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| RAF Feltwell - Personnel - memorial pages. |
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| Recollections | RAF Feltwell History | RAF Feltwell Planes & Buildings | 75 NZ Squadron |
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My late father WO Ron Vine RAAF was a Wireless Op/Air Gunner on 487 Squadron between early December 1942 and late September 1943. Dad's crew was fortunate not to fly on the disastrous raid in May 1943 when the squadron was all but wiped out. When 487 re-equipped with Mosquitoes Dad returned to an OTU and completed a full tour with 355 RAF (Liberators) in India. With 487 dad flew in a crew where the pilot was RNZAF (Bob Fowler), the Navigator RCAF (Frank Wilkins), and the two WO/AGs were Ron Vine RAAF and Art Kempton, an American serving in the RAF - they called themselves "The International crew".
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Bob
Fowler was Dad's Kiwi pilot and Ron Beazer was a Kiwi pilot who
had joined and trained with Bob. Both flew with 487 and both went
onto to fly Mosquitos. Bob Fowler took part in Operation Jericho -
the bombing of the Amiens prison. I visited Bob in 2001 in Christchurch
but I believe he has now passed away.
Ron Beazer was killed in action 5 July 1944 in France. Dad's crew were on the second course to undertake Operational Training at Pennfield Ridge in New Brunswick. They crewed up there and the training involved the famous Bay of Fundy representing the English Channel. When they arrived at the squadron in December 1942 they found that despite having completed the OTU Course they would have to undertake a further period of training. |
O'Donnell's crew were on Dad's course in Canada and at the time of their deaths they were posted to Z Flight doing extra training. Z Flight was set up to train crews for all three Ventura squadrons and looking through 487 Squadron's ORBs O'Donnell's crew had yet to fly a mission. A mystery is who the second Wireless Operator Air Gunner in the crew was and why was he not flying that night. I can narrow his name to about ten men, possibly less as it looks like an all Canadian crew.
The third course through Pennfield Ridge, training on Ventura's, arrived in UK in March 1943 to find that they would retrain on Mitchell Bombers. Last year I published a book about 50 men from a Elementary Flying Course in Australia, one of whom was my uncle. Four of that course were on the third course at Pennfield Ridge and all four went to Mitchells after training on Venturas. One is still alive - 95 years old, still driving in Sydney and has a great memory for his age. He started on Moths, flew the Cessna Crane at SFTS, then Ventura's and Mitchells in Europe. His last flight was to land his Boeing 747 at Sydney in 1978.
The King and Queen visited Methwold in June 1943.
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Right: Ron Vine in flight kit. |
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Funeral of Sgt Bernard O'Donnell, RCAF, and his crew killed 2 March 1943, in Ventura AE680 EG on a training flight. Crashed at Sharps Corner, Lakenheath. Buried in St Nicholas Cemetery. The
procession is marching up the western branch of |
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