225838 Thomas William Jordan Royal Air Force 61 Sqdn. My late father, TomJordan served as navigator on Lancasters in 61 Squadron during 1943 - 45 prior to being transferred to Burma where he served on Dakotas.
He was the only Englishman on an otherwise all Canadian crew and, while he didn't like to talk about his experiences, he did tell a tale of having to bail out upon return from a mission over Germany because his plane was too damaged to land. They had lost all ability to navigate other than eyesight and dead reckoning so when they were over UK mainland they pointed the plane out into the North Sea and bailed out. They landed and were arrested by the home guard in Filey, North Yorkshire and when the North Yorkshire police phoned RAF Conningsby the following morning to confirm their story the base commander's only question was "What the bloody hell are you doing in Yorkshire?"
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