So what did you do in the war Grandad?

[sofa----king]

Got any photos Sofa, I'd love to see them.

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This is the earliest photo I've got of him in uniform I think, no date on the back though but his face looks freshest in this one.

                         

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These are written in the back of his paybook, there are no records from Babbacombe to AirCrew Receiving Centre London.

Next stop Dumfries for Observer Training so he must have changed his mind about being a wireless operator/gunner and decided to try for the navigators role.

wow im hooked,,sorry photos are back in my parents atic and we are all in cyprus.....

im trying my hardest to find out more about old  mr albert edgar fisher "the lunatic" my grampy
im fifnding it hard to find his service records online all my dad remembers withought looking at the paperwork home is that he lied about his age when going into the army he said he was born in 1898 the war started in 1914 and he was in,,,,,a welsh regiment my dad thinks,he had a few medals but the only 2 my dad can remember was the mons star and the little blue and gold lapel badge?
if anyone got any ideas it would be most appreciated,thye wrote a full page on him in the south wales echo around the 1996-7 timeabout being the youngest who fought in the great war that was still alive(see earlier post)

just read this about the old contemptables

"Do you remember when you were tired, hungry and wet through?" he asked. "You looked through your pockets and found that you'd got one fag left. But did you smoke it? Did you hell!
You broke it in two and gave half to the man next to you."

true real men

[wader leg]

Try looking on here Sofa  http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/medals.asp  you can trace medals from ww1 and other stuff.



A mine laying flight of my Grandads

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I'm assuming "gardening" means mine laying, 2 X mk iv 1500lb to be dropped at position 5342N 0509E



 

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 shiver is some form of radar jamming equipment, and "M" could be Mandrell another form of electronic counter measures that was being tested

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in cloud at 500ft, dropped to 300ft before climbing to 700ft, in the dark at 176mph!!

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Landed safe and sound

[sofa----king]

thnx mate i been looking there for the last few days lol,,,
ive found out quite a bit from the medal roll of honours list

my grampy was we think born in 1897 but told the army he was born in 1896 to get in the army.
ive found his date he was entered 27/12/1914 (2 days after xmas) he left on the 12/9/1919
also he won the victory cross,the british medal,and the star,the star im sure is the somme star
he was in the royal wesh fussiliers his number was 11433 private fisher.....

after checking with my dad
my grampy died in 1985 this would have made him 111/112 if he was still alive.
and in 1985 this we think after the south wales echo did some research around that time made him the youngest to fight that was still alive in 1985 he was we think 88/89...
im just emeiling the south wales echo to see if i can get the story....

thanks wadder for getting me started,
oh, one thing my dad allways re-membered about my gramps is that he didnt talk a lot about the great war,but the one thing that stuck in my dads mind is that my grampy told him on numerous occassions of how he was behind enemy lines and he was creeping about and he saw a german having a shit,and my grampy shot him,
this made me giggle and then i thought about what the germans familly would have felt to get that letter that thier son/brother/father had been killed


just off to email the echo and see if i can get some pics.....

[Jon MW]

... http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline  ...

...

This is a truly awesome site to find stuff on 

[wader leg]

The crew were nearly the same for every flight :-Captain Sgt Berry, Navigator P/O Hargreaves, 2nd Pilot/Bomb Aimer Sgt Wood, Eng. Sgt Pattison, Wireless Operator Sgt Hubbard.  Gunners  Sgts:- Grimes, Forman, Newbold, Ray, Crouch, Stainton, Sherrard-Smith and Newton.

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There were two or three Gunners to a plane and they often changed, the Wireless Operator sometimes acted as mid gunner.The rear gunners had the worst of it and had the highest death rates. As I have been looking on websites concerning the RAF I found a story of a squadron finding that some of their rear gunners were taking flashlights with them to lure in enemy nightfighters so that they could have a pop at them !

I don't know if any of my Grandads crew are in this photo.

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But the bloke  at the front was shot down over France and spent the rest of the war hidden in a cafe owned by a Frenchman called Rene. (probably)

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Oh dear

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At some point he must have become an instructor, the back of this photo says "Con Flight Instructors Pocklington '42-'43" thanks to google I've found out that "Con" or conversion flights were for training crews of medium bombers to Fly the Halifax.
He's back row far left..

[dik9]

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But the bloke  at the front was shot down over France and spent the rest of the war hidden in a cafe owned by a Frenchman called Rene. (probably)

Still PMSL here, fantastic find wader!

[wader leg]

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Front row 2nd from right, he's got a peaked cap now.

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There's a few knuckleheads in this one, see the two Padres in the centre of the back row, that's where the term sky-pilot comes from.

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I thought "Nickels" were some sort of incendiary or flare but it's the nickname for the propaganda leaflets they used to drop.

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Using Pollux and Polaris to find his bearings.

[Acidmouse]

Just spent my dinner hour looking through some of the special collections at Leeds Uni, the amount of personal war letters, books, medals, accounts of the various wars is stunning.

A family donated Mr Ellis's collection to the University he was part of the support unit that looked after soliders when they got injured, funnily enough he was based on a train that was kitted out to look after them, the pics are interesting of him and inside the train, along with menus for the injured soliders and lots of letters fun fun

[wader leg]

He left Pocklington in March 43 and moved to Rufforth, not got much from when he was stationed there.

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Seems to be differing views on when he was promoted.

This from Bomber Command website.

No. 1663 Heavy Conversion Unit was formed at Rufforth in March 1943 and tutored Halifax crews until disbanded in late May 1945. However, on November 1, 1944, most Bomber Command OTU's were transferred to No. 7 Group, Training Command, although the stations and functions continued much as before. Eighteen Halifaxes were lost flying operations from Rufforth, one being from No. 1663 Heavy Conversion Unit.


 

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He kept up with the sporting theme although he seems to have kept his uniform on. He's middle row 2nd from left.

[wader leg]

Like a lot of servicemen in the war he never spoke of his experiences to his family so I don't know what he did next as his paybook says his last base was Rufforth but he must have gone somewhere else as he didn't leave until '46.
I found a scrap of paper with Chakulia written on it.Chakulia is a town in India which has an airfield and was used in WW2 so it may tie in with this inoculation card and berthing card for a ship but other than that I've not got much to go on.

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This photo could be in India , it looks hot enough and there are Indian men there although my Grandad isn't on it there must be some reason he kept it,
 

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this one also looks like it could be in hotter climes.

[wader leg]

At the end of the war he went back to work for the Post Office.

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His release book and instructions on remobilisation if it kicked off again.

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There is a list of the medals he was awarded:- Italy Star, Aircrew Europe Medal, the 39-45 star and the Defence Medal. No-one in the family has ever seen them or heard any mention of them and they weren't in his house when he died which is a bit baffling.

[wader leg]

My three favourite finds,

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I've been having a bit of trouble finding out what he got mentioned in despatches for, mainly due to the fact that the London Gazette didn't publish a paper on January 1st 1945 and I can't see his name mentioned when I search the Gazette website.

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I can't believe it still works!



 
Finally my favourite photo of him, a bit dog eared but it adds character I think.



Thanks for reading.

[dik9]

Fantastic, thx for posting, great find!!!

[Colchester Kev]

awesome awesome awesome .... you must be very very proud, and rightly so.

[Geo the Sarge]

awesome awesome awesome .... you must be very very proud, and rightly so.

+1

And thanks for sharing

Geo