The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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244616 Flt.Sgt. Clifford James Gascoyne Royal Air Force 70 Squadron from:Harold Wood, Essex (d.30th January 1943) Clifford Gascoyne was my my mother's sister's fiance. My first recollection of Cliff Gascoyne was that, at a very young age, my mother, Peggy Easter, made me aware of him. She told me that Cliff had been engaged to my mothers sister (my Auntie Vera - Vera Kathleen Walker) and had been killed during the 2nd World War. He had been one of the crew of 6 including the pilot Flt Lt B H McMichael in a Wellington bomber. The aircraft had taken off from Egypt on a mission to Catania in Italy Auntie Vera had kept in contact with Cliff's parents James and Dorothy after the war and I recall that every time we passed their property by car on the A127 borders of Harold Wood and Gidea Park Essex Mum would mention them. I decided to carry out some research into Cliff and his wartime record and the following information has come to light: It is alleged that the German Ace Fighter pilot, Hptm Horst Patuschka, was responsible for shooting the aircraft down. He died two months later in an aircraft crash in Tunis. Cliff was buried in a cemetery in El Alamein. I found a reference book with a mention of Cliff and the plane being shot down. The Wellingtons reference number was 1C DV484 Q according to "A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940-1945" by Christopher Shores, Giovanni Massimello. Add to this record.  Related Content: No. 70 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.