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Sgt. Richard Frederick Marshall-Hardy
Royal Air Force 202 Sqdn.
from:Bradford, Yorkshire
My father, Richard Marshall-Hardy was born 1919 in Bradford, Yorkshire. He lived with his parents in London. He joined up in 1939 as wireless operator/aircrew, rank LAC, flying London II flying boats on anti-submarine patrol based between Gibraltar and Malta.
He was shot down by two Vichy French Curtiss fighters 40 miles off Casablanca in the Atlantic. Both Canadian pilots were killed, but my Dad and one crew member survived for five hours before being picked up by a Vichy French submarine. He was taken to Casablanca. Then, over several weeks, he was transferred over the High Atlas mountains to a disused Legionnaire Fort near Zagora in the Draa valley. Dad was there for six months before being transferred to Laghouat POW camp in Algeria. He was a POW from September 1940 to November 1942. After liberation of North Africa and repatriation home, dad spent three months in Morecambe hospital and was briefly in the UK (when I was conceived!).
Then in January 1944 he was convoyed across the Atlantic to Canada where he learnt to fly, based in Moncton, Bowden, Medicine Hat, Gimli. He remained as an instuctor and returned to UK (Kidlington) in May 1945, with Bomber Command. He flew on the Berlin airlift and continued in the RAF till 1962, reaching the rank of Squadron Leader. I'm very proud of him!
