Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Update Sergeant Ernest Hill - Rear Gunner RAF 295 Squadron 1939 - 1945

I had a very interesting email from a Steve Clark, who lives in Canada and who has been interested in the 295 Squadron, through his dad.  He had just recently been onto the National Archieves web site and downloaded the Operational Orders of 295 Squadron.
Well it had to be done, so £10.46 secured me access to 3 pdf documents with a total of 1814 pages to look through.
Very interesting as it recorded the operational activity of the squadron from it's formation upto the end of 1945.  It also listed the flight crews of the aircraft on the operations, which included:
D Day landing, Operation Varsity - Rhine crossing and Operation Doomsday - Liberation of Norway.  also mentions several S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive) flights........
I have spent most of the day on the records and found my Uncle Ern:

Air Gunner Sergeant 2221280 E.Hill

At the time he was in Stirling Bombers and flew out of Rivenhall, Essex with his first recorded flight on 24.3.1945 taking part in Operation Varsity - Rhine crossing with 6th Airbourne.
He flew 22 missions until 8.12.1945 when all the Air Gunners were posted to RAF Pockligton.
I have managed to find a couple of flight logs:
RIV 2029 - Operation Spur 3 Call Sign 8CY
DZ (Drop Zone) Norway
Flew all the way to Norway taking off at 2311hrs and landing at 0700hrs.Too much cloud over DZ to complete drop, returned to base with 3 packages and 18 containers.
RIV 2085 - Operation S.O.E. Norway Blinkers 7 Call Sign 8EU
DZ 60.55 N 06.41 E
Very 'bumpy flight;, with poor weather conditions throughout, Enemy Coast not reached.
Crew:
Pilot F/O Skipton
Navigator F/S Vines
Flight Engineer Sgt Williams
Wing Op W/O McLellan
Bomb Aimer F/O Woodger
Gunner Sgt Hill

Need to do some more research to find out when Uncle Ern was posted to the squadron....