The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War



This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.


If you enjoy this site

please consider making a donation.




    Site Home

    WW2 Home

    Add Stories

    WW2 Search

    Library

    Help & FAQs


 WW2 Features

    Airfields

    Allied Army

    Allied Air Forces

    Allied Navy

    Axis Forces

    Home Front

    Battles

    Prisoners of War

    Allied Ships

    Women at War

    Those Who Served

    Day-by-Day

    Library

    The Great War

 Submissions

    Add Stories

    Time Capsule

    TWMP on Facebook



    Childrens Bookshop

 FAQ's

    Help & FAQs

    Glossary

    Volunteering

    Contact us

    News

    Bookshop

    About


Advertisements











World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

217554

WO. Jim "Shagger" Shaw

Royal Air Force 40 Squadron

from:Sheffield

My uncle Flt.Sgt. Jim Shaw WOP/AG of 40 Squadron was a member of the crew of 39923 Roderick W.Finlayson RNZAF the other members were Murray, Fletcher, Tuckwell, Beckett and Cawthraw. On the night of 11th May 1941 at 22.25hrs they took off to bomb the U Boat Yards in Hamburg flying in H for Harry.They were subsequently shot down about 01.00hrs on the 12th by Lieutnant Helmut Lent, later to become the Luftwaffe;s 2nd top night fighter Ace. That morning Lent also shot down another 40 Sqdn aircraft piloted by Freddie Luscombe and his crew who were Chappell, Mulligan, Harris, Hodges,and Long RNZAF.

F/Sgt Shaw was the W/Op that night, having swapped from rear Gunner with his friend, to keep his hand in on wireless duties. It would appear the aircraft blew up, my uncle stated he doesn't remember anything except falling through the sky and having a bright glow above him then passing out. He came to in a field with his feet in a stream and his chute around him.

He was subsequently found by farmers who put a rope around his neck and dragged him across fields to the village, stabbing at him with hay forks and kicking him continually, he was taken to a barn where the rope was placed over a beam. At that point a very large German kept kicking him; my uncle said he assumed he was going to be hanged so he spat at him whereupon he received another kicking. He said he had completely lost interest and felt so ill he just wanted them to get on with it.

Things subsequently quietened down and he was later rescued by German Forces. Upon his rescue a German Officer drew his pistol and pointed it at the villagers and began shouting and screaming at them. My uncle was then placed in a truck and taken to a hospital. He said from being taken prisoner by German Forces he was extremely well treated by them and the hospital staff and had excellent hospital treatment, being operated on for head injuries and a broken ankle.

After hospitalization he was taken to Stalag Luft 1 Barth Vogelsang; he was POW number either 9 or 10, he remained a POW until the war ended. All his crew are interred in the RAF Cemetery Nordfriedhof Kiel Row 4 C. He was the sole survivor of four aircraft shot down that night

He was promoted to Warrant Officer on his return to England.






Related Content:








Can you help us to add to our records?

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.




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.