207 SQUADRON ROYAL AIR FORCE HISTORY
WE WANTED WINGS
by John Pearl, Air Gunner 2/45-4/45
| John Pearl's book was
published by Lancfile Publishing in December
2007. This is what it says on the back cover: John Pearl was born in Nottingham in 1925. He finished his schooling shortly before the outbreak of World War II in 1939 and became apprenticed to a shoe maker, but later took up employment as a menswear sales assistant for a Yorkshire clothing company. Enlisting in the Royal Air Force in 1943 he flew as an air gunner in Bomber Command until the end of hostilities. He then served overseas in India where he remained until demobilised in 1947. After a spell in the Civil Service he relocated to a nationalised industry where he spent 30 years in an administrative capacity before taking early retirement in 1981. John's late father was a Great War veteran and John himself has a interest in that conflict. He has made several visits to the Western Front battlefield and hopes to continue to do so. His other main interest is equine with two horses stabled in a Nottinghamshire village. Although no longer a rider he enjoys working with horses and attending equestrian events with his two grandaughters, both successful riders. |
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He says "The bomber boys were an all-volunteer select group of flyers, the bravest and the best. I am proud and privileged to have lived among them. Here is my story - I hope it will prove to have been worth the telling."
ISBN 978-0-9549547-4-1
Copies are available from Lancfile Publishing, Lancaster
Farm, Tumby Woodside, Boston, Lincolnshire PE22 7SP: tel
01526 342249: email mjhodgsonATlancfile.demon.co.uk (replace
AT with @ before sending).
The price is £12 including P&P to addresses in the UK or
£13.50 inc P&P to non-UK addresses. Cheques should be
made out to MJ Hodgson.
The book will be on sale at the Thorpe
Camp Visitor Centre.
Editor: John died in 2013. He had been a member of the
Association for many years and regularly attended our
reunions. His crew were shot down on 11 April 1945, in
Lancaster ME472 EM-O in an attack on the Wahren railway
yards, Leipzig. Both starboard engines were damaged, as was
the mid-upper gun turret. F/L Peter Anderson RCAF managed to
maintain control until his flight engineer reported oil
pressure on the port inner was dropping fast. At 4,000 feet,
as ordered, the six survivors baled out and all were soon in
safe hands. F/L Anderson RCAF is buried in Brussels Town
Cemetery. On an Association visit to Belgium in 2005 John
laid a wreath at his pilot's grave.
see http://www.207squadron.rafinfo.org.uk/belgium0505/anderson_pm_110445.htm
page last updated 17 Jan 2008: 23 Dec 13