Letter from a veteran
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 8:14 pm
One thing of interest cropped up last week. I bought a book on RAF Squadrons at the local charity shop. A great source for research on it's own, but theres more. Inside the front cover was a letter written by a former WWll RCAF pilot. I am researching some of the claims made and hope to have the full story and hopefully a short documentary (using IL2 of course) once the facts have been verified. There was a contact number and I have been able to speak to the man , who is now 90 years young and lives local to me.
He claims to have flown Hurricanes and later Mosquitos and apparently crashed in Surrey with one engine aflame sometime in '45 (obviously before 22 April).He was awarded the DFC in '45. He spent some time in hospital after the crash but went on to fly DC3s, 6Bs and DC8s as a civil pilot after the war.
There is also an account of some RCAF(?) transports crashing in '39/'40 whilst ferrying pilots across the Atlantic; an incident I have not yet been able to find reference to online.
One other , and more controversial claim is that the Germans started using a gas in flak shells during '45. It is known that they had a stockpile of shells packed with Tabun nerve gas (GA) a precursor of Sarin. These were in production from 1942 by Anorgana GmbH. He did describe a yellow smoke from flak explosions which would fit with Tabun, and would rule out mustard gas as I doubt it would have minimal if any any effect on crew wearing oxygen masks.
He claims to have flown Hurricanes and later Mosquitos and apparently crashed in Surrey with one engine aflame sometime in '45 (obviously before 22 April).He was awarded the DFC in '45. He spent some time in hospital after the crash but went on to fly DC3s, 6Bs and DC8s as a civil pilot after the war.
There is also an account of some RCAF(?) transports crashing in '39/'40 whilst ferrying pilots across the Atlantic; an incident I have not yet been able to find reference to online.
One other , and more controversial claim is that the Germans started using a gas in flak shells during '45. It is known that they had a stockpile of shells packed with Tabun nerve gas (GA) a precursor of Sarin. These were in production from 1942 by Anorgana GmbH. He did describe a yellow smoke from flak explosions which would fit with Tabun, and would rule out mustard gas as I doubt it would have minimal if any any effect on crew wearing oxygen masks.