Britain at War – August 2019

'Britain at War' Magazine,PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9 1NA| [email protected]

FIELD POST

Our Letter of the

Month is sponsored by

Pen & Sword Books

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Our Letter of the Our Letter of the

Month is sponsored byMonth is sponsored by

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Corrections and

Clarifications

As eagle-eyed readers of the July issue may have noticed an incorrect

photograph was used in the museum feature on page 64 – sadly this

was caused by a software glitch and we apologise to readers and the

Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre for the error.

Rest assured we’ve made sure the gremlin has been banished!

RIGHT The amazing sight of two Bomber Command legends – the Lancaster and

Mosquito – at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. (VIA LAHC)

Another Boston

Accident

Dear Editor,

The feature on RAF Weston in

the April issue brought back

something my father told

me he experienced. On page

102 is the story of a Douglas

Boston bomber hitting a bus in

November 1946, killing seven

airmen instantly, and an eighth

[died] later. My father was in

the Royal Artillery from 1941

until demobbed in 1946. He was

part of a Bofors anti-aircraft gun

crew, and at one time they were

protecting RAF Kaldadarnes,

Iceland, and also saw service in

North Africa and Palestine.

However, when much closer

to home, he narrowly escaped

death at RAF Farnborough and

it involved a Douglas Boston.

Their Bofors gun was situated

down the runway, near a

treeline. My father went to an

airfield building some distance

away for a cup of tea – while he

was away the Boston crashed

into his gun position, killing all

of his crewmates and one of the

Boston’s pilots.

That cup of tea saved his life.

Fate is a strange thing.

J B Dootson

Chorley, Lancashire

Dear Editor,

I’m writing in regard to your

Fallen Eagle feature in the

June issue, which mentions the

memorial that I built in 1988.

As a boy I grew up in Chilgrove

[West Sussex] and heard the

story about the plane crash

[outlined in the feature by Clive

Sharples]. When asked by the

Edward James Foundation if I

would build the memorial on

behalf of his family, I was glad

to do so.

The plaque is different from

the one on it now. I believe the

original went missing or was

vandalised and the Edward

James Foundation had their

bricklayer put on the new

plaque.

While I was building the

memorial I can recall two elderly

gentlemen walking by and

expressing their view that it was

wrong to have the memorial built

for a German. I did point out that

he gave his life to save his crew,

which was heroic whatever side

you are on. Looking back, the

war may have still been a vivid

memory for those gentlemen in

the 1980s.

My only regret was that I was

unable to attend the unveiling

due to a prior engagement.

Nigel Short

Bognor Regis

Fallen Eagle

'Britain at War' Magazine,PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9 1NAPO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9 1NAPO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9 1NA| [email protected]@[email protected]

Three Cheers for the Merchantman

Dear Editor,

Excellent to see the men of

the Merchant navy being

remembered in the June ‘D-Day’

issue, with the moving article

on Jim Radford. His story is

inspiring, and I count myself

very lucky to have met the great

man and to hear him talk about

his days at sea. He was just 15

when he served on ‘the shores

of Normandy’, as his poem

recounts. What a man, and what

a generation!

Bob Butler

Norwich

BELOW Tug boats and their crews played a vital part in D-Day.

This later model plied its trade around Portsmouth in the

1960s. (KEY COLLECTION)