I am researching my late father-in-law Bill currie (1119192), top row 2nd on the left, who served with 619 Squadron as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner. Fortunately I recently discovered his log books and have also obtained Operational Records from National Archives which provide details of crew members and also brief descriptions of individual operations.
Bill flew a total of 28 Ops. between 22/11/43 (Berlin) and his final Op. on 3/5/44 (Maily-Le-Camp) and I was surprised to learn that the original crew of 7 shared the first 18 Ops., with 6 of them continuing together for the remaining 10 Ops.
Bill unfortunately died in 1972 and very little is therefore known of his experiences during this difficult period and I would be happy to hear from relatives or survivors to share information.
The original crew members were as follows:
P/O Secker F G (DFC)
Sgt. Gillespie J W
Sgt. Cave W J C
Sgt. Currie W H
Sgt. Short D
Sgt. Hole D E
Sgt. South J H - No information known after Op. 18 and I would be interested to learn the reason for his departure.
I am aware that Bill was Mentioned In Despatches and P/O Secker was awarded the DFC but do not know any details of events resulting in these awards and I am keen to find out more if possible.
If you can help or wish to share information please let me know.
Thanks
Stuart Hodgson
-- Edited by Stuart Hodgson on Friday 5th of April 2013 04:05:25 AM
I would think that the pilot got an end of tour DFC which was common place, you could check the London Gassett which will show when he got his DFC. You can request your father-in-law's service file I believe they are £30 but get your wife to request, that may have details on his MID.
Replace the "AT" in Alain's email with the proper "@". We use the AT to put a dent in the spam bots which crawl these forums harvesting email addresses.
I can confirm Alain's email address is correct as he posted it, pnce the substitution is made.
My farther was JH South (John Hugh) better know as "Sam". He passed away around four years ago. My dad kept in touch with Freddie Secker over the years.
They did like a few drinks whilst the recapped on stories. If my memory serve me Freddie has also passed away.
I'm not sure the answer to your question but I have my dads flight log books etc. I have just started to do some research regards the missions he flew during the war.
I have a few photo that I may post. I have a small piece of wreckage of the Lanc. that he flew in.