The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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500589 Sgt Laurie Clark Royal Air Force 138 Sqd. My father died in 1960, 3 weeks after my birth and would never talk about his wartime experiences to my mother. However, this is what I have gleaned over the years: Towards the end of the war his Stirling was shot down over the Danish coast. There was an emergency landing and repairs were made but while they were taking off, and 50ft in the air, a bomb on the aircraft went off. A saboteur has planted it while the repairs were being done. My father was hurled through the perspex nose but landed in a mixture of sea and marsh, went through minefields, but survived. (At this time he may have been helping an injured American airforce person, perhaps of African descent. He may have killed an enemy soldier at this time, too, as my Mum said he had nightmares about this) Through friendly contacts he made it to Copenhagen and was in sight of Sweden when he fell into the hands of the Gestapo. He received the "full treatment" and was sent to Stalag 7a at Moonsburg. My mum would say that towards the end of the war he was part of a crew whose mission was to drop spies behind enemy lines and he talked about the Caterpillar Club. My mother died 12 years ago and I now have children of my own and I am aware that there is so much about my father that I do not know. Update: The Stirling was LJ999, NF-Q they took of at 23:48 on the 4th of March 1945 from Tempsford on Operation TABLEJAM 241 and headed for Denmark. On the return journey at 150 feet, over Ringkobing Fjord an explosion sent the aircraft out of control to crash in shallow water. The crew were: F/O L.G.Steven Sgt J.T.Breeze F/O N.E.Tilly F/S J.F.Kyle F/S G.M.Maude RAAF Sgt W.L.Clark Sgt J.H.Bloomer The crew all survived and were taken POW, 5 of then were confined in Hospital due injuries until the Liberation. Laurel Clark Add to this record.  Related Content: Stalag 7A Prisoner of War Camp No. 138 Squadron Royal Air Force RAF Tempsford 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.