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

224083 F/Lt. John "Jo" Ward Royal New Zealand Airforce 90 Sqd. from:Heriot, West Otago, New Zealand (d.30th Nov 1944) Jo Ward had amassed 42 operations as the pilot of Lancaster PD 269. He was then given a desk job. The first night PD 269 was going out without him he wondered who was taking his place. When he found out who it was he changed the crew and put himself back in. The reason being he knew his replacement, and also knew he was married with a number of children. They took off on operation Bottrop. A following aircraft saw PD 269 hit by anti air craft fire directly in the bomb bay with a full load of bombs still on board. The crew on the following Lancaster said PD 269 simply disappeared in a ball of flame. Nothing left. The pilot Jo replaced wrote to Jo's mother at Christmas every year until 1963, when she died. They always thanked her for her son and his sacrifice for them. Jo was 23 when he died. Jo's parents, and brothers and sister never knew if there was anything found of Jo. All have now passed away. In the last two years two NZ university students who spent two years in Europe identifying, cleaning, and photographing each of NZ's war dead from WW1 and WW2. About 18 months ago I put Jo's ID into the internet and out it popped. Now I know in a small German Forest lays Jo. I still have my Father's ashes and hopefully one day I can put them together so they both won't be alone again. Frank Ward Add to this record.  Related Content: Royal New Zealand Air Force RAF Tuddenham No. 90 Squadron Royal Air Force 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.