Sergeant Charles MacFarlane DFM was the only son of the MacFarlanes, 27 Campbells Buildings, Dunkeld Road, Perth. He was educated at the Northern District School and worked as a waiter at the Salutation Hotel in Perth. MacFarlane joined the RAF in 1940 at the age of 20. On the night of the 12/13 May […]
David Robertson was the 20-year-old son of Alexander Rose Robertson and Margaret Robertson, 75 South Street, Perth. He served in the RAF for 18 months, latterly as an air gunner. Robertson was well known in Perth as an amateur cyclist and member of the Fair City Cycling Club. He was also a keen table tennis player and […]
Pilot Officer David Wood was called up at the start of the Second World War. Wood was one of the first volunteers from the Reserve Force which was inaugurated at Scone Aerodrome in late 1938. He was the star pupil of the volunteer school and became flight commander of Perth 38F Squadron (3rd Scottish), Air Defence Cadet Corps (later renamed […]
Antony Verdon Verdon was born 1 July 1915 at the Caundle Marsh Rectory in Sherbourne, Dorset, England to Everad and Mary Edith Dorothea Verdon. In 1944, he married Phyliss Ella Impett of 12 Kinfauns Crescent, Perth. (Kinfauns Crescent is now 93 Needless Road). Verdon was the nephew of Humphrey Verdon […]
Gavin Strang Smith was the son of Robert and Marion Leiper Smith of Drumearn, Kincarrathie Crescent, Perth. He was educated at Sharp’s Institution and Perth Academy (1933/1938). He served his law apprenticeship (trainee solicitor) between 1938 and 1940 with Messer’s McCash & Hunter, Perth. Gavin enlisted in the Royal Air […]
What happened to Sergeant Derrick Barrie RAFVR (755136), age 19, is a bit of a puzzle. He was recorded as killed along with Pilot Officer Matthew Roy Turnbull RAF (42915), age 19, and Sergeant Gilbert Peter Rowe RAFVR (751202), age 20, in the squadron operational record, but this is incorrect. Simpson was in fact killed […]
On the night of 13/14 February 1945, Bomber Command launched the infamous raid on Dresden. Two separate raids of 805 bombers led by RAF 7 Squadron as the Pathfinders, dropped more than 1,800 tons of bombs onto the target. US bombers attacked the marshalling yards and the city the following […]
On 12 May 1940, at 0500 hours, three Bristol Blenheim’s of RAF 235 Squadron took off from RAF Bircham Newton, 13.4 miles north east of King’s Lynn, Norfolk. Their task was to protect a small force of Royal Marines and a battalion of Irish and Welsh Guards (651) at the Hoek van Holland […]
During World War Two, more than 30,000 men served with the Airfield Construction (AC) Wings of the RAF (also known as Works Squadrons). An AC Squadron member consisted of every known trade and profession from the construction industry and their task was to repair bomb-damaged airfields and build new ones. As the war progressed, there was a requirement for longer and heavier runways as […]
On the night of 2/3 August 1941, Bomber Command sent 80 bombers to Hamburg, 53 to Berlin and 50 to Kiel, alongside 25 other operations. Eleven bombers were lost that night. David Hodge of RAF 104 Squadron was onboard Vickers Wellington W5580 (EP-K) when it was lost over the North Sea and ditched off the coast of the Isle of Sylt, […]
