256308 Flt.Sgt. John Charles Goodson DFM.Royal Air Force B Flt. 35 Squadron from:Dover, Kent Flight Sergeant John Goodson joined 78 Squadron on the 1st of April 1942, transferring to 35 Squadron, Path Finder Force, at RAF Graveley on 1st of September 1942, aged 22. He was a Flight Engineer on Handley Page Halifaxes. He was commissioned on 4th of April 1943. His aircraft was shot down on his 43rd operation over Belgium on route to Wuppertal on the night of 29th of May 1943, only two survived, Pilot Officer Goodson and Sergeant Jones, navigator. After a spell in hospital he was transferred to Stalag Luft III and he spent most of the rest of the War there in North Compound. He was in the camp when the Great Escape took place.
On 27th of January 1945, ahead of the Soviet advance, he was one of 11,000 POWs marched to Spremberg. On 2nd of February he was sent to Stalag XIII-D at Nurnberg and possibly marched to Stalag VII-A at Moosberg as he was repatriated from Munich. He continued flying in 1949 and became an air traffic controller before retiring in April 1975.
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