Looking for information on Charles Victor Bass DFC, Lancaster tail gunner in 195 squadron

Wills · Aircraftsman 1st Class

Looking for information on Charles Victor Bass DFC, Lancaster tail gunner in 195 squadron

AW · Air Commodore

Will,

As you will see in another post, by Sally, i have the 195sqdn Operations Record Book, and will be glad to help out. Also have 142 Book, but only up to March 1944. Do you have dates for time he was with each squadron

Alan.

-- Edited by AW on Sunday 10th of November 2013 07:04:54 AM

PeteT · Wing Commander

Sorry, but this is a bit of a stock answer, based on my experience.

The first thing you should do (if possible) is to obtain a copy of his service record which will provide you with information on his training and his postings. Details on how you do this, along with the rules and regulations, can be found at: www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records. You will have to pay to obtain the record and you should be aware that it is taking between 9 and 12 months for them to be sent out.

Once you have this record, you can establish where he was posted and obtain the Operational Record Books for the squadron(s) he was involved with from the National Archives.; this should provide details of his sorties and crew.

In the meantime if you can provide any dates, or additional snippets, it may help other forum members find information in their own archives.

I hope this is useful; good luck with your research.

Regards

Pete

Wills · Aircraftsman 1st Class

Hi Alan,

Thanks for taking time to look into this for me, it would be fascinating to take a look at the ops record books for 195 and 142 squadrons.

I'll speak to my Wife's Father about the dates he served in each and will let you know.

Would there be a soft/electronic copy of the books which you might be able to share with me?

Cheers,

Will

-- Edited by Wills on Sunday 10th of November 2013 02:03:34 PM

AW · Air Commodore

Will,

I have his crew, being posted in to 142, on 4th Dec 43, and between then and the end of March 44, they flew 13 ops. Pilot was an Aussie, by the name of R. Leftwich.

Wills · Aircraftsman 1st Class

Hi Pete,

Many thanks for the information, I'll visit the service records website you suggested.

Cheers,

Will

AW · Air Commodore

Will,

At this point, i can only find a few ops for him, whilst with 195sqdn. It looks very much like, he may have been a "gunnery leader', as he is not taking part in as many ops as others in the squadron. Between 29th Jan 45, and 21st March, he only flew 4 ops, one of which, was with the Scott crew, who were reportedly murdered by the Germans, after being shot down later. I will get what i have found, together, and send them on to you, within the next few days.

Alan.