In my father's and his navigator's log book, on June 6/44 D-Day, the entry reads 2nd Front. There targets were in France. Would anyone have an idea of what 2nd Front refers to. Dad say's he can't really remember.
Hi Leslie The term 2nd Front became popular in about 1943 after the conferences that took place between Britain, Russia and USA. The Russians were taking the brunt of the battle against Germany and ,not surprisingly, looked to the West for more help. They were urging an Invasion of mainland Europe from 1943 to take off the pressure from their own hard pressed Armies. Remember they were besieged at Leningrad and clinging on to Stalingrad. The invasions of Sicily and Italy were not seen by them as enough.The origin of the phrase 2nd Front is difficult to pin down but it took root in the public imagination and there were demonstrations(often Communist inspired) for it to happen . The western Allies wisely waited until they were ready, which came in 1944. The references you have to it were connected to operations in support of the Invasion of N France possibly before ,during and after the Landings. I don't believe it ever had any Official status but became very widely used Regards Dick
Thanks Dick. The other thing that was curious was the log book on that date also records under duty
"Opened Landings and Bombing from Cherbourg to Le Havre" In the Navigator's log book it records started at 0600 hours. When I reviewed the Squadron Operational Record Books, I could find no record of my Dad's crew on any operations for June5/6/7 yet Dad says they were flying on D-Day.
Hi Leslie The targets that 582 were assigned to on June 5/6 were Longues and Mont Fleury so a logbook entry should have one or the other mentioned. The logs should also have take off times and identilfy the aircraft used, either by serial number or letter. I had a look through the ORB as well and your father's crew did an op to Rennes on May 27/28 and then do not reappear until June 14/15 when they went to Douai. That sort of time break would usually suggest they were on leave, particularily around the invasion when I believe there was more demand on aircrews. If you have your father's service record it should show when he had leaves, although your father's record is probably very large, given how long he was in the service. If you don't have his service record you may want to have him request a copy which they will give him at no cost. In my case I have to wait another 17 years to have access to my father's full file since he is deceased and there is a 25 year waiting period, although I did get a few pages of basic information. The other method of figuring out leave is to look for gaps in his logbook which is fairly reliable. They got 6 days every 6 weeks plus an annual leave of 14 days I believe and although the timing wasn't cast in stone it was usually not too far off that. Even if they were not flying on ops they were usually doing some air exersizes in the air that show up in the logbook. When there is no flying at all recorded for a week it usually meant they were on a course somewhere or on leave. Regards Dave
hi Dave Thanks for that. I don't know if you read my last post or not but as I stated there is a log book entry in both Dad's and Bart's log book for June 6. I do have all Dad's service records and I will take a look to see if his leaves coincide with that date but he is pretty adamant they flew on D-Day. As an aside, I ordered and received Sean Feast's Master Bombers. Interestingly there is a reference to Bart's (S/L Mathers) escape from Stalag Luft III. The exciting thing for me is I have been communicating with Sean and he has agreed to do what he can to help me get the book published.
Hi Leslie - I was adding a bit to my post when you responded. I am enjoying Master Bombers but haven't come to that part yet. So far I think it is a great book and I think you and your Dad will like it. Sean Feast's other book, Heroic Endeavour is also very good and he has done an excellent job on both books. I hope he can help out on your project as well. Dave
I also have Heroic Endeavours. Feast also wrote his first book on 101 Sqdn. called Carried on the Wind and he thinks he also mentioned him in that book as well. I'll have to order it. Did you give any further thought to my last post regarding the log book entries? I am still looking for the service record to check the leaves.
Hi Leslie ORBs are not infallible and there were plenty of mistakes in them. I would say that if the entries in both the logbooks look like all the other entries, listing an aircraft, time up and a duty then the ORB could have missed listing them. I also looked at the Little Staughton ORB (thinking that maybe a page was missing for the 582 ORB) which says that that 582 Squadron sent 16 aircraft out on June 5/6 which matches the count in the 582 ORB. From what I know there was some required information to be recorded in the logbook such as aircraft, time and Pilot (in a navigator's logbook). they could also write in anything else they thought was relevant so every logbook is different in content. Do you have a scan of the page that can be emailed? Dave
