Description
Object description
Ts account (20pp), written in 1994, of his enlistment and training in the RAF (September 1942 - March 1944), qualifying as a navigator with the rank of Sergeant (March 1944), the formation of his crew at No 14 Operational Training Unit (March - May 1944), their posting to No 50 Squadron Bomber Command (June 1944) and his experiences after their Lancaster bomber was shot down during a daylight raid on the submarine pens near Bordeaux (13 August 1944) describing in some detail the capture of the crew (with the exception of the pilot who was not seen to bale out) and their imprisonment in the town jails in Cognac and Bordeaux, at the Luftwaffe base at Merignac and, after having faked illness while being transported north, in the hospital at Angoulême from where they were liberated by the Maquis (28 August) who arranged the crew's subsequent return to the United Kingdom (3 September 1944). The account is accompanied by photocopies of various papers relating to his RAF service including a Cambridge University Air Squadron certificate of proficiency (5 April 1943), an application form for the RAF Volunteer Reserve (November 1941), his membership card for the Caterpillar Club, letters and telegrams sent to his family reporting him missing and then announcing his safe return, newspaper cuttings, MI9 debriefing reports, and a photograph showing him in full flying gear; together with a ts account of the same raid (6pp), written in 1993 by the pilot whom the crew had presumed to have been killed, Sergeant Pilot Peter Lorimer.
Content description
Ts account (20pp), written in 1994, of his enlistment and training in the RAF (September 1942 - March 1944), qualifying as a navigator with the rank of Sergeant (March 1944), the formation of his crew at No 14 Operational Training Unit (March - May 1944), their posting to No 50 Squadron Bomber Command (June 1944) and his experiences after their Lancaster bomber was shot down during a daylight raid on the submarine pens near Bordeaux (13 August 1944) describing in some detail the capture of the crew (with the exception of the pilot who was not seen to bale out) and their imprisonment in the town jails in Cognac and Bordeaux, at the Luftwaffe base at Merignac and, after having faked illness while being transported north, in the hospital at Angoulême from where they were liberated by the Maquis (28 August) who arranged the crew's subsequent return to the United Kingdom (3 September 1944). The account is accompanied by photocopies of various papers relating to his RAF service including a Cambridge University Air Squadron certificate of proficiency (5 April 1943), an application form for the RAF Volunteer Reserve (November 1941), his membership card for the Caterpillar Club, letters and telegrams sent to his family reporting him missing and then announcing his safe return, newspaper cuttings, MI9 debriefing reports, and a photograph showing him in full flying gear; together with a ts account of the same raid (6pp), written in 1993 by the pilot whom the crew had presumed to have been killed, Sergeant Pilot Peter Lorimer.
History note
Cataloguer AAM
History note
Catalogue date 2001-09-27