I’ve spent some time recently writing a book about Jan’s uncle, Ronald Dudley. Ron was a navigator in a Lancaster Bomber during World War II and, sadly, was shot down and killed while flying over Germany on his 38th operational flight.
I’d promised Jan’s Mum, Muriel, I’d look into Ron’s war record and write whatever I could find. I managed to get a full record of his operational flights in the two RAF squadrons in which he served and lots of background material.
Inspired by Ginny Cook, who published a book on one of her relatives a couple of years ago – Great Uncle Norman’s Letters – I edited the material into a suitable book layout of 48 pages. I’ve just had five copies printed – in time for Jan to take one to her Mum in England when she visits soon.
It was an interesting but sad experience going through Squadron Operations Record Books and seeing details of each raid, night after night, and the terrible losses of bombers and crews.
But they did have some fun, these lads (most of the crews were teenagers). Ron trained in Florida and was, with his colleagues, well fed and entertained by the local people.
His crew joined the Pathfinders, the elite navigators of the RAF. Ron was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal for his service.
There’s a .pdf file of the inside pages of We Flew in Lancasters here. It is a big download – 17MB. The images are low resolution to keep down the file size – they are much better in the book!
Flight-Sergeant Ron Dudley’s medals
Well done! May have to pick your brains later as I have to pick through Dad’s writings and do similar….