235848 L.A.C. Ernest Leslie Tuddenham Royal Air Force 274 Squadron from:Norfolk Ernest Tuddenham was my father. He never said very much about the war, but it was clear it was not a happy time. He mentioned he was a tail gunner in the RAF and that his plane had crash landed at Lossiemouth after seeing action. The crash resulted in injuries in which he lost all his teeth, and resulted in him walking with a slight limp thereafter. I can't imagine a worse position than being a tail gunner in a bomber. He had been married before the war but, as had often happened, his wife had found someone else while was serving his country.
In 1945, he was transferred to the Army (Royal Engineers) as an HGV driver. He was stationed in Portsmouth as the war was finishing and, during a rare evening out at a dance at one of the old forts on the hill behind the town organised by his regiment, he met my mother, Mary. As the driver, he had to drop all the ladies off around Portsmouth after the dance had finished. Yes, he made a point of dropping Mary off last! The rest is history.
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