Royal Air Force, 99 Squadron (Bomber Command)

Rank: Flight Sergeant, Service no. 1006733

Not yet 20 years old, Miles volunteered for the RAF at Padgate in early 1940 and later that year completed training as a wireless operator/air gunner.

In April 1941, he joined 99 Squadron at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire.  His first sortie was a raid on Boulogne on the night of 12-13 August when he flew in Wellington X9761.

A few days later, on 16-17 August, as part of the Wellington crew “J for Johnny” he was severely injured on a night bombing raid over Duisburg, when his Wellington Bomber (R1293) was caught in search lights and attacked by a German night fighter. The whole fuselage was ripped open and the undercarriage shot away. Miles’ crewmate, John Bubb was also badly injured in the fighter attack. At this point, the plane went into a steep dive and Dickie thought all the crew had been killed and the end was nigh. The dive, however, was the pilot’s evasive action to escape the searchlights. The Wimpey headed for home. The intense cold at altitude stemmed the blood flow and stopped Dickie from bleeding to death. Miraculously, without wireless or proper navigational aids, the plane crossed the white cliffs to England. The pilot (Sgt Coleman) nursed the badly damaged plane home, crash landing at Ford aerodrome near Southampton.  The four un-injured crewmen (Sgts Coleman, Clark, Paxton and Derbyshire) were all killed on their next sortie.

They were cut out of the fuselage by ground crew and, as he waited for medical help on the ground, Dickie recalled how sweet the airfield grass smelled. As he drifted into unconsciousness they thought he was dead until a doctor detected a pulse then they fought to keep him alive and he was taken to Goodwood House which had been equipped as a military hospital. From that point it was an uphill battle for Dickie against appalling abdominal wounds and he was in hospital for over a year. During that time, he was moved to Midhurst sanitorium (also equipped for injured servicemen) first to battle peritonitis and then for more abdominal surgery. There were dark lesions appearing on his skin. The surgeon found that these were pieces of material from his aircrew uniform which had been blasted into his abdominal cavity and were making their way to the surface. More incredibly, the surgeon also found pieces of metal which turned out to be parts of a pair of pliers which Dickie had in his pocket during the attack. The surgeon told him the pliers had protected his abdomen from even more damage and had shielded his major organs from serious injury which undoubtedly helped his survival. The surgeon henceforth referred to him as his miraculous “pliers” case.

In 1942, after medical discharge, Dickie returned to Waterbeach and discovered his old squadron was on overseas service. He also learned that many of his old squadron had been lost on missions. He was unable to return to active service owing to his still precarious medical condition as a result of his grievous injuries. He returned home to Preston in Lancashire and went into local government working for Preston Corporation then Preston Borough Council. Fittingly, he maintained his link with the RAF by helping Air Training Corps Cadets, teaching them wireless procedure and Morse code.

The happy conclusion to this story is that Dickie met his wife, Dorothy, in the local government offices and they were married in October 1947. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, (me!) in March 1953. In early 1978, by chance, Dickie heard on the radio that there was to be a reunion of Squadron 99 at Newmarket racecourse. Dickie contacted the organiser, Norman Didwell, (ex squadron 99) and was put in touch with his injured crewmate, John Bubb, then living in Bristol. Airmen came from as far away as Canada and New Zealand to attend. For Dickie and John it was an emotional but joyful reunion. It was a wonderful day. Norman also arranged for Dickie to receive the medals he was due – the 1939-45 Star, the 39-45 War Medal and his much-cherished Aircrew Europe Medal.

These airmen were modest, dutiful people. For me they were courageous heroes. I am immensely proud of my dad and all those like him who served their country with honour. Thank you.

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On 17th May 1943, Laurie Davis was at Lords Cricket Ground at 10.00 to join up and receive a medical check. After an A1 pass, they were given a mug of tea and a “wad” and sat and listened to accounts filtering through from the 617 Squadron Dambusters raid from the night before.

From Lords, he went to morse code training near Bridlington for a few weeks.

From there he was on to Hereford, RAF Madley for radio and flying training. Laurie recalls being there on the morning of D Day, June 6th.  He then went to Llandwrog to train on Domini’s.

The Bomber crews were allocated at Silverstone circuit in August 1944.

Dad’s crew were:

John Taylor. – Pilot.

Jack Bache.- Navigator

Norman Shires. – Bomb Aimer

Laurie (Red) Davis. -Wireless Operator

Joe Crossland- Mid upper Gunner

Tommy Clynes – Rear Gunner

RH. Wright. – Engineer

The crew trained near Silverstone on Wellingtons for 2 weeks. Laurie remembers that they were very thin skinned, and it felt like you could push your hand through them.

At Syreston they flew Stirling’s and were allocated their Engineer, surname Wright, Forename not recalled sadly.

On 10/02/1945 the crew arrived at RAF Strubby in Lincolnshire, Lancasters.

John Taylor and Laurie were allocated to another crew on 13/03/45 as they had chaps sick, and they flew a raid on Dresden.

Reunited with their regular crew, Laurie and John Taylor flew 10 night and 2-day raids on various keys targets including Essen, Yarburg, Dresden.

He recalls that the local’s community near RAF Strubby were very friendly, and they could relax, when possible, on non-flying days at the local pub for games/ skittles etc.

Laurie mentions the briefings and the routine of the padre addressing the men before raids, asking them to write letters home, for if the worst should happen. It was a humbling sight, seeing a crew’s lockers at bedside being cleared after not returning.

After one night raid, Laurie remembers placing his hand on the desk at a debriefing and feeling it thumping uncontrollably on the table. He didn’t even realise it was happening. At these times they were encouraged to have a nip of something strong to add to their mug of tea.

Later his crew were transferred to RAF Waddington to 617 Squadron.

Still on Lancasters, they flew on operations Dodge and Exodus to and from Bari in Italy. This was to aid repatriation of POW’s. 24 at a time were squeezed into the bombers. They were fascinated by the plane’s interior. They had no parachutes available for the POW’s and they flew low, Laurie recalls. They repatriated all nationalities to UK.

In 11/01/1946 they were seconded to Tiger Force. 617 and 9 Squadron Tobruk, Cairo and Calcutta.

On 13/04/1946, Laurie flew to St Mawgans in Cornwell where they left the aircraft. They were given 4 days to travel home.

Laurie was posted to Framlingham in Suffolk where a unit of Polish servicemen were awaiting repatriation. He formed a good relationship with them in his time there.

He had a short time in Bad Elson in Germany on a country estate and recalls that being a relaxed posting. While there, he toured with RAF cricket and football teams. He was in the winning football team of the British Forces Inter-Services at Cologne.

After leaving the RAF, Laurie joined City of Portsmouth Police as a Constable, later progressing to Sergeant, and then Inspector. After a full service, he worked for 10 years in the County Courts admin department.

Right up to his death in July 2024, Laurie kept in contact with several groups and individuals who he had grown to know over the years.  Remarkably, he had completed six marches to the Cenotaph in London on Remembrance Sunday, representing Bomber Command.  He attended the annual lunch of 619 Squadron Association each October to 2022 which was his last attendance.

This stone is a lasting memorial to the loving memory of SL (Laurie) Davis, devoted husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and a good friend and colleague to so many.

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My mother enlisted in the WRAF as soon as she was old enough, seeing it as a big adventure then spending most of the war in Lincolnshire as a driver, and told me many stories about that time when I was a child. She was shown how to shoot with a rifle in basic training, and quite seriously told me one day that if she had come across a German and it was either him or her, she would have shot him.

Her time was spent in two main areas of work.

One was driving lorries loaded with bombs around Lincolnshire. She told me once how she got completely lost driving around at night as all the signposts were removed during the war. She stopped to ask an old man the way but, even though she had her unform on and was in an RAF lorry, he would not tell her the way to the airbase in case she was a German spy! One day one of the bombs fell off the back of her lorry. She waited for bomb disposal and an officer, a really large man, turned up with the attitude of ‘What was all the fuss about?’ and just lifted the bomb up in his arms and pulled out the fuse – much to the astonishment of everyone watching.

She also drove aircrew, mainly Polish airmen, to their planes and had to wait for them to return. Obviously, some did not, and I can’t help thinking how difficult that was for her as a young woman.  One pilot tried to get her to go along with them one night as a stowaway on the raid. As a child I asked “Why didn’t you go”? It would have been a great story if she had!

On night duty she found a way to keep warm by wearing her dad’s combinations under her uniform. She said the other girls all laughed at her at first then they all did the same thing. After night duty she would return to her hut really hungry to cook herself breakfast. One morning she caught a mouse stealing her only rasher of bacon so she killed it to get her bacon back!

She always saw her years in the WRAF as an important, interesting part of her life. After the war, like a lot of women, she became a wife and mother; but with plenty of interesting stories to tell.

Died 2000

By Judith Walker

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Henry Lisle Christian was born in Owhango, central North Island, New Zealand on 18 May 1916, the only child of Henry Christian, a native of the Isle of Man, and his wife Hilda (née Jacobsen).

His father, Henry senior, was working in the Owhango sawmills when he joined the 1^st Battalion Otago Infantry Regiment and saw service with the First New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in France during WW1. When he returned from the war he moved his family to Waimauku, a farming and fruit growing area north-west of the city of Auckland.

Prior to the second outbreak of war in Europe, young Henry worked as a farmhand with his father on their family farm.

During WW2, more than 100,000 New Zealanders served overseas and Henry was one of 7,000 air crew who joined the ranks of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF).

He was a graduate of the BCATP (British Commonwealth Air Training Plan), a multinational aircrew training programme created to ensure a link with the nations of the British Commonwealth and one of the single largest aviation training programmes in history.

 After graduating from BCATP as a Wireless Operator and Air Gunner, Henry was posted to RAF Kirknewton near Edinburgh in Scotland, which was home to a variety of units during this period.

289 Squadron was formed here in November 1941 as an Anti-Aircraft Co-operation unit and Henry joined the squadron, being promoted to the rank of Sergeant.

289 Squadron operated a number of different aircraft including Lysanders, Blenheims, Hurricanes, Hudsons and Defiants and their job was to provide practice for the anti-aircraft defences in Scotland by towing targets and conducting simulated attacks.

289 Squadron moved to RAF bases at Turnhouse (now Edinburgh Airport) in May 1942 and also to West Freugh, Dumfries and Galloway, both of which had expanded with concrete runways to accommodate heavier aircraft.

It was while stationed at RAF Turnhouse that Henry was the victim of a tragic accident which cost him his life. On 19^th June 1942, he and his pilot were flying a Defiant Mark 1, a two seater turret fighter aircraft, taking part in an Army co-operation exercise.

Flying over the Moray Firth, 180 miles from their base in Edinburgh, the plane developed engine failure and ditched into the waters below. Although the pilot survived, Henry drowned before he could be rescued.

He was just 26 years old and was buried at Tomnahurich Cemetery, west of Inverness city centre. His grave is one of 169 Commonwealth War Graves in the cemetery, 80 from WW2, and one of only 2 New Zealander graves.

His grave can be found at Section H.14, Class 7, Grave 18 and commemorates a brave young man who made the ultimate sacrifice, and grieving parents who lost their only child half a world away.

Henry was my first cousin once removed and, although I have no photos of him in my personal collection, I was fortunate to find a photograph kindly provided by ‘Aircrew Remembered’.

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Ken (from Holmfirth in Yorkshire) was an RAF Fireman and Sheila (from Wymondham in Norfolk) was an RAF Stewardess/Batwoman.  They met at RAF Swinderby, Ken having completed his training at Cardington and then Sutton upon Hull. He remained in the Royal Air Force after completing his National Service.  Sheila did her initial training at RAF Spitalgate, now the Prince William of Gloucester Barracks Grantham.

RAF Hospital Nocton Hall cared for Sheila during her pregnancy, they went on to have four Scale E (Scaly) Brats, Susan, Stephen, Ian and Debra.  Being married and pregnant, Sheila had to leave the WRAF in those days!

The family had many postings, several were overseas to Malta and Germany whilst Ken also served unaccompanied in Borneo, Changi and Car Nicobar.  Ken and Sheila’s final posting was to RAF Cottesmore.  After 24 years of service, Ken and Sheila finally left the RAF from Cottesmore in 1976 and settled in Peterborough; they did maintain the service link via their son Stephen who also joined up as an RAF Firefighter.  Considering their ties to the local area it was only fitting the family wanted to place a memorial stone at the IBCC.

To pay your own tribute please click here

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While based at RAF Waddington, Lin was assigned to RCAF 420 “Snowy Owl” Squadron as a Driver with the Motor Transport Section. RCAF 420 Squadron left RAF Waddington in August 1942 moving to RAF Skipton on Swale and then onto RAF Middleton St George in October 1942. Lin remained with the squadron until June 1943 when they were deployed overseas to North Africa.

For the remainder of 1943 Lin was assigned to 1664 Heavy Conversion Unit based at RAF Croft before moving to RAF Dishforth in 1944. Lin remained at RAF Dishforth until the base was disbanded in September 1945.

Lin remained at RAF Topcliffe until November 1945 before transferring to RAF 5 Squadron based at RAF Barnwood Gloucester. It was here she met her future husband who had also served in the Royal Air Force for the duration of the War. Lin was discharged in March 1946 and awarded the Defence Medal and War Medal for her service.

To order a stone like Lin’s please click here

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Sergeant Douglas Charles Box
19. 10. 1922.  RAFVR 1578987.
Mid Upper Gunner, Stirling, EE-878 AS-P
75 (New Zealand) Squadron based at Mepal Cambridgeshire
Flight details: Shot down in Berlin raid 31.8.1943. Hit by anti aircraft fire and then attacked by a JU88. Crashed in Ahlberg, Germany with the loss of three of his fellow crew, all New Zealanders.

Pilot: Pilot Officer Douglas Charles Henley (23)
Air Bomber: Flight Sergeant Ian Hector Ross Smith (34)
Navigator: Flying Officer Clifford Arnold Watson (33)
Douglas later named his son Ian Douglas after two of these best friends.

Douglas Box, along with remaining crew, were all taken prisoner and ended up in Stalag 4B in Muhlberg on Elbe.

Warrant Officer Noel Livingstone Pearce
24. 12. 1920.  RAFVR 941082.
Mid Upper Gunner, Halifax, HR867 DY-A

Flight details:  Shot down 29.12.43 during raid on Berlin. Combination of anti aircraft fire and night fighters. Loss of crew member Flight Sergeant Terence Patrick O’Hare. (Air Gunner) whose parachute did not open. He was Noel’s best friend and Noel later named his son Terence after him.

Noel was on the run for three nights before being captured. It turned out when he was hiding by a bridge one of the nights and heard what he thought were Germans,  only to find out later, when he was taken into the prison that it had been one of his crew members on the other side of the bridge. They too had thought the noise to be Germans and therefore both had gone in different directions. They only realised this when talking together as captives.

This was Noel’s third crew. His first flew without him when he got Peritonitis and was hospitalised and were all killed. His second air crew once again flew without him when there was a tragic accident involving a lorry on base. Noel was in hospital dangerously ill when the second crew went out never to return.

After capture by the Germans and being transferred to Stalag 4B, Noel and Douglas met in the hospital in the beds next to each other and became firm friends. They shared the same hut for the next 18 months. Finally released from the POW camp when the Russians arrived at 7 am on 23.4.1945, releasing them on 6.5.1945. They were returned to England on 18th of May.

Both were rehabilitated at a Centre in Newbold Revel in Warwickshire until early 1946.  Both then went their separate ways with Douglas returning to his home in Herefordshire and Noel to Nottingham before joining the Control Commission in Germany. They remained close friends.

Joyce Pearce, 5.4.1924, was in the Land Army during the War later joining the Control Commission out in Germany. She met Noel briefly the first day she arrived although it was a year later before they met again. They finally returned home to England to marry in 1948 and lived in  Nottingham.  In 1955 they moved down to Wembley to work for Joyce’s parents who owned a shop in Kilburn.

Barbara Ellis, 5.10.1929, worked in the War Office in Worcestershire.  It was during this time that she met Doug who was also working at the War Office in 1947. After a whirlwind romance, they married a year later, living initially in Malvern.

Noel and Joyce had a son, Terrence in Moorgreen, Nottingham in 1950.  They moved to Nuthall, Nottingham where daughter, Lorraine (1954) before moving to Wembley, Middlesex in 1955.

Doug and Barbara had a daughter Sandra (1951 ) a son Ian (1954) in Cradley, Herefordshire before moving to Wolverhampton where daughter Elizabeth was born (1957).

Over the years they all attended the POW reunions each year in Edinburgh.

Doug’s football team, Wolverhampton Wanderers, appeared at Wembley in a Cup Final and his son, Ian, and Noel’s daughter, Lorraine, met briefly at Noel’s house.  A couple of years later they met again when Ian came to stay with Lorraine‘s family whilst attending an interview in London. They dated for a year before splitting for four years, reuniting in 1980, Lorraine moved from Wembley to Wolverhampton where they eventually married in 1983 and moved back to Nottingham.

Ian and Lorraine had a daughter, Jordan in 1986 followed by a son Luke in 1990. These were the grandchildren of Douglas and Barbara and Noel and Joyce.

Whoever would have thought that when they met in those hospital beds in a POW Stalag 4B in 1943 that they would attend the wedding of their children Ian and Lorraine?  Later becoming Grandparents to their children’s children- some 40 years later.

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A BRAVE SHROPSHIRE AIRMAN

Ernest Onions was born on 19 December 1915 at The Ferry, a farm in Shrawardine, Shropshire. He was the ninth child and fifth son of William and Susan Onions. He attended Oxon CE School and Oxon CE Church. Ernest left school aged fourteen and completed a five-year apprenticeship in carpentry. He later worked for London Midland and Scottish Railway in Shrewsbury as a joiner.

Ernest married his childhood sweetheart, Edith Margaret (Peggy) Evans in 1940 and together they had four children, John, Susan, Robin and Rosalyn.

In 1940 when walking through Shrewsbury Ernest passed a recruitment office by chance and enlisted in the RAF. He began his training with Bomber Command at RAF Yatesbury, then RAF Pershore. The photograph below shows Ernest, back row, second from right standing in front of a Wellington Bomber. His nickname was ‘Spring’.

Ernest qualified as an Air Gunner and a Wireless Operator. He joined 9 Squadron and began active duty on 9 August 1941 with an operation to Hamm, the first of 50 operations he was to complete. He was fortunate to survive his first tour as he was involved in 2 serious crashes. In October 1941 following an operation to Rotterdam and later in February 1942 his plane crashed in Clacton during training and only he and the second pilot survived.

In 1944 Ernest joined the new 578 Squadron and was stationed at RAF Burn flying Halifax Bombers. On the night before D Day Onions was one of seven crew of Halifax Mark III MZ513. Led by Squadron Leader W. G. Watson DFC with an experienced crew, all on their second tour of operations. They took off at 2.31am for Mont Fleury and dropped their bombs on the markers at 4.37am. As they were leaving the bombing area the plane was hit, probably by flak and badly damaged, the mid upper gunner was wounded. Watson gave the order to bale out, the Navigator was first to go, followed by the Air Bomber.

Ernest Onions remained at his post sending out distress signals until the pilot again instructed all crew to bale out saying “I can’t hold it much longer.”

Onions hit his head leaving the aircraft and remembered seeing the sea and hitting the water. He was unable to rid himself of his parachute. He was towed along under and above the surface and became unconscious. He woke up on an American minesweeper, and was told he had been travelling through the water at 8 knots and the ship could only do 10 knots! Flying Officer Onions, Flying Officer Heffernan and Flight Sergeant Middleton

survived.

Squadron Leader Watson DFC, Flying Officer Hall DFC, Flight Sergeant Goode and Flying Officer Turner died.

There were sightings of Halifax MZ513 as it crashed into the sea.

Corporal Victor Jones, RAMC, a witness said “The plane dropped down between our ship and the one next to us, obviously avoiding us, to crash into the sea behind. I can still see the rear gunner looking at us but no one survived the crash, that is my most poignant memory of D Day”.

Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, commanding the US First Army, was aboard the USS Augusta off the coast of Normandy at the time and his diary records the loss of Ernest’s plane. ‘the stricken bomber plunged towards the Augusta. It levelled off, banked around our stern and exploded into the channel.’

Ernest’s wife received the telegram all families dread. It read ‘Deeply regret to inform you that your husband Flying Officer Ernest Onions failed to return from an operational flight this morning. Letter following.’

It was two days later when Peggy heard her husband was alive and well. Ernest Onions was awarded the DFC for his actions that night.

After the war he set up as a builder and contractor. He served his community as a Parish and as a County Councillor and enjoyed gardening and holidays in Europe. Ernest’s final years were dogged by ill health, he died in May 1972 as he lived, a brave man.

Ernest never forgot the lost crew of Halifax MZ513 and requested his ashes be scattered at the site where the aircraft and crew perished in 1944. The RAF honoured him in death as in life. His ashes were committed to the sea off the coast of Normandy from an Andover of 46 Squadron, RAF Thorney Island on 3^rd. October 1973

                     PER ARDUA AD ASTRA

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He was in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a Flight Sergeant, Service No. 1321669 as an Air Bomber (or bomb aimer) in Bomber Command’s 35 Squadron, part of the Pathfinder Force, based at RAF Graveley, Cambridgeshire.

On the afternoon of 24 December 1944, he was one of seven crew members on board Lancaster PB 366, one of 10 aircraft of 35 Squadron bound for Germany, to attack the Nippes Marshalling Yard in Cologne.

The squadron’s Operations Record Book recorded “Lancaster PB366 crashed on take-off at Low Farm, Paxton, about 1/2 mile south of the aerodrome at RAF Graveley.  All members of the crew were killed.  Pilot lost control on take-off while in fog conditions due to faulty instrument flying; aircraft caught fire on impact with trees”.

Alec was 21 years old when he tragically lost his life.

He is buried in Maidenhead; his Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone is placed within his parents’ grave, and alongside his Grandmother’s grave.

You can see his entry on our Losses Database here

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Y4168961 Sgt John ‘Johnnie’ Patrick Walker was a member of the Royal Air Force, serving as a Firefighter in Malaya, Aden, Cyprus and the UK.  Also serving in the RAF Aircrew Selection Centre, at RAF Cranwell and Careers Office, in London. 

In 1983 he transferred as a Motor Vehicle Technician, at RAF Odiham.  John retired from RAF with 29 years service leaving with the rank of Sgt, in 1985. 

He was a very happy person who would go above and beyond to help anyone and everyone.  He served his country well, took great pride in his service and his work, gaining his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, on the 11^th May 1973. 

He sadly passed away on the 17^th February 2020, at King’s Lynn Hospital, Norfolk.  We are very proud of him, he was well loved and now greatly missed. 

May he Rest In Peace.

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