviously suffered by those who had lost their loved ones…some of whom had been his friends too…

Not family, but a neighbour, Alec, served in the RAF as a mid-upper gunner in “Old Fred” (the cockpit section of which can be found on display at IWM Lambeth) He flew 21 missions in this aircraft and shot down a ME110.

Ashley

**** up at Imber Wiltshire April 12th 1942

Any gen on the incident at Imber, Wilts, in 1942, when a Hurricane from 175 squadron piloted by a Canadian Air force pilot called McLachlan shot up and kiled and wounded 100 British service and civilian personel by mistake while demonstrating the effect of aircraft cannon and machine gun fire against vehicle columns.
Among the wounded was Lt. Cecil, son of the then wartime Colonial Secretary, Viscount Cranborne.?

excellent thread chaps…

it stired me to look at the CWGC and London Gazette sites and I’ve come up with some servicemen from my home town with the same surname/spelling as me… I’ll have to quiz my Dad when he gets back from holiday, but in the mean time if you have someones service number can you do any further research..?? there are 2 RAF guys plus one Army and one RN.. the RN guy was was killed when HMS Hood was sunk…

Neil.

I suppose this would be my great uncle (he’s my granddad’s brother).

He served in the 8th Air Force during World War II, and flew combat missions from mid-1944 to early-1945. He was a tail gunner in a B-17.

He can tell some very hairy stories.

He actually tried to volunteer for a tour in the Pacific on B-29’s after his tour in Europe was done (he completed 35 combat missions), but was told he’d have to wait 6 months before he could apply again. By the time he could, the war was over.

He told me about the first time he saw an Me-262.

Everyone on their plane said pretty much the same thing:

“What in the hell is that?” 🙂

Sorry, Steve. I’m afraid my confidence was mis-placed. The new, revised CWGC website doesn’t seem to include the next-of-kin names that it used to. As a result, I’m afraid you can’t find your gran’s friend’s name, unless you want to contact the CWGC direct. Sicne such information has previously been available over the net, I don’t see how they can refuse it to you.

Originally posted by RadarArchive
I don’t know if it helps fill in the blanks, but Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson was killed on the night of 19/20 September 1944. I suspect everyone knows the story of how he was acting as Master bobmer that night for a raid on Rheydt. Anyway, with him when his Mosquito XX KB267 AZ-E crashed was Squadron Leader J B Warwick, DFC. He would be your gran’s friend’s son. A check on the CWGC website might produce his parent’s names, which would then give you your gran’s friend’s name.

Thanks Ian, I’ll give that a shot.

Cheers. 🙂

Not really my family but my Wifes. Her Aunt Mary Thorpe was a WAAF during the war and part of her duties included being taken to, what could be described as, an aircraft scrap yard and remove the radios and other equipment to be used in the Lancs that were on the airfield. At least that is what the family story is anyway. She recalled being driven by an airforce man out to a parked lot of aircraft for her duties that day to remove items and were supposed to be picked up around 4 pm as it was starting to get dark at that time but no one arrived so they had to stay there until someone did go for them. It was around 9 – 10 oclock when someone remembered about them and did finally collect them.

She also wrote a diary and a book that was never published and also visited Berlin and took some part in the after conflict organisation.

Would love to know more but she has passed on now and we dont have any contact with that side of the family and dont even know where they are.

I think a lot of family stories are lost this way.

James Henry Stewart 1916 – 1943

My wife lived in East Finchley (north London) during WWII and remembers a young man who was taken in as a lodger by her mother. Originally from Glasgow and said to be an orphan, he had been living at the local Roman Catholic convent until starting work as a machinist. Having no known family apart from a supposed aunt in the USA he “adopted” my wifes family and even named them as “next-of-kin”. My wife recalls sitting on his lap and putting on his peaked uniform cap and that he did not like night flying.

James Stewart, that was his name, voluntered for the RAF in July 1940 as an air gunner but after basic training he was recommend for training as a pilot. In December 1941 he was posted to No.18 EFTS and embarked for the USA where he trained under the Arnold scheme during 1942, being promoted to Pilot Officer and returning to the UK in October of that year. He continued training with No.6 AFU and No.15 OTU before being promoted to Flying Officer. At the end of June (26th) 1943 he was posted to No.196 squadron at Leconfield where they were in the last couple of weeks on Wellington X’s before leaving Leconfield.

As far as I can tell, James Stewarts first operational mission was on the night of 3rd/4th July flying as second pilot in Wellington X, HZ478, for an operation over Koln (Cologne). On the return leg over Belgium HZ478 was shot down and crashed at Solre-sur-Sambre – there were no survivors. The remains of the crew are buried in Gosselies Communal Cemetary close to Charleroi airport. May they rest in peace.

Sadly, in 1999 I met a Belgium pilot at the PFA Rally who worked at the Charleroi airport and on his return to Belgium he photographed the graves for me. He posted the photographs to me in an envelope post-marked the 10th July – the day he was killed whilst flying his Flying Flea OO-96.

Ewen

Yeah, the London Gazette website is a marvellous resource for researching the promotions and awards of servicemen but it definitely has a very odd search engine. I find it easiest to search under service number, but that rarely returns all entries. Then I try by name, but as Lancman has said you need to go with middle name and surname only. If the surname is a bit unusual it can be worth trying the surname alone. It is an invaluable source of information, but you do have to persevere.

Having said all this, there is a possibility, Ant, that your grandfather’s service records are available at the PRO (or National Archives as they are now). Only about 40% of First World War service records have survived, but you never know, he might be one. You can check without having to visit Kew by searching under his name on the PROCAT page of the PRO website.

Thanks for your advice on the London Gazette chaps,I’d already been told the same by Kev35 last week.Unfortunately,I’ve looked there and he’s not mentioned for whatever reason.One of my more distant family did a bit of family tree research,and I’m told he managed to unearth a citation of some sort,so hopefully I’ll be able to find out something via that route.

LOL, ‘JDK’ beat me to it-I was going to tell you the exact same thing!

You need to be careful with that site though-their search engine is notoriously awkward!
For example-

I’ve been researching a ‘stanley cyril mitchell’. Typing that into their search engine didn’t find my man, but typing ‘cyril mitchell’ did-so you need to be aware of covering all your possibilities as you search the site/it’s results.

Ant,

The London Gazette (http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk – look under archives then the right war) is now online – lists all awards etc. You can search by name and find his citation. It’ll tell you what it was for etc. Good hunting!

Cheers

My dad did his national service with the RAF between 1957 and ’59.After doing the usual gravel crushing (drill) etc at Crail in Scotland,he was sent off to work in West Berlin.That’s all he’s allowed to tell me-very hush hush!I have tried to prise it out of him,but so far I’ve been unable to extract any more.
His father and uncle were ‘Pongoes’ in the Great War.His Uncle Joe served in Greece with C-Company of the 11th Batalion of the Worcestershire Reg.t.He was killed in April 1917 whilst off duty-he was relaxing with some of his mates in a cafe,awaiting to be allotted a ship home,when a terrorist bomb exploded,killing him and a number of others and demolishing the cafe.
Joe’s brother,My Grandfather James,served on the Western Front. I’m ashamed to say I know very little about his service career,although I do know that he was awarded a medal for conspicuous gallantry at a place called Cency.I’m still researching,but that’s all I know for know.There is also a story that he and his Company shot down a German recce aircraft which crash landed behind thier trenches.

my grandfather was on hms Valiant in ww1 my father did his national service in the RAF as a Nurse (could of been a bloody pilot) anyway spent his time with the aweful task of recovering crashed pilots remains around Cambridgeshire ,he was based at Oakington,then came the time for postings and he requested as far south as possible hoping to get to Tangmere the nearest base to Hove where he lived,but was sent to Aden !!! a bit too far south,there amongst other jobs he had the not so enviable task of checking the arab workers on base for crabs ! and guarding dead pilots remains in the morgue because the arabs were known to have stolen corpses.

My Grandad joined the RAF as war broke out and apparently served with a number of different squadrons and on a variety of different aircraft from spitfire to stirling.

He worked on the free french sqaudron with their mitchells and was part of the 2nd tactical air force on d-day+2 when he went ashore at luc-sur-mer to assist in setting the runways up and maintaining typhoons e.t.c.

He was also one of the aircraft mechanics (corporal) in charge of britains prototype gloster meteor and was present when the first ever flight was made. He said the intake volume at full power was two and a half tonnes a minuite.

He was present at Thrapston when a rogue airman took an aircraft and tried to fly to germany but crashed in the sea.

He also flew over east anglia in the nose of a B-17 listening to the andrews sisters!

Loads of other stories but I though I would keep this short…

Frank passed away in 1999.

I don’t know if it helps fill in the blanks, but Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson was killed on the night of 19/20 September 1944. I suspect everyone knows the story of how he was acting as Master bobmer that night for a raid on Rheydt. Anyway, with him when his Mosquito XX KB267 AZ-E crashed was Squadron Leader J B Warwick, DFC. He would be your gran’s friend’s son. A check on the CWGC website might produce his parent’s names, which would then give you your gran’s friend’s name.