238185 LAC George "Paddy" O'Brien Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve from:Liverpool I am present writing an account of my Uncle George O'Brien who joined the RAFVR in July 1939 and after six months basic training at West Drayton was sent to Dunkirk. His brother, my uncle Frank, also signed up around the same time and they were both rescued off the beaches of Dunkirk coming back to England on a coal barge together.
Uncle Frank was eventually posted to Malta where he endured intense bombing on the RAF station while Uncle George was sent out to the Western Desert where he was tasked to rescue downed fighters from almost anywhere using a Thorneycroft mounted with a Coles crane.
He eventually arrived in Tunis after The Big Push and later was posted to Sardinia before traveling up the length of Italy before being sent back to the UK to be demobbed in 1946.
I have a good number of photographs of the journey although they are not now in the best of condition but he related to me many stories of his time.
If anyone remembers him or has any information of his time in the RAF or experince of Salvage Operations in the Western Desert I would be very pleased to hear from them.
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