Photographs and Memoirs
contributed
by ex 254 Squadron members and their
families.
Three pages of the 254 Squadron ORB (Operations Records Book) can be found at the following links. The pages only hint at the incident of May 27th 1940.
These pages were obtained for me by a professional researcher at the PRO. It was explained that this particular ORB was not in very good condition and pages were missing. You can see there is bleed through from the facing page making it difficult to decipher.
254 Squadron ORB
Page 49 Report of the Northern group of 3 Blenheims ( Hammond was in the southern group which presumably was on page 50)
Page 53 Mention of a patrol of the east coast of the Shetlands on May 15 1940 with AC Hammond flying with Sgts Mace & Craig in Blenheim L9408
Page 54 Details of May 27th showing one of the southern group L9406, Gaylord, Wicks and Burran, the northern 3 also detailed. Page 55, again not available.
G.Pitfield ex ground crew
wrote:-
Dear Paul ,
I doubt you will ever know or realise the
pleasure your
website of 254 Sqdn's history has given me . I was with the sqdn from
early 40's for about 4/5 yrs.after leaving Innsworth Lane School and as
you can imagine I formed some affection for my colleagues .
I've no exciting or dangerous incidents to
relate that I
can recall being a ground crew member and of course it was some little
time ago but I remember it was quite an eye opener.
I wish you every success with your endevours
and as P. O.
Prune said "all crashes you walk away from are good ones".........there
are a couple of incidents that I remember whilst stationed in N.
Ireland, Aldergrove, there was a period of time when at lunch there
was cheese, biscuits, and dates freely available on the mess tables,
which, coming from a not too affluent background was almost
unbelievable, there was a price to pay " if you can
call it that "
and that was one's dress i.e. no gumboots, no black macintosh coats,
and a general good appearance, at the other end of the scale, the
food provided when boarding the boat for Sumbugh, Shetlands was a tin
of W.W.1 M,Conichies meat and veg. and a lump of cocoa.
Another time was either at Dyce, or
Aldergrove, a
womens vol. group provided jam sandwiches, dipped in batter and fried,
they were not only delicious but limited so every morning there was a
rugby scrum with the women complaining that the counter was moving
again, such was the crush there.
Although it wasn't heard of then, joining the
R.A.F. was one hell of a learning curve for yours truly, and learning
was the operative word, not only living cheek by jowl with every type
of human one can imagine and a few outside the imagination but all
that, was service life, the school side was another section altogether.
Sincere Regards and Wishes
as was 921687 G. Pitfield .
Flt. Lt. Cyril
Hurst wrote:-
In 1975 my ex-pilot, E.A.(Paddy) Mills
who had emigrated to Canada, was in a shop in Toronto where he found a
Matchbox model aircraft kit with a Beaufighter on the front with the
letters QMM. He bought a kit and was surprised to find that it
was a Torbeau No RD439 on a strike in the Kiel area on 3rd May
1945. He checked his logbook and found that he, F/O Mills,
was the pilot and myself, F/O C.A.(Dick) Hurst, as navigator.
He contacted Lesney Products who
made the kits and they informed him that the picture was created from a
photograph supplied by the War Museum. They had made an original
painting and added a torpedo which we were not carrying on the
strike. He was presented with a framed picture by Lesney Products and
he sent me a kit to make up. I checked in my own logbook which
confirms that I was the navigator on that particular strike.
In 1991 I commissioned an artist,
R. Macintosh, to produce an oil painting from the information I
gave him and a black and white picture of a similar 254 Squadron
Beaufighter. The painting is 40cm by 50cm and hangs in the Hall
of my house together with the Squadron crest which I have had since I
was with the squadron.
Thank you for your recent e-mail
telling us a little about your self including living on (near ed.) Thorney Island. By
coincidence the Squadron was stationed there in July 1946 and as the
airfield had its own sailing club and moorings I had my first taste of
sailing there. I was demobbed from the RAF there a couple of
months later so it was my last posting.
Ernie Mills and myself completed our
RAF service as Flight Lieutenants and went our separate ways.
Ernie left the Squadron early in 1946 and became an instructor in air
to air and air to ground fighting on Mosquitos.
Ernie came from Londonderry, N. Ireland where he was training to
be a pharmacist but he emigrated to Canada to teach, married a Canadian
girl and ended up as a Bank manager in Toronto. He was far more
interested in flying than I was and he formed a Chapter at an
airfield near Toronto whose members had built their own
aeroplanes. Ernie built a single-seater monoplane in his garage
over a period of 5 years from a kit powered by a Volkswagon
engine. In 1977 Betty and I were entertained by the
pilots at their annual corn roast and I was co-erced to fly in a couple of their planes of WW1
vintage design.
Flt. Lt Hurst's Log Book
P/O Charles Cunningham
contributed
by his son Ian.
Charles Cunningham was a member of Air Vice-Marshall
Simpson's (A.O.C 18 Group) crew at one stage along with F/O Chapman
D.F.M. Dad mentioned that he flew in short nose Blenheims. My
Godfather, Trevor Woodhead, was one of his pilots. I'm pretty sure
Trevor was RAAF.
My mother, Amelia Emily Cunningham (nee Dickson) was a parachute packer
from Belfast.
One of the things she used to tell the aircrew was " Well, if it
doesn't work, bring it back and we'll give you another."
I have enclosed some pictures.
Amelia Emily Dickson and Charles Cunningham
Air Vice-Marshall Simpson and his crew. F/O Chapman, D.F.M and P/O
Cunningham with A.O.C of 18 Group
Standing beside Avro Anson NM512 taken March 17 1944 on the occasion of a flight from Leuchars to Wick.
I just realised that the group photo is taken by the sea, my father is
on the far right.
Here's some more photos.
Dad's dogtags may help. The medals may also give an idea of his area of
operation. He was a radio operator/air gunner.
Mum thought he was at Dyce 1946.
P/O Cunningham's dogtags.
P/O Cunningham's medals
1939-1945 Star Atlantic Star Defence Medal War Medal
Sgt Harold Wood
Thanks for replying, the family has been waiting 64
years to find out what happened to Harold, the only
information that his twin sister (my grandmother, 84
years of age) was given was that he was missing
presumed dead.
I plan to do a lot more research into 254 squadron and
I'll let you know what I find out. I've attached a
photo of my late relative, perhaps you'll find it
useful for your website.
with thanks
John Austin
Pilot Officer R.H.L. Cressy
1939-1945 Star Atlantic Star War Medal
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