Can we raise a whole WWII Lancaster aircrew from our relatives (alive or not)?

We still need a pilot- I wish to offer the services of my grand father, the late Peter Hackforth. He did great things. Also flew Mosquitoes I believe.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bomber-command

I’ve discussed this sort of stuff with teachers in a German school, igrf, and they tend to agree; fleeing anything like uniforms or right wing attitudes. They’re a good bunch, a discussion about Eurobonds showed a few chinks in their armour of political correctness though – a worrying sense of superiority for one.

Die Welle[/url] is a film well worth watching if a little troubling.

Now you definitely wouldn’t get sufficient numbers from our current generation to fight a war like that again,

Not sure things would pan out like that again, to be honest.

Someone on my Mum’s side worked on designing planes, think it may have been just after the war though.

Re Germans – the only cultural thing I noticed was indifference to others. Many don’t seem to give much of a crap if you’re ok or not, they just do their job. Much like the guard on the Virgin train in Tamworth – she wasn’t German though 🙂

I have a pilot for you – “uncle”*

Flt Sgt R D Sainsbury

Pilot on Stirlings, Lancs. Finally transferred to pathfinders, flying both Lancs and Mosquitoes. I believe he also did a swap with USAAF to try the B17

Mosquito, now there’s a plane.. I’m still in contact with a Mosquito pilot, old boy, Ed’s his name still sharp as a razor, can’t help us as he’s neither a relative nor a Lanc pilot, but tells a good tale and in a plane that fast, didn’t run the risk the bomber boys did.

My grandad would have been no use to your project once it got off the ground but he would have been handy to get the engines going and make sure the wings didn’t fall off and such.

Yeah my grandad was a Royal Flying Core (World War 1) mechanic.

Flt Sgt R D Sainsbury

ETA Flt Lt by 1946

Great thread this. I just love the idea 😉

My grandad who sadly died peacefully in 2011 was a supply driver for Monty in the African desert. Think he was based in Egypt- although like many others he didn’t talk that much about it.
I can only imagine the hell that he and his generation endured.

They are all heroes every last one of them, whatever nation they were from…

Now you definitely wouldn’t get sufficient numbers from our current generation to fight a war like that again

Wars like that would be fought by machines and weapons of mass destruction today. Let’s hope it never comes to that again….

This may sound a tad odd. I know a man named John Chatterton. He definatley flew the Lanc, as did/does his son Michael. There’s a Biography of his life called Ploughshare & Shining Sword. It’s quite a good read. The odd bit is I can’t remember if i’m actually related to him or wether he’s just a very old family friend. ❓

great photo’s chaps, thanks for posting them

I think it was the Mosquito that my uncle worked on actually.

My Grandad was a mid-upper gunner. Angus Robb. Believe he was a Warrant Officer? Flew with the Pathfinders. Nice thread idea.

great grandad tail gunner in bomber not sure what type to young to take it all in (captured mid 1944 before d day i think?) badly wounded in the legs during an attack by a night fighter but managed to shot back and dissuede the fighter from making another pass rest of the crew patch him up as best they could then took a vote and decided to push him out over occupied france the germans captured him ened up having to take his legs off at the knee’s spent the rest of the war a pow didn’t talk about it very often

Squadron strength so far…

Aircraft A – Able
Pilot: ‘Sergeant’ Alistair Stuart McLaren (ask1974’s Great Uncle)
Flight Engineer: Flight Sergeant Peter Gee (TuckerUKs Uncle)
Navigator: Flight Officer John (Jack) Hopwood (B.A.Nana’s Grandad)
Wireless Operator: (jfletch’s Grandpa?)
Bomb Aimer/Front Gunner:
Mid-upper Gunner: Warrant Officer Angus Robb (vdubber67’s Grandad)
Rear Gunner: (igrf’s Uncle)

Aircraft B – Baker
Pilot: Peter Hackforth (Ambrose’s Grandfather)
Flight Engineer: (gee68’s Granfather-in-law)
Navigator: (souldrummer’s Uncle)
Wireless Operator:
Bomb Aimer/Front Gunner:
Mid-upper Gunner:
Rear Gunner: (Gorehound’s Grandad)

Aircraft C – Charlie
Pilot: Flt Sgt R D Sainsbury (rkk01’s ‘Uncle’)
Flight Engineer:
Navigator: (Jerome’s Grandad)
Wireless Operator:
Bomb Aimer/Front Gunner:
Mid-upper Gunner:
Rear Gunner: (fotheringtonthomas’ Dad)

Aircraft D – Dog
Pilot: John Chatterton (for the purposes of this thread definitely related in some way to freeride_frankie)
Flight Engineer:
Navigator: (Duane’s Grandad)
Wireless Operator:
Bomb Aimer/Front Gunner:
Mid-upper Gunner:
Rear Gunner: Flight Sergeant Burt Hunter (Shak47’s Uncle)

Flt Sgt Jack Best (my FIL) upper gunner. Flew in the Far East and told stories of shooting a Japanese off the wing. Cancer took him in 1995.

Per Ardua ad Astra

Flight Officer John (Jack) Hopwood, Navigator, 630 Squadron (aircraft A on this forum 8) )

The story of what my Gran had to endure from his family is probably sadder than his death just 2 weeks before war end.
He was a Police Officer, so exempt from war service. For whatever reason unknown, he joined up. After his death, in their grief presumably, his family blamed my Gran for forcing him to join up. She never remarried, possibly to prove to them her absolute devotion, I don’t know. It must have been awful at the time for her, she was pregnant with my Uncle as well. She became a very bitter person unfortunately and not a nice Gran.

Some great pics and info – new I had a pic somewhere on here, this young couple are my parents, now 88 and 86. Guess this was taken in ’41 because my dad is still a Pilot Officer.

Flt Eng George williamson, 50 Sqn, Lancasters.

Also flew in Stirlings. Only one of 7 to get out of their Lanc on the way back from Bremen.

Was with the French Resistance for nearly a year till he got back to Blighty.

George was a family friend who introduced me to classic aircraft and whom i spent many a happy hour with, scraping paint off KB976, Mk X Lancaster, at Strathallan (now in bits at Fantasy of Flight, Polk City FL).

Passed away a decade ago.

Great thread, bravo.

Mine were busy down t’ pit and t’ steel works.

TuckerUK, thanks for recognising Mr Chatterton! He and his son are very envolved in The Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, where ‘Just Jane’ is kept and flown, at East Kirkby, Lincolnshire.

If your interested in this subject, i recommend reading the book I mentioned before. I’m not the biggest fan of the author, but a fantastic insight of the life of one particular ordinary/fantastic man of that era!!!

Vorlich- respect. The Bevin Boys finally got their medals only recently.

My grandad, Squadron Leader Dusty Miller DSO DFC. Volunteered from his home in Auckland NZ and survived 2 tours. An unsung hero like all of those above, and a great grandad too. Sorely missed.
[/url]
Dusty[/url] by jim-jim-jim[/url], on Flickr
Never discussed the war years but I read some of his flying logs, scary stuff.

Personally I know that we can still find brave boys men to take on similar roles nowadays. I have written too many references for lads joining the forces from school, some to staff college, some to basic training. I have the deepest respect for them all. It pains me greatly that not all of them have returned alive. How their parents cope is beyond me but the pride I feel in them must be nothing to that of their mothers and fathers.

My father in-laws uncle Andrew Wood, he was a gunner but we don’t know exactly what position, he was sadly was shot down.

Maybe he could be a Mid-upper Gunner on Aircraft B as knowing Ambrose I would think that we could be connected in such a bizarre way in a past life 😉

acjim- that is an astounding photograph. The look in his eyes, the youthful, poignant expression on his face. He’s but a child- dressed quite literally to kill.

Pete- I like that idea. Ta.

Another navigator:
Harry Nixon (still living – just)
Married my Dad’s elder sister when her first husband Andy (my namesake) was shot down in his Spitfire. I did a reading at Aunt Marjory’s funeral last year and got to read through Harry’s flight logs. He was flying 3/4 sorties a week in ’44. Eventually shot down over Germany returning from bombing Saarbrucken (IIRC – will be driving through there in a few weeks). Caught a mile from Switzerland, after a few days on the run. Broken as a POW. Now in a world of his own without his wife.

The saddest part of my grandads brother is, they were brought up by their grand parents as kids, his brother, who was older went off to war and died, yet I knew nothing of him until I was in my teens (33 now). My parents visited his grave in the mid ’90’s after my grandad had died. At that point, they were the first family members to visit the grave. I’ve took my wife and boys since then, but other than that he is forgotten, no photos or anecdotes have survived. .

It’s amazing the loss you can feel for someone you’ve never known.

Forgot I had this one as well, thought it worth sharing, my Uncle, Hunter and his colleagues. Photo marked no 13 z course B Squad, not sure what that means though.

[/url] no 13 z course B Squad[/url] by Shak4720[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Taken in 1942

Seems Jack was a navigator on Lancasters not a gunner. Our “community gran” Stella next door says her husband was a pilot in Lancasters. He spent his post-wart years asking “why me, why did I survive?” I suspect thats true of a lot of the old service men and women.

My old man was a radar operator but just mist WWII. He is still alive and well and has his uniform, kit bag, radar manual etc awaiting being called back up…

Oh and my old neighbour Ron, aka peg leg, was a tail gunner in a Lancaster – hence the lack of legs.

My grandad could give an escort in a Spitfire.

After the war he became a civilian instructor, as well as the RAF, tought Argentinian pilots in the 70’s apparently. Doing acrobatics while we were on the beach in Devon was always a highlight of our holiday as kids.

Brilliant thread, very humbling. Well done STW 🙂

Lest we forget.

Pilot Officer OLR Hills, grandfather, shot down and killed in his Mosquito somewhere over the North Sea 1943.

Great thread. And the Bomber Command memorial is long overdue.

Not Lancaster related, but my dad was friends with a guy who’d flown Sopwiths in WW1. Lovely old chap. God knows what he must have been through.

My Dad fixed Liberator engines for Coastal Command. (& Hudsons & Blenheims)
But not Lancs.

Grandad still alive 91 this year. Radio operator and gunner in Wellington two less engines but close. Sorties over Berlin among others. He gave me a faked German ration book that he kept, they used to chuck them out of the plane on the way to put pressure on the food supplies.

One crash landing and a broken arm, very lucky considering the survival rate.