I am writing a history of the life of my wife's uncle, Alan Cook.
Alan trained as a pilot in Canada under the BCATS and arrived in the UK on 17 Juy 1941. He was posted to 23 OTU at Pershore and on 25 September 1941 was posted to 218 Squadron at RAF Marham.
On 16 November Alan and his crew did not return from a mission to bomb Kiel. They took off from Marham at 2243 on 15 November in Wellington R1135 and presumably crashed in the North Sea on their return journey. An SOS was received, but they were well out to sea, well beyond the range of rescue craft. The crew consisted of Sgt Alan Cook, RAAF, Pilot; Sgt Jack Drury. RAF, Observer; F/Sgt Robert Glenny, RAF, ?; Sgt Robert Hannam, RAF, ?; Sgt Fred Reeve, RAF, ?. Drury's body was recovered in Norway and he is buried in Trondheim. The bodies of the others were never recovered and they are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
I am hoping that someone may be able to help me with some further information, both general and more specific.
Unfortunately, Alan's family did not retain very many of his personal effects. For a number of personal reasons, they destroyed all his letters and all official correspondence as well as all photographs of Alan. Fortunately I have access to his Personnel File and his Casualty File that have been digitised by our very efficient National Archives. One notable item missing from those records is Alan's flying log book. Am I correct in assuming that these were kept by individual airmen and not elsewhere? In which case, if his family destroyed the log book, it is gone for good.
From the dates of Alan's posting to 218 and the date of his death, it seems certain that his final sortie was one of his very early ones, perhaps even his first or second. I believe that this information is available in Squadron records kept at Kew. Given the distance between Melbourne and Kew, a visit there in the near future is out of the question (but probably not in the somewhat longer term). My question is how hard would it be for someone to extract information from the Squadron records to answer questions like: How long had the crew been together? Did they form up as a crew at Pershore? How many sorties had they flown?
I would also like to glean some more information on the actual raid on the 15th. I believe that the weather was terrible, another Wellington from 218 having encountered "very severe weather conditions" and crashed near Richmond, Yorkshire.
If such information is fairly easy to extract, I would consider employing someone in the UK to pursue these questions for me. Are you aware of anybody that might be interested in undertaking such a search?
I seems such a pity that a young man of such promise as Alan had shown could spend nearly 12 months being trained as a pilot and be dead just three weeks after joining his first operational squadron. Sadly though, I am aware that his story is far from unique.
Here is some information I received from the RAF Air Historical Branch regarding the Log Books:
Prior to the Second World War flying log books of deceased officers and airmen were forwarded to next of kin when no longer required for official purposes. However, on the outbreak of war this practice was discontinued for the duration of hostilities. Log books of missing or deceased aircrew completed during this period were forwarded to the RAF Central Repository at Colnbrook Slough Bucks, where they were recorded and kept in safe custody. A similar practice was observed for the log books of personnel who were declared as prisoners of war.
In January 1946 authority was given by the Air Ministry for the release of the log books of members of RAF aircrew whose service ended in one of the following ways:
(i) By discharge or release from the service.
(ii) By Death.
(iii) Subject to approval by permanent withdrawal from air crew duties.
The decision was widely publicised both in newspapers and on the radio and the next of kin of deceased aircrew were encouraged to request the Flying Log Book of their late relative. Those Flying Log Books that still remained at the repository were retained after the war until 1960. At this point it was again widely advertised to the public that the Flying Log Books still held could be claimed by airmen or their next-of-kin. Of those left unclaimed a small number were preserved as examples, and these are now held at the National Archives in the Air 4 Series. The remainder were destroyed in late 1960.
RE: ORB'S
The Squadron Operations Record Books can be obtained online from the National Archives. You can either download a month's worth at a time (£3.36 each) or if you want more you can get a years worth on a CD for about £10.00. You will need to ensure that you get the monthly summary (Form 540) and the daily record (Form 541) for each month.
OTHER HELP AVAILABLE
I would also suggest that you contact Steve via his site at http://218squadron.wordpress.com/ as he will probably be able to provide you with more information and possibly copies of the relevant ORB's
I hope this is a useful start point for you
Regards
Pete
-- Edited by PeteT on Friday 6th of December 2013 06:24:51 AM
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Researching:
- CA Butler and the loss of Lancaster ME334
- Aircrew Training WWII (Basic / Trade / Operational)
- No. 35 Squadron [From Thetford to Scampton]
[Always looking for COPIES of original documents / photographs etc relating to these subjects]
I was vaguely aware of the process of dealing with RAF log books that you describe but did not have the detail. I am not at all sure however if the same process was followed for RAAF people attached to RAF Squadrons. I will ask our RAAF historians to see if they can help.
Thanks for the pointers on the ORBs. I will look into this approach. It would be good to have the file numbers though. The dates I am interested in are from 25 September to 16 November 1941.
I was going to edit the post to say I am not sure if the same process applied to commonwealth personnel, but you beat me too it.
I did update my post with some contact details for you, so I would suggest you contact Steve as I know he will be able to help you. However for completeness, the files you need are as follows:
