Missing

These are my Dad's; his Navigator's brevet, his RAF pin and his flying log book.

 

You can probably just make out the word "missing" which has been scratched out at the bottom of the page. My dad was a lucky one. On the night of this raid which resulted in the loss of all crew aboard his Halifax bomber, he had been taken into hospital with pneumonia. A replacement navigator perished in his place.

 

Before every raid my dad would be violently sick - yet like so many others he kept going behind enemy lines, night after night, knowing that he only had a 30% chance of returning. Such were the pressures that, during a briefing, if it was announced that the slower Wellington bombers would be part of the raid, a cheer would go round the squadron briefing room.

 

For my German friends, this was a war against an ideology, not necessarily a people. My dad enjoyed his post-war visits to Germany when I lived there, and was made most welcome by our German friends, despite their knowing what his wartime role had been.

 

I only know the details of the pilot who perished that night. They are below.

 

Thomas Edward Frederick Sims

Rank:Flight Sergeant

Trade:Pilot

Service No:1320290

Date of Death:11/04/1944

Age:21

Regiment/Service:Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 158 Sqdn.

Grave Reference: Brit. Plot. Grave 17.

Cemetery:MEHARICOURT COMMUNAL CEMETERY

Additional Information:Son of Thomas Frederick and Amy Alice Sims, of East Ham, Essex

Done