Richard
Please try http://twgpp.org/

If you have no luck then email me and I will give you more info.

Dave
From the RAF Museum

Quote

As Bader descended under his parachute, he noticed “My right leg was no longer with me… the leather belt which attached it to my body had broken under the strain, and the leg, the Spitfire, and I had all parted company.” He was knocked unconscious on landing and woke to find two German soldiers removing his parachute harness.

Bader was taken to hospital in St Omer. His missing right leg was recovered from the wrecked Spitfire, and as soon as it had been repaired, he made his first attempt to escape. A rope made of bed sheets enabled him to climb down from a window, but he was soon recaptured and sent to Oflag VIB at Warburg. By that time the RAF had dropped a replacement leg by parachute, and Bader had determined to be “a plain, bloody nuisance to the Germans”.

After three months in Stalag Luft III, Bader was moved to Stalag Luft VIIIB at Lamsdorf, from which he made another attempt to escape. He and four others joined a working party outside the camp, intending to make their way towards the Polish border. The alarm was raised when a Luftwaffe officer called at Lamsdorf to visit Bader and he was found to be missing; he was arrested and returned to Lamsdorf. A few days later Bader was transferred to Colditz Castle – Oflag IVC. With typical boldness, he told the Germans that he expected “to travel first class and be accompanied by a batman and an officer of equal rank.” Colditz was thought to be escape-proof, and Bader remained there – making life difficult for his captors – until the camp was liberated on 15 April 1945.

Well chaps……….if any one is interested, some years ago I was responsible for erecting a tablet on the house of a Gallipoli VC and his wife.

The tablet was blessed by the vicar of Bray at a small ceremony.

I would have liked to ask the owners of the house for permission to hold a short service of remembrance again.

I am a bit housebound and therefore cannot drum up local enthusiasm as I used to.

But I have this organ of communication, which is even better ????

It is located in Holyport Berkshire and is for Major Foreshaw, the cigarette VC. Also Paley St cemetery where there is a CWG stone situated.

Much more info for all, depending on any responses to this.

DaveR
Please email me Quoting Typhoon/PPrune
Regards

Thank goodness I read this thread before I responded to the OP as everything I was going to type was on the screen……..bit deflated but so glad it is the general concensus.

Iv’e done a few tours on the Lancaster as a guide.
I was upset to learn that due to H&S no more tours would take place.
Veterans of many wartime missions are now, in the twilight years of their lives, and denied the one last chance to visit the old girl.
As one of them said to me after a tour and was rubbing his head, “I deserve that, she got me home safely all those times and I’m proud to have this bump from her” !!
Another chap said, ” at age 22 with 6 layers of clothing, movement was difficult. Now at age 85 it’s just moving that’s difficult”
(But they both made it over the main spar)

I am a volunteer database operative for War Memorials Trust. Please could you folks post as much info about this memorial as possible.
Then I will enter it into the Imperial War Museums National Inventory. Unless anyone has any objections ?.

Of course I will also check with:
[email]colinbear@btinternet.com[/email].

Slight thread drift but till Bomber Command:

18 August 1941

39 Blenheim’s on coastal sweeps of Holland 1 trawler sunk. 1 Blenheim lost.

A Blenheim of 188 Sqn, flying on one of the Circus raids, dropped a spare artificial leg by parachute (Colditz?) to Wing Commander Douglas Bader who had recently been taken prisoner.
It reached Bader safely.