RAF PATHFINDERS ARCHIVE

Pathfinder Aircrew, their Friends, their Families, and the World they Knew

Category: RAF Station Upwood

The End of the War Approaches: Last Major Pathfinder Bombing Operations

Posted by on in 156 Squadron, End of the War, RAF Station Upwood

As the end of the war approached, the number of bombing sorties dropped off precipitously. The last major strategic operation in which the Pathfinders took part was on 25 April against the German island of Wangerooge, the most easterly of the Frisian islands, home to large German military installations. Wangerooge Operation

On the same day, the Pathfinders and other Bomber Command aircraft also attacked Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps, a command centre and the favourite resort of Nazi grandees including Hitler, whose Eagle’s Nest redoubt was targeted.

These were the last major bombing operations which the Pathfinders flew.

RAF Upwood, 1952, ‘Appointment in London’

Posted by on in 156 Squadron, RAF Station Upwood

Last visit to RAF Upwood for the moment. The film ‘Appointment in London’ was filmed at the station in 1952, only seven years after the war, and it is probably the closest one can get to seeing the station as it was in the Pathfinder era. All the old equipment and vehicles are there, including the Sanitary Squad lorry with dustbins on board, not to mention four bona fide Lancasters.

The story line is compelling and accurate (within the bounds of dramatic licence) because it is based on the operational career of  John Wooldridge, a highly experienced RAF bomber pilot. The ops scenes are gripping and the Upwood ambiance is matchless.

Starring Dirk Bogarde, Ian Hunter and Dinah Sheridan, it can be bought on DVD.

appointment in london 4

 

RAF Warboys and Upwood, the Pathfinder Trail

Posted by on in 156 Squadron, PFF Mosquito Squadrons, PFF Navigation Training Unit, RAF Station Upwood, RAF Station Warboys

The village of Warboys has a fine parish church called St Mary Magdalene. In it there is a beautiful memorial window to the Pathfinders, commemorating the various PFF squadrons or training units which were based at Warboys and nearby Upwood. (See the first few items on our page: Training the Pathfinders)

Andrew Laing, who sent us the photograph of the Pathfinder window, writes:

Hidden behind Warboys village adjacent to the A141, lies RAF Warboys, an airfield that played a major part in the Second World War.

His Trail 17 – Aviation Trails leads through RAF Warboys and its environs, including the adjacent village where St Mary Magdalene and its remarkable window can be found. Information is also provided about RAF Upwood, with many atmospheric photographs.

 

The Inscriptions on the Tombstones

Posted by on in 156 Squadron, Aircrew Losses, RAF Station Upwood

On Remembrance Sunday, we remember not only those who died but the relatives and friends who suffered a lifetime of grief at their loss.

As the cemeteries were completed and the Imperial War Graves Commission prepared to erect the permanent headstones, each bereaved family would have been sent the specimen form included here which showed them what the headstone would look like and the space for their own four lines of tribute. (Only New Zealanders were not allowed this tribute for historical reasons to do with the First World War.) The form tells them that the inscription cannot be more than 60 letters. It is easy to imagine how hard it must have been to say all one wanted to say in such a small space.

This is a rather blurry digital copy, but it is unique in the Archive and very appropriate for this Remembrance Sunday.

Edmondson grave headstone details (2)

The papers were amongst those preserved by the family of Norman Edmondson, a twenty-year-old Canadian, lost on the infamous Nuremburg raid of 30/31 March 1944.

Edmondson photo
Norman Edmondson

Images courtesy of Gordon Edmondson.

Norman’s aircraft was one of four 156 Squadron aircraft, flying from Upwood, which were shot down that night. The aircraft was brought down by a night fighter and crashed at Oberirsen in Western Germany.  By a miracle, the pilot Lindley survived to become a prisoner of war.

Pilot:   L Lindley

F/E:    Ronald Thomas Harper, aged 21

Nav:    John Waite Henry, aged 28

BA:      Bankole Beresford Vivour, aged 24

W/Op: John Esprey Bates, aged 22

M/U:   Norman Thomson Edmondson, RCAF, aged 20

R/G:    Dennis Bertram Bloomfield (age not known)

Dixie Dean, CO of PFF NTU

Posted by on in Pathfinders, PFF Navigation Training Unit, RAF Station Upwood, RAF Station Warboys

Wing Commander Dixie Dean, the commanding officer of the Pathfinders Navigation Training Unit, was so well thought of that in February 1944 he received a letter of the highest praise from Air Commodore Donald Bennett, AOC of the Path Finder Force. Bennett was not a man given to praise or hyperbole, which makes the letter all the more striking. See our new page: WingCo Dixie Dean, CO of the Pathfinders NTU

Model Lancaster, O-Orange

Posted by on in 156 Squadron, RAF Station Upwood

This fabulous radio-controlled model Lancaster may make you smile, standing so proudly in front of the tomato plants, though she is sure to be a very  different beast when she flies.

There is a tragic background story to this icon of a real wartime Lancaster …

model lanc 2

The model aircraft’s markings are PB517, GT-O, standing for 156 Squadron O-Orange. They were chosen by Owen Gomersall to commemorate the Lancaster flown by his grandfather, Lionel Williams, who was on our last post. ‘Tom’ last flew this aircraft on 28 January 1945. Two months later, on 31 March, tragically close to the end of the war, Lancaster PB517 was lost with all its crew on a Hamburg operation. Those who died were:

F/L A C Pope, DFC
F/O G A J Morrison
F/L L E Munro, DFC, RCAF
P/O E H Marlow
F/O T M McCabe
F/S K Antcliffe
P/O I W Kelly, RCAF 
P/O R C Fletcher, RCAF

It was the second Lancaster which was lost from 156 Squadron that night, the other being that flown by Flying Officer H F Taylor. Again the entire crew was lost. 

F/O H F Taylor, DFC
P/O H Woolstenhulme
Sgt J P Williams
Sgt L H Joel
F/O R L Martin, DFC
F/O L A Cox, DFC
F/Sgt K A L Mitchell
Sgt R Goldsbury

This loss of 14 young men from Upwood in a single night only five weeks before the war ended must have been a serious blow to those living and working on the station.