The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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248346 F/Lt. James H. Bennett DFC. Royal Air Force 627 Squadron from:Lincolnshire When I started work at a Customs & Excise office in Boston in 1980, my boss there was Jim Bennett. A tall old gent with a lovely warm, quiet personality. He retired just a year or so later but by then I had heard from him his wartime history as a RAF pilot (Flt Lt). He trained in Canada, then flew Hampdens at Coningsby (presumably with 109 Sqn). He later transferred to 627 Sqn at Woodhall Spa, piloting a Mosquito. I understand he gained his DFC during operations over the Low Countries. This is what he told me, but without detail. When the war ended, he was training up for Tiger Force, which would have entailed shipping out to the Far East to take the war to the Japanese. He was a Lincolnshire lad, flying his War from his home county. I believe he grew up in Market Rasen. He gave me an Air Navigation book which I still treasure. It carries his signature. I first lived in Mareham-le-Fen, just 3 miles from Coningsby. I regularly walked my dog in Woodhall Woods, which contains the remains of the RAF bomb depot adjacent to what's left of the airfield. Both my daughters were born into the Mareham home I then occupied, and strangely one of them is now an RAF pilot. My father served in RAF 1940 to 1945, but not as aircrew. Andy Add to this record.  Related Content: No. 627 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.