Description
Object description
Collection of photocopies of documents relating to his service with the RAF as a navigator with Special Flight No 159 Squadron South East Asia Command based at Digri near Calcutta (January – February 1945) including ms account (12pp, written in 1992 for I Smith, nephew of his fellow crew member Wireless Operator Arthur Williams) describing the coming together of the crew, operational flights in the B24 Liberator over Burma and Siam to locate enemy radar stations, their last flight (31 January - 1 February 1945) when engine failure or attack by enemy fighter forced them to bale out over the coast of Southern Burma, the fate of the crew, six of whom survived but were handed over by the Burmese to the Japanese who subsequently murdered four of the men while the remaining three appear to have died either drowning after baling out off the coast or in the aircraft on impact; three ms letters to I Smith (12pp, 2 and 28 August 1992 and 6 October 1993) in which he elaborates on his transfer to Rangoon jail with fellow survivor, the pilot Squadron Leader J Bradley, their treatment by the Japanese, the forced march out of the camp and their liberation by the 14th Army near Pegu (April 1945); published account (16pp, 1957) about the wartime service of Squadron Leader Bradley including his description of the crash, his capture, imprisonment and treatment by the Japanese; ts secret memo to South East Asia Command headquarters (10 February 1945) from the Wing Commander of No 159 Squadron reporting the missing aircraft; ts official report (2pp, written in 1946 after visiting the crash scene) on the crashed aircraft and fate of the crew; newspaper cuttings (2pp, undated) about two of the crew members, Wireless Operator Arthur Williams presumed dead after no trace of him could be found and Flight Sergeant S J Woodbridge, posthumously awarded the George Cross for courage under Japanese torture before he was beheaded, with a photograph of Woodbridge's grave.
Content description
Collection of photocopies of documents relating to his service with the RAF as a navigator with Special Flight No 159 Squadron South East Asia Command based at Digri near Calcutta (January – February 1945) including ms account (12pp, written in 1992 for I Smith, nephew of his fellow crew member Wireless Operator Arthur Williams) describing the coming together of the crew, operational flights in the B24 Liberator over Burma and Siam to locate enemy radar stations, their last flight (31 January - 1 February 1945) when engine failure or attack by enemy fighter forced them to bale out over the coast of Southern Burma, the fate of the crew, six of whom survived but were handed over by the Burmese to the Japanese who subsequently murdered four of the men while the remaining three appear to have died either drowning after baling out off the coast or in the aircraft on impact; three ms letters to I Smith (12pp, 2 and 28 August 1992 and 6 October 1993) in which he elaborates on his transfer to Rangoon jail with fellow survivor, the pilot Squadron Leader J Bradley, their treatment by the Japanese, the forced march out of the camp and their liberation by the 14th Army near Pegu (April 1945); published account (16pp, 1957) about the wartime service of Squadron Leader Bradley including his description of the crash, his capture, imprisonment and treatment by the Japanese; ts secret memo to South East Asia Command headquarters (10 February 1945) from the Wing Commander of No 159 Squadron reporting the missing aircraft; ts official report (2pp, written in 1946 after visiting the crash scene) on the crashed aircraft and fate of the crew; newspaper cuttings (2pp, undated) about two of the crew members, Wireless Operator Arthur Williams presumed dead after no trace of him could be found and Flight Sergeant S J Woodbridge, posthumously awarded the George Cross for courage under Japanese torture before he was beheaded, with a photograph of Woodbridge's grave.
History note
Cataloguer KM