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Sgt. F.W. Anderson . 102 Squadron
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Sgt. Frederick Anderson . Royal Air Force 12 Squadron from Bournemouth (d.12th June 1943) My great-uncle Sergeant Frederick Anderson served as a Mid-Upper Gunner with 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force stationed at RAF Wickenby during WWII.
Frederick was born in Bournemouth on 21st July, 1920. His serial number was 626653.
He died in the early hours of Saturday 12th June, 1943 aged 22 when Lancaster PH-F W4373 was shot down between Neuss and Holziem during a raid on Dusseldorf (part of a force of 326 Lancasters, 202 Halifaxes, 143 Wellingtons, 99 Stirlings and 13 Mosquitoes).
The full crew of PH-F W4373 on this mission were:
- Pilot - Flight Lieutenant Patrick Raymond Ford (aged 22, Royal Australian Air Force) Killed. A414132.
- Navigator (Nav) - Sgt James Albert Osborn (aged 25) Killed. 657839.
- Wireless Technician (W.T.) - Sgt Myer Harris (aged 22) Killed. 953174.
- Bomb Aimer (B.A.) - Sgt Geoffrey William Twitty (aged 20) Killed. 1235304
- Flight Engineer (Eng.) - Sgt Reginald Arthur Charles Avery (aged 20) Killed. 1336681.
- Mid-Upper Gunner (M.U.G.) - Sgt Frederick Anderson (aged 22) Killed. 626653.
- Rear Gunner (R.G.) - Sgt Marcus Walter Stone (aged 21) Killed. 1308435.
All 7 crew members are buried in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, they were originally buried in Dusseldorf Northern Cemetery.
I would be very interested to hear any information anybody might have about Frederick's time in the RAF and the crew members he served with.
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LCdr Fredric Charles Anderson . Royal Navy from Hearts Content, Newfoundland
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Able Sea. George Yeoman Anderson . Royal Navy HMS Abdiel from Ayton, Berwickshire This is my stepfather. He is now 87. Has just started talking about the War.Was on HMS Abdiel when sunk in Tarantino Bay. States many of Airbourne Div on board drowned because they jumped over with all equipment. Was picked up by tender from a warship nearby. Had been on HMS Manxman when it was torpedoed but not sunk earlier on.
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Pte. George William Anderson . British Army 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders from London My Dad, George Anderson, was with the 2nd Seaforths at St Valery,51st Highland Division. He told me that at the surrender to the Germans in June 1940, the CO. Lt Col R.F.Nason spoke to the battalion and invited any man who wanted to escape to join an escape party being led by an officer. Otherwise, the battalion were going to be POW's for the duration. My old man volunteered and away they went through German lines. He had various adventures and close shaves with both Germans and French Nazi sympathisers, but the Maquis and the Resistance looked out for them and he made it back to the UK where he was sent up to Fort George to be an instructor to recruits. Not fancying that, or the 3 stripes that went with it, he applied to get back to active service, but to his disappointment was posted to the Service Corps near Swindon. After D Day he was back ashore in France and then Belgium and Germany until the War ended.
Pre-war he had been in India, Egypt and Palestine with the 1st Battalion and his Company Commander was the same R.F.Nason, only that time he was a Major.
I would be most interested to hear from any ex-51st HD sweats who might know a bit more about the escape,or who perhaps knew my Dad who died in 1996.
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Capt. George Guy Barry "Bill" Anderson . 2nd Btn. Leicestershire Regiment from Quorn, Loughborough, Leicestershire (d.23rd May 1941)
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Gladys Mabel Anderson . Royal Ordnance Depot Wellington, Shropshire I am just trying to trace anyone who may have known my mother; Gladys Mabel Anderson who worked in the royal audinance depot during ww2 in wellington shropshire. After losing her in my teenage years i am now trying to pieace her life together with my daughter and as of yet not having much luck. I would say my mother was 4ft with brown hair.
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H Anderson . British Army H Anderson served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: Unfortunately The Wartime Memories Project has lost touch with Dan, his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Pte. Harold Spencer "Andy" Anderson . US Army from Massachusetts My Dad, Harold Anderson was captured in Italy in 1944 and was at Stalag 11B in Hammerstein until it's liberation in 1945. I never got to speak with him about it much as he and my Mom divorced when I was 7 years old and I didn't reconnect with him until a year before he died at age 83, although at that time he did tell me he met Gen.Eisenhower after the camp was liberated. My Mom told me a couple of stories about his experiences when I was young, most notably about him being told to weed a garden and pulling up all of the plants instead. I just want to commemorate his experiences in the war and remember him for his service.
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Flight Sergeant J Anderson 1550924. RAFVR 59 Squadron
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J Anderson . British Army Reconnaissance Corps J Anderson served with the Reconnaissance Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: Unfortunately The Wartime Memories Project has lost touch with Dan, his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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J Anderson . British Army Kings Own Scottish Borderers J Anderson served with the Kings Own Scottish Borderers British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: Unfortunately The Wartime Memories Project has lost touch with Dan, his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Seaman James Fraser Anderson . Royal Navy HMS Prunella (d.21st Jun 1940)
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Pte. James Anderson . British Army 1st Tyneside Scottish Battalion Black Watch from Hebburn James Anderson was my Grandad and was captured at st Valerie en Caux during the Dunkirk evacuation
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JMD Anderson . British Army JMD Anderson served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: Unfortunately The Wartime Memories Project has lost touch with Dan, his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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F/Sgt. John Albert Anderson . Royal Canadian Air Force 419 Sqd. from Canada. (d.4th Jul 1943)
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Pte. John Anderson MID.. British Army 2nd Btn. Cameron Highlanders from Liverpool I knew very little about what my father John Anderson did in the War. He died in 1993 and he would not talk about his experiences. All I have managed to find out is that he was Mentioned in Dispatches in October 1945. I know he was also a POW in Campo PG60 and Stalag IV-C. It was at some stage reported to his parents that he was missing in action. He was awarded the Africa Star and I believe he fought in Tobruk before being taken POW. He brought back a strange plate with his name and service number. This could never be explained as it was such a strange item to be given. However, Stalag IV-C was a former porcelain factory so does look like he could well have made this himself. I am sure you can see why he never took this up as a future career.
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F/Lt. John Alan Anderson . Royal Canadian Air Force 419 Squadron from Winnipeg
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Maj. John Thompson McKellar "Jock" Anderson VC. British Army 8th Btn. Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders from England (d.5 October 1943)
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Rfmn. John William Anderson . British Army 2nd Btn Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) from Gateshead (d.10th-31st May 1940) John Anderson was my Grandfather, my Mother's father, who died between the 10th and 31st of May 1940, the month before my Mother was born. He served with the Scottish Rifles 2nd Battalion in WW2.
We understand he was almost kicked out of the Army for enlisting under the name Foster. His correct surname was Anderson but he was raised by his Gran who was a Foster.
He is buried in Oosttaverne Wood Cemetery in Belgium, along with three other Cameronians.
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Tel. John Thomson Anderson . Royal Navy HMS Cyclops from Glasgow John Anderson served as a Telegraphist on HMS Cyclops during June, July, September and November 1943.
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Joseph Anderson . Merchant Navy S.S Reedpool from 50 Hope Street, Jarrow (d.20th Sep 1942) Joseph Anderson died at the age of 23 whilst serving as an Assistant Donkeyman in the Merchant Navy. Born in South Shields in 1918 he was the son of George and Bridget Anderson (nee Lenehan) of Primrose, Jarrow.
Joseph is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial. His name was missing off the old plaque in the Town Hall, Jarrow.
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L/Cpl. Joseph Glover Anderson . British Army Loyal Regiment Still researching.
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AM. Lawrence Hogg Anderson . Fleet Air Arm HMS Nuthatch from Melrose, Scotland I'm sorry the only things I know is my father, Lawrence Anderson, passed 40 years ago and I have just found these documents its a certificate of service in the Royal Navy the writing is hard to read so the names of the ships may not be right. If anyone remembers him from photos or stories he would be about 97 years old now.
- Gosling, Air Mechanic 2, 5 Oct 1943 - 17 Dec 1943
- Unknown, 18 Dec 43- 15 Jan 44
- Vulture, 16 Jan 44 - 21 Sept 44
- Daedalus, 22 Sept 44 - 10 Oct 44
- Kestach, (?) 2 Oct 44 - 14 Oct 44
- Daedalus, 15 Oct 44 - 4 Nov 44
- Nuthatch 26 Sept 45 - 7 Mar 46
- Nuthatch 8 Mar 46 - 2 Oct 46
He was released after the 2nd Oct 1946. My dad was Scottish and was an apprentice air mechanic when he joined the Navy. He lived in Roslea, Newstead, Melrose prior to enlisting. Wish I knew more
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2nd Lt. Nigel James Moffatt Anderson MC. British Army 4th Btn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers
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Sgt R Anderson . RAF 12Sqd.
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Sgt. Robert Allan Anderson . Royal Canadian Air Force 420 Squadron from Brandon, Manitoba I have prepared the following brief summary of my Dad's World War II experiences based primarily on materials in my possession, including his Identity Card, Flying Log and Wartime Log:
In October, 1943, my Dad, Robert Allan Anderson, qualified as an Air Gunner after completing training at #3 Bomb and Gunnery School at Macdonald, Manitoba under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
In January, 1944, he was posted to the 420 (Snowy Owl) Squadron, based in Tholthorpe, England, as a tail gunner in a Halifax bomber.
My Dad was just 3 days shy of his 20th birthday on April 20, 1944, when 154 Halifax bombers took off to attack the rail facilities at Lens, France, Dad's Halifax, LW692, was shot down and crashed into the Scie River at Pourville, near Dieppe. It was the only aircraft that failed to return that night and my Dad and Paul Bourcier, the mid-upper gunner, were the only survivors.
According to a researcher, Dad described the event as follows: "We flew down to south England and over the Channel. Reached enemy coast 10 minutes early and off track, we passed over very near Dieppe. They threw up a lot of flak and we got 3 hits, the plane shuddered, slowed down and lost height fast. Port engines went on fire, spread to whole wing, engineer admitted it was hopeless, skipper said bale out. I got to escape hatch after mid upper gunner and jumped after him, plane was diving very fast and had trouble to get out of slipstream. Saw the plane spiral down on fire and crash. I landed in the mouth of a small river near Dieppe, had to use my Mae West, not a scratch."
The same researcher described Paul Bourcier's account as follows: After taking off and setting course for Southern England and then the Channel we got off course and reached the enemy coast ten minutes before time over Dieppe, which was about 20 miles off course, as Le Havre was the crossing point. We were picked up by radar and we were hit 3 times by flak, causing trouble to port engines, the necessary measures were taken, but fire started, and spreading rapidly on the port wing, I was then given order to bale out, which I did and by doing so landed safely. Out of front hatch."
After capture, the researcher presented a quick timeline of events: lane goes down, Anderson and Bourcier are picked up. From there they take a train ride to the Dulag Luft, the Luftwaffe Interrogation Centre at Albereusel, north of Frankfurt. Most fliers spent between 2-3 weeks there. Treatment ranged from pretty decent, to threats to a strange scenario where the Luftwaffe stripped you of all your clothes and locked you in a room with the heat turned up high. They had an interrogator there from Kitchener, Ontario who spoke better English than some of the Canadians there. When the Fatherland called he had returned to Germany."
Both Dad and Paul were then sent to Stalag Luft III, arriving just days after the 50 airmen were recaptured and murdered by the SS under the direct order of Adolph Hitler for their part in The Great Escape.
As the Russians advance towards Germany in 1945, Hitler gave the order to evacuate POW camps and move POW's closer to Berlin. On Saturday, January 27, 1945, Dad and thousands of other POW's were told to gather their meager belongings and a forced exodus began. A day-by-day account was recorded in Dad's Wartime Log. After an eleven day trek, Dad ended up in Stalag IIIA in Luckenwalde. Eventually liberated by the Russians, his ordeal was still not as yet over. A notation in his Log states: May 6, 1945 Russians refuse to let Americans evacuate us, some trucks have gone back empty. Russians have posted guards who have shot at some of the fellows. On May 7, 1945, he nevertheless managed to escape his new captors by making his way to the American lines at Magdeburg. On May 10, 1945, he then caught a USAAF DC3 (Dakota) to Rheims, France, and the next day, a Lancaster to Tangmere, England.
Today, there are memorials to Peter Warren the Navigator, Patrick Gough the Flight Engineer, and Raymond Leonard, the Pilot, in Runnymede Cemetery, Surrey, England. Clifford Wheelhouse, the Wireless Air Gunner, and Clark Wilson, the Bomb Aimer, were originally buried in a cemetery in St Riquier-es-Plains, and later in Grandcourt War Cemetery, France.
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Sgt. Robert Gordon "Andy" Anderson . Royal Air Force 101 Sqd. My late father was Sergeant (later Warrant Officer) Robert G Anderson, RAF 646029> who was the Flight Engineer on DV265 SR-F & was on his 10th operational sortie with 101 Squadron. Flight Sergeant Anthony Henry EVANS: AGE 20 was fatally wounded during the attack on the a/c & my father took control of the a/c & tried to return it to base. Subsequent attacks rendered this impossible & the surviving crew bailed out of the stricken a/c. You may not have connected with the fact that similar events took place that night over Berlin (I am unsure if Berlin or Dusseldorf was the diversionary raid), where Bill Reid succeeded in returning his damaged Lancaster to base & was awarded the Victoria Cross. All that my Father received was burns to his left arm before/during bail-out. (In November 1945 he was finally awarded his Caterpillar Club membership & pin badge). His lost crew mates were:-
- Sergeant George Edwin BOUCHER: AGE 23
- Sergeant Arthur FOGG: AGE 23
- Sergeant Favel TOMACHEPOLSKY: AGE UNKNOWN
- Sergeant Cyril Terence WHELDON: AGE UNKNOWN.
From my late Mother's recollections, Arthur Fogg's widow later married Arthur's Brother.
Favel's Father was a Jeweller in Hatton Garden.
I was named in honour of my father's pilot.
My father spent some time at Stalag Luft III, where he got to know some of the 50. He rarely spoke of those days. He later was moved to Offlag IVB, from where he was repatriated after the Russians liberated the camp. I can confirm his P.O.W. number (261411) as I still have his last camp Dogtags which he had with him when he returned. Interestingly these are stamped Stalag IVB.
The lost crew of LM365 SR-H were:-
- Sergeant Stanley BEEDLE: AGE 23
- Flight Sergeant James Maurice CUMMINGS: AGE 20
- Sergeant James Henry HARPER: AGE 21
- Flight Sergeant Geoffrey Frank Stuart MAUNDERS: AGE 27
- Sergeant Jack PARSONS: AGE 19
- Sergeant Christopher Joseph POULTON: AGE 35
- Sergeant Norman John SHAKESPEARE: AGE UNKNOWN
- Sergeant Eric George WALL: AGE 23
My parents are no longer able to honour the memory of my Father's lost comrades, but I do not forget.
101 Squadron mounted a maximum effort that night with 26 aircraft sent out. SR-Z aborted & returned to base at 0130 hours because the Gyro went U/S.
Tony Anderson
DV265 was one of 200 lancasters ordered from Metro-vick in 1941 and was transported to Woodford for final assembly and flight testing. DV265 was a Mk.111 and was delivered to No.101 Sqdn with her sister-ship DV266 on 2Oct43. DV265 also took part in the Key Operation against Hannover 18/19Oct43. When lost this aircraft was on its second operation and had a total of 38 hours. DV265 was one of two No.101 Sqdn Lancasters lost on this operation. (See also LM365) Airborne 1713 3Nov43 from Ludford Magna. Set on fire in the central fuselage area by cannon-fire from a night-fighter over the target. All intercom contact with the crew positions aft of the Nav. compartment was lost & Sgt Evans ordered his crew to bale out. Out of control, the Lancaster plunged, in flames into the NE suburbs of Dusseldorf, where those who were killed were buried in the Nordfriedhof. They have been subsequently re-interred in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.
- Sgt Tomachepolsky was flying as the ABC operator.
- Sgt A.H.Evans KIA
- Sgt R.Anderson PoW
- Sgt R.G.Phillips PoW
- Sgt A.Longstaff PoW
- Sgt A.Fogg KIA
- Sgt F.Tomachepolsky KIA
- Sgt C.T.Wheldon KIA
- Sgt G.E.Boucher KIA
- Sgt R.Anderson was interned in Camp 4B. PoW No.261411 with Sgt A.Longstaff, PoW No.261467.
- Sgt R.G.Phillips was held in the Dulag Luft Interrogation Centre. No PoW No. known
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Sgt. Robert Anderson . British Army No 3 Company Royal Corps of Signals from Cambuslang Duty sergeant Robert Anderson Royal Corp of Signals No 3 Company Anti- Aircraft Eaglesham House, May 10 1941.
“You have to bear in mind it was the early days of the war and we were anything but prepared. For instance there was a secret password that signaled the German invaders had arrived. It was ‘Cromwell’ and as I said a secret but everyone knew it! They knew it down in the village of Eaglesham and they knew it in the Eglinton arms pub there. It was all a big joke. So were we soldiers. I guess we were a bit like Fred Karno’s army, I suppose. We would go out for keep fit runs from our base then as soon as we got to Eaglesham we would nip into the Eglinton Arms for a refreshment and as for being defenders of the local community, Well if that word ‘Cromwell’ had been used in earnest there was little we could have done about it for we had only a few rifles between the entire company and what guns we did have had been taken from us. That was because when they had issued them a soldier had accidentally set one off nearly killing one of his colleagues so we were issued with pikes and clubs to defend the nation.
I was Duty sergeant that night Hess’s plane came over and remember seeing it so low overhead then the man dangling on the end of his parachute just up the road a little past Floor's farm. As I had to stay on duty in the camp I sent two of my men unarmed, of course, up the road to see what was happening. They were signalman Emyr Morriss and Danny McBride and they were the first two army personnel to meet the newly arrived pilot who said his name was Horn. And, together with the man from the farm who had first met Hess, they all ended up having a cosy chat with each other. Hess presenting Danny McBride with an inscribed cigarette case which he kept until senior officers heard about it when it was confiscated.
Anyway, while my two men were chatting away to Hess just up the road the panic had set in at the camp. One of the senior officers having seen the plane reckoned it had been a pathfinder flight for invasion force. There was shouting and confusion and the duty officer had guns issued to myself and signalman Sammy McLaughlin who was an ex-Cameronian and ordered us to climb to the top of a heap of telegraph poles which had been stored nearby from where he said we were to ‘await the enemy and hold off an attack’. Orders were issued with their pikes and sticks and ordered to be ready for the worst. I’m telling you when you look back on it all you wonder how on earth we survived and eventually won the war.
If it was Fred Karno’s army at the soldier base it was Dad's army at another point just along the road Eaglesham. There, having been alerted to the possibility of the crashed plane being German, a local detachment of the Home Guard had been mustered and began arriving by car. There Captain Mainwaring apparently had been enjoying his Saturday night in a traditional Scottish way, which would doubtless had him bemoaning the fact that the price of whiskey had just gone up to a record high, being 88p for a bottle or at the local Swan and Eglinton Arms bars it would now be 5 and a half pence for a half or 9p for what the locals called a loud yin.
Fortified by the whiskey and waving a large caliber First world War officer's pistol which was more Howitzer than side arm, he was to lead his squad of Home Guardsman, together with a couple of regular soldiers who had joined them as well as a reserve police constable, into action.
They had practiced converging manoeuvres before and knew exactly what to do when the captain in charge gave the order. After seeing the smouldering wreck of the Messerschmidt it’s big black German cross unmistakable identifying just whose plane it was, they were to converge on Floor's farm, the nearest building to where the parachutist had been seen to fall.
The ensuing scene is not difficult to imagine, the motley semi-military, semi-police, semi-trained and in at least on case semi-sober squad covering each other with a variety of weapons, the officer with his cannon of a revolver hunching forward to surround the farm buildings, then searching the byres and barns and meanwhile the Hauptmann from the heavens is serenely ensconced fifty or so yards away in the ploughman’s little cottage being offered kindness and tea and chatting away to his new found Scottish hosts."
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Pvt. Robert Lester Anderson . United States Army 112th Infantry Battalion from Cedar River, MI My uncle Bob was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and interred at Stalag 9B, Bad Orb, Hessen-Nassau, Prussia 50-09. He was reported as captured on 12/20/1944 and was liberated on 5/08/1945. He said starvation in the camp was their biggest problem. They lived on watered down potato soup. Occasionally he'd get assigned to work in the kitchen preparing meals for the German officers. They were actually officers from the old Austrian army and he thought they probably treated the prisoners better than German officers might have done.
Uncle Bob was Norwegian but had grown up with German neighbors in Cedar River, MI, located in the central Upper Peninsula of Michigan along the shore of Green Bay on Lake Michigan. He and his siblings learned to speak German in order to communicate with the neighbors. He often said his knowledge of German probably kept him alive in the camp.
One time he was working in the kitchen helping to prepare a fancy meal for some visiting German officers. One of the other prisoners stole a chicken from the array of food they were preparing. The guard noticed a chicken was missing and demanded that the thief step forward. No one moved. The guard lined them all up outside the building and threatened to shoot them all unless the thief stepped forward. Uncle Bob said he was sure he was going to die. Then, the thief slowly moved forward and confessed. He was shot and killed right there. The rest were ordered to their barracks. Already weak from hunger and having had to cook all that food while tasting none of it, he said he dragged himself back to the barracks hoping he didn't fall or stumble on the way and attract the attention of the already disgruntled guard.
When they were liberated, Uncle Bob said they were fed coffee and doughnuts by a Red Cross crew that had set up a tent outside the camp. They had not tasted anything so good since long before they'd been captured. Some of the men ate several doughnuts and a few later died because their stomachs could not hold that much food after so many months of barely eating. He would shake his head as he told this story... and say, "After surviving all that, they were killed by a careless act of kindness."
Uncle Bob had pneumonia when they were liberated. A few days later, one of his lungs collapsed. He recovered and lived a full life but always was somewhat limited in physical capacity because of only having one lung.
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