The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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207455 Sgt. Claud Hamilton Royal Air Force 82 Squadron from:Bricket Wood, Garston, Herts (d.10th Aug 1940) Having recovered the only known photograph of my uncle Claud Hamilton on my 71st birthday, I thought it relevant to make an entry of his active service as an air observer with 82 Squadron, at Watton, Norfolk. Claud was killed in action on Sat. 10th August 1940 along with his fellow crew members, Sgt N.H. Smith and J.K. Blazier They were shot down over Cherbourg by Luftwaffe air ace Karl-Heinz Metz, of J2/8, Le Havre, Mess. B109e. His 8th kill. The others were in the Spanish Civil War flying with the Condor Legion. Claud was a/o in a Blenheim Mark iv. His family for whatever reasons chose not to recover his war medals. I retrieved them, along with those of my father Robert \'Pidge\' Hamilton, Claud\'s older brother.\r\n I can trace no ORB for 82 Squadron and only two photographs of the airfield which I visited on 28th of April 2011. Claud\'s medals were placed on the old runway and photographed for closure. Claud was only 22 and died in a bomber which I consider was not fit for purpose at the time, as it could not match Luftwaffe\'s fighter credentials, as the bomber was not fully protected or carrying proper machine guns for the purpose of combat. It was a mere token. I have read the bomber\'s technical specifications during extensive research I conducted for one year in the Imperial War Museum, 2010. With Claud\'s medals, his service record, and now his photograph I have brought closure to this brave young man\'s career, but his memory will go on within our family, and on this web site. Geoffrey E. Hamilton Add to this record.  Related Content: Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.