Originally Posted by DozyBint

Op Telic: In Memorium.

Signaller Paul Didsbury - maybe not as accomplised as the rest but a good lad

RIP mate

Johnny Wiseman

Johnny Wiseman, who has died aged 89, was awarded an MC in 1943 for leading an SAS assault on a coastal battery during the invasion of Sicily.

In the early hours of July 10 1943, the Special Raiding Squadron (formed after the temporary disbandment of 1SAS), left their troopship and embarked in landing craft in heavy seas. Wiseman, in command of the forward section of the leading troop, ordered the pilot of his LCA to stop and pick up a group of men who were clinging to the wing of their ditched glider.

One of them was the commander of the airborne force who, like many others, had been dropped short of the target by inexperienced pilots. "Look, old boy," Wiseman told him firmly, "I can take you into the beach, but you will have to keep out of my line because I have a job to do."

After landing on Cape Moro di Porco, Wiseman led his men up the cliffs while mortars provided covering fire. He reached the perimeter of the enemy position without being detected and cut through the wire. As soon as the mortar fire was lifted, he and his section attacked.

Wiseman achieved complete surprise and his small force captured, killed or wounded 40 of the enemy without sustaining a single casualty. Wiseman's CO, Paddy Mayne, then got him on the wireless to order him to remove his men from the battery because sappers were coming to destroy the guns. Wiseman mumbled, and Mayne had to tell him to speak up.

"I managed to tell him that I had lost my false teeth," said Wiseman. "It was amusing afterwards, but it didn't seem so at the time." He had been hit in the mouth playing cricket at Cambridge and had worn false teeth ever since. He had been shouting orders when they flew out of his mouth into the long grass.

Despite this mishap, he was awarded an immediate MC.

John Martin Wiseman was born on January 27 1916 at Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, and educated at St Paul's before going up to Pembroke, Cambridge, to read History and Modern Languages. He went into the family optical instrument business in 1937.

The company had been founded by his father, Max, who arrived from Germany in the 1920s and started selling spectacle frames. In 1926 he began to build up a group of purpose-built factories.

On the outbreak of the Second World War, Wiseman joined the North Somerset Yeomanry as a trooper and saw action in Syria against the Vichy French. He was fluent in French and German and was selected for Octu in Cairo.

Shortly after his commission, he heard that David Stirling was expanding his detachment to a full regiment and went to meet him. Stirling's batman answered the door of the flat in Cairo. His master was in the bath, he said, and could not see anyone. Wiseman persisted, and Stirling, who valued people who were not easily discouraged, agreed to take him on.

For the next months, Wiseman and his men, mounted in three Jeeps, operated in the Great Sand Sea, mining the coastal road and strafing enemy vehicles when they were forced to halt. Then they slipped back into the desert.

Following the taking of Sicily and shortly after the capture of Termoli on the Italian mainland, the Germans counter-attacked. Wiseman had just left his truck to talk to a messenger from his CO when the vehicle received a direct hit from a shell. His whole troop was killed or injured. It was, he said afterwards, the worst moment of his life.

Wiseman returned to England to train for the invasion of France. He was promoted captain and placed in command of 1 Troop "A" Squadron, and in June 1944 they were dropped into France in Operation Houndsworth.

Operating from near Dijon, the most exposed of the Houndsworth bases, Wiseman's objective was to help prevent the Germans from reinforcing their units in Normandy from the south. His troop blew up the Dijon-Beaune railway line three times, the Beaune-Paris line once and derailed two trains.

In August, Wiseman got wind of a joint assault on his hideout by the Germans and the Milice. He rapidly evacuated his troop and, when the pincer attack was launched, the two parties opened fire on each other, inflicting numerous casualties.

He was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Silver Star.

The following month, Wiseman brought his troop back to England. He was exhausted, and Paddy Mayne put him in charge of SAS HQ while the rest of "A" Squadron went to Norway.

Wiseman and Mayne did not always see eye to eye. Wiseman said afterwards that Mayne, one of the most highly decorated soldiers in the war, was a great warrior but a difficult man to serve under. A man of considerable physical strength, on one occasion Mayne wrestled Wiseman to the ground, pinned him there with his knees and called for a cut-throat razor. He then shaved half of Wiseman's beard without using soap or water.

At the end of the war in Europe, Wiseman retired from the Army in the rank of major and returned to his family business. He was a director of what became a large-scale manufacturing organisation with affiliated companies overseas until he retired in 1982.

Wiseman lived in London for a time, and then moved to Sussex. He led an active life in the country and greatly enjoyed racing.

Johnny Wiseman died on August 23. He married first, in 1944, Jill Sinauer. He married secondly, in 1994, Eileen Finch (née Gill) who survives him with a step-son and a step-daughter.

Another Old Soldier Slips away, George Rice 108, died on saturday leaving only 7 survivors of 5.4 million britons whom served during the greatwar.
I'm sure they won't mind him being late on parade.
RIP George

One of Britain's last First World War veterans has died aged 108. The death on Saturday of George Rice, a machinegunner who served on the Western Front, means there are just seven of the 5.4 million Britons who fought in the Great War still alive.

Mr Rice, who lived his last few years in Kings Heath, Birmingham, enlisted at the age of 17 and served originally with the Durham Light Infantry before being attached to the Duke of Wellington regiment. In one skirmish alone he killed eight Germans with a burst of machinegun fire.

Despite being a religious man, he always said he had no regrets. "It was just my job as a soldier," he once said. "I don't know what you felt. You were there to fight the enemy. Feelings didn't come into it in that sense, frightening or otherwise."

Mr Rice was called up for front-line duties in 1917 and taught how to use a Lewis gun, a light machinegun that could fire 500-600 rounds per minute.

In one brutal encounter he shot eight Germans charging at his line with fixed bayonets. "I kept the gun steady, pressed the trigger and kept it on. The Germans ran on to my bullets. They were too near.

''They ran on as I kept on firing … I shot them all. They were dead men," he later recalled.

After the war, he moved to Birmingham to work for Austin Rover at Longbridge. He married in May 1928 and he and his wife, Elsie had four sons. Mrs Rice died in 1997 at the age of 93.

Mr Rice worked on the manufacture of military aircraft in Coventry during the Second World War and later in the motor industry.

He was awarded the Legion D'Honneur, France's highest decoration, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Armistice in 1998.

Simon Wiesenthal: "The Conscience of the Holocaust, Dies in Vienna" at 96

Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi Hunter has died in Vienna at the age of 96, the Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today (September 20th).

"Simon Wiesenthal was the conscience of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the International Human Rights NGO named in Mr. Wiesenthal’s honor, adding, "When the Holocaust ended in 1945 and the whole world went home to forget, he alone remained behind to remember. He did not forget. He became the permanent representative of the victims, determined to bring the perpetrators of the history’s greatest crime to justice. There was no press conference and no president or Prime Minister or world leader announced his appointment. He just took the job. It was a job no one else wanted.

The task was overwhelming. The cause had few friends. The Allies were already focused on the Cold War, the survivors were rebuilding their shattered lives and Simon Wiesenthal was all alone, combining the role of both prosecutor and detective at the same time."

Overcoming the world’s indifference and apathy, Simon Wiesenthal helped bring over 1,100 Nazi War Criminals before the Bar of Justice.


(c) http://www.wiesenthal.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../22/db2203.xml

Roger Freeman
(Filed: 22/10/2005)

Roger Freeman, who has died aged 77, became one of the world's foremost military aviation historians alongside making his living as a farmer; he specialised in the history of the USAAF Eighth Air Force, the largest air striking force ever committed to battle.



Freeman, who grew up on a farm in East Anglia, had a boyhood obsession with aircraft which developed into a historical interest in the airmen and operations of the Eighth Air Force, a force with some 3,500 bombers and almost 1,000 fighters occupying some 60 airfields in the area.

During the early post-war years Freeman researched the history of the Eighth when farming allowed. After almost 25 years research, he managed to interest a publisher in his compilation, although publication was dependent on a declared American interest, since "few people in the UK will be interested in what the Yanks did".

The Americans were persuaded; although, with the printing presses ready to roll, they expressed reservations about Freeman's title, which they thought too prosaic. Freeman was given an hour to come up with something more pithy, and lit on The Mighty Eighth.

The book was an instant success, and became the first of a trilogy on the Eighth Air Force's operations mounted from Britain. They have become standard works, with a worldwide circulation and translations into several languages.

The son of a farmer, Roger Anthony Wilson Freeman was born at Ipswich, Suffolk, on May 11 1928, and educated at Colchester High School. When he proved a poor student, his parents withdrew him and he began working on the family farm aged 15.

His enthusiasm for aircraft was ignited when a number of airfields were built in his local area, one of them (Boxted, in June 1943) next to the Freeman farm. Long-range escort fighters flew from Boxted, and the Freemans were given permission to carry out haymaking and other agricultural activities on the airfield.

Roger delighted in raking hay while surrounded by the hefty Thunderbolt long-range fighters of the 56th Fighter Group, known as the "Wolf Pack", which provided escort for the armada of bombers.

With his teenage friends, he cycled hundreds of miles to watch and record the activities of the aircraft at other airfields. He always knew where to go, thanks to schoolboys' word of mouth. On one occasion towards the end of the war Freeman recalled seeing more than 30 formations of bombers, totalling more than 1,000 aircraft, head for Germany.

In 1959 Freeman took over the family farm; but it remained his ambition to chronicle the activities of the Americans who had lived in his local area. He began by writing articles for a local newspaper on agricultural issues in the 1950s and soon became a regular name in the aviation magazines.

Following the outstanding success of The Mighty Eighth, Freeman spent the next 30 years combining his farming activities with writing. He eventually produced more than 60 books and countless articles dealing with the USAAF and RAF air offensive over Europe. He was in great demand on both sides of the Atlantic as a lecturer, and he made many visits to America to meet the veterans.

He became the approved historian of the 20,000-strong Eighth Air Force's veterans' association, participating at 20 annual symposia. He knew and met many distinguished airmen, including the commanding generals of the wartime Force, including Generals Ira Eaker and James Doolittle.

Freeman also contributed to scores of documentaries and films about the Eighth, and in 1989 was the technical adviser for David Puttnam's film Memphis Belle. He also advised on the development of the American Air Museum at the Imperial War Museum's site at Duxford airfield.

It is a measure of the esteem in which Freeman is held in the United States that the library complex at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum at Savannah, Georgia, is to be named "The Roger A Freeman Mighty Eighth Air Force Research Centre".

A quiet man of great modesty, Freeman was always prepared to assist others, novice and expert alike. He downplayed accolades, saying that his writing was "simply an extension of my enthusiasm for the memory of a unique period of history".

Roger Freeman died on October 7. He married, in 1956, Jean Blain, who survives him with two daughters and a son; two sons died in infancy.

This really saddens me. Roger was a fantastic and knowledgable individual. He will be very missed.

In Memory of…

Sgt Andrew Wallace & Specialist Michael Wendling

Killed in Action Basrah Southern Iraq 26th September 2005.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died in Shaibah, Iraq, on Sept. 26, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their HMMWV during convoy operations. They were also attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire. Both soldiers were assigned to the Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Brigade, Fond du Lac, Wis.
Killed were:
Sgt. Andrew P. Wallace, 25, of Oshkosh, Wis.
Spc. Michael J. Wendling, 20, of Mayville, Wis.
394-06-936 Spec Roskpopf shrapnel right thigh
388-94-4124 Spec Wendling severe head injury d.o.w
391-72-2706 Stoleman battle shock
478-98-0408 Sgt Wallace multiple shrapel wounds k.i.a


Sgt. Andrew Wallace


An Oshkosh soldier killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom is being remembered for his love of family and country and for his dedication as a teacher and wrestling coach.

Sgt. Andrew Wallace, 25, was killed by a roadside bomb, while he helped escort a convoy of supply trucks in Iraq, his father, Pete Wallace, said Tuesday.

Wallace said his son joined the Army National Guard in part to help pay for college costs, but he also had a deep and lasting patriotism for his country.

“He was proud to serve his country and he knew the risks that came with it,” said Wallace, who lives in the Dodge County community of Fox Lake. “Everything he did, he did with enthusiasm. He enjoyed sports with enthusiasm and he loved his country with enthusiasm.”

He said his son was in good spirits when he last talked to him via cell phone about a week ago.

“He called me at work,” Wallace said. “He preferred being out on the missions instead of being back in the base.”

Wallace served with the Wisconsin Army National Guard 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment based in Appleton.


Also killed by the roadside bomb in Shaibah, Iraq, was Spc. Michael Wendling, 20, of Mayville, who was driving the Humvee that he, Wallace and another soldier were riding in near Basra at the time of the explosion, Wendling’s father, Randy Wendling, said Tuesday. Wallace was the team leader who normally sits in the front passenger seat. The third soldier, who was injured, served as a gunner.

Major Gen. Albert H. Wilkening of the Wisconsin National Guard said he has ordered flags of all Wisconsin National Guard armouries, air bases and other facilities lowered to half-staff in memory of Wallace and Wendling.

Wallace, a physical education teacher since 2003 who taught at Oshkosh North High School and Emmeline Cook Elementary School, was deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in June. His father said Wallace was a member of the National Guard for about six years.

Pete Wallace recalled the last time he saw his son, which was June 9 for a sendoff at Volk Field at Camp Douglas in western Wisconsin. He said family members gave him hugs, plenty of love and told him to stay safe before he departed.

“He wanted to come home as a veteran,” Wallace said.

Wallace’s father said funeral arrangements are pending.

Overall, 46 Wisconsin military members have died during the war in Iraq and so have more than 1,900 U.S. troops nationwide. Local soldiers who died include Pfc. Brent Vroman of Omro, who was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and Army Reserve Capt. Benjamin Jansky of Oshkosh.

Wallace’s death was a shock to those who knew him, including wrestlers at North, where he was an assistant wrestling coach.

“He was there for us all of the time and whenever we had a problem we could go to him. He was easy going and fun to be around,” said senior Nick Wolff, a member of the North wrestling team. “He taught us to respect everybody no matter what happened to us.”

Wallace was a 1998 graduate of Ripon High School where he played football, baseball and wrestled. His father said Wallace also was a WIAA football official and had been an avid fan of the Green Bay Packers.

Lucas Seelow, a senior at North and a member of the wrestling team, said Wallace put a smile on the faces of wrestlers.

“He liked the sport and enjoyed being out there with us,” Seelow said. “He was at school at 6:30 each morning to help anyone who wanted to lift weights and to give his support.”

Gary Westerman, former head wrestling coach at North, said Wallace’s enthusiasm was contagious.

“Andrew was the ultimate kid at heart. He was never in a bad mood and always smiling and had positive things to say,” said Westerman, who is a physical education teacher at a Kimberly Middle School. “He was an all-around great guy and a great friend.”

Westerman said Wallace was proud to be in the military and often talked about it. He said Wallace and his wife had just purchased a house in Oshkosh.

“He was real excited about that,” Westerman said. “He couldn’t wait to have me over.”

Phil Marshall, principal at Emmeline Cook, said Wallace kept in contact with school staff via a Web site.

“He would take pictures of all the missions he was on and would post them on the Web site so we could get a look at what was going on,” Marshall said. “He sent e-mails to staff updating what was happening in Iraq. It was really a comfort to us to have contact with him on a regular basis.”

Marshall said Wallace was an extraordinary person.

“He made an impact on everyone in school from students to staff and parents,” Marshall said. “He always had a smile on his face and a positive attitude. The lack of that energy has left a big hole here.”



Michael Wendling



The news passed through the stands Monday evening at the Mayville High School JV football game - Michael Wendling, who played on the football, basketball and golf teams and joined the military while still a student, had been killed in Iraq.
Among the words murmured by stunned people as the football game unfolded before them: explosion, Iraq, Humvee, Mayville.
"In typical small-town fashion, it had drifted through the town," said Mayville High School Principal Lee Zarnott. "Unfortunately, bad news travels fast."
Wendling, 20, a specialist, was killed Monday with Sgt. Andrew P. Wallace, 25, of Oshkosh when a roadside bomb exploded as they drove past it in Iraq. They were members of Fond du Lac-based Charlie Company of the Wisconsin National Guard 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment. Their deaths bring to 47 the number of Wisconsin service members killed in Iraq since March 2003.
A high school friend of Wendling's, Spc. Jeremy Roskopf of Brownsville, suffered shrapnel wounds to his legs.

Roskopf and Wendling signed up for the National Guard together while they were in high school. They played on the Mayville golf team, which won the conference championship their senior year.
Wendling, who was on the dean's list at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee when his unit was activated, frequently kept in touch with his family via e-mail and talked about what it was like to drive the large, heavy Humvees in Kuwait and Iraq, said his father, Randy Wendling.
"He said they don't go very fast, but he seemed pretty excited about what he was doing," Randy Wendling said in a phone interview Tuesday.
The Appleton-based 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment was activated in June and trained at Camp Shelby, Miss. The unit moved to Kuwait in mid-August and has been based in northern Kuwait, providing security to convoys travelling from Kuwait into Iraq, said Wisconsin National Guard Lt. Col. Tim Donovan.
Wendling's father said the roadside bomb hit his son's Humvee near Basra, in southern Iraq. Wendling was the driver, Roskopf was the gunner who stands in the middle of the vehicle and Wallace was the team leader, who normally sits in the front passenger seat.
Randy Wendling said he saw his son shortly before the unit deployed overseas last month. He spent his home leave going to Brewers games, visiting with family and friends and golfing.

His son was upbeat in his e-mails and enjoyed serving in the Wisconsin National Guard, the elder Wendling said.
"He talked about where they were based and what it was like, what they were going to be doing, how hot it was there," said Randy Wendling.
In his last e-mail, received a couple of days before he died, Wendling asked about a care package his family sent him that included bed sheets and beef jerky and told his folks that his company was very busy.
Stu Strook coached Wendling in junior varsity football and golf and remembered a guy who wasn't the most talented athlete but someone who worked hard to improve himself. It was common to see Wendling hitting buckets of golf balls, even after matches, until dark.
"I would call him a grinder. He worked hard. He had a good heart," said Strook.
Wendling also liked to eat. He wasn't fat, so sometimes his team mates wondered where he put all the food. Strook recalled returning from a golf match one day when the team stopped at Burger King. Wendling ordered a Whopper Value Meal with fries and a drink. Nothing unusual about that, except that Wendling went back for four more Whoppers - quarter-pound burgers - and ate them all, to the astonishment of everyone watching him, Strook said.
"Mike was a personality, I guess you would say. He had a great sense of humor. He was a kid who liked to have fun, and kids liked to be around Mike because he was so much fun," said Strook.
Wendling had not declared a major at UWM, but his father said he was leaning toward getting a degree in the sciences. His high school marketing teacher, Rod McSorley, said he thought Wendling would have become an engineer.
A couple of dozen marketing students from Mayville organized a trip to New York their senior year. The group took in the sights, visited Madison Square Garden and saw "The Lion King" on Broadway. A photo of the group taken on the Staten Island Ferry is pinned to a bulletin board in McSorley's office. McSorley said he was looking at the picture of Wendling and his classmates mugging for the camera as he talked to a reporter Tuesday about his former student.
"When we visited New York, we visited ground zero, and that was important to him. He was close enough to 9-11 to embrace its importance," said McSorley. "He had very good family values. That wouldn't surprise me (that) he had the feeling of giving back."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../19/db1901.xml

Major George Drew
(Filed: 19/11/2005)

Serial escaper whose expertise as a distiller and forger stood him in good stead in Colditz.


Major George Drew, who has died aged 87, helped his fellow prisoners to cope with the boredom and deprivations of Colditz Castle during the Second World War by producing potent home-made alcohol.



He and his friend Pat Fergusson first tried to brew from the sugar and raisins in Red Cross parcels but failed. Then they realised that there was sufficient sugar for fermentation in the turnip jam supplied by the Germans. Mixing the jam with yeast and water, they used a piece of purloined drainpipe and a large tin, sealed with plaster of Paris from the sick-bay, to produce "hooch" for such events as St Valentine's and St Patrick's Days.

However, the effects of the more than 100 per cent proof alcohol could be severe, even leading to temporary blindness. Dental fillings would fall out. If a man was having obvious difficulty walking and talking in the castle yard it was said that he was "jam happy".

When Drew and Fergusson took part in the Channel 4 television series Escape from Colditz in 2000, they made their potion for the first time since 1945. Taking the first glass before the camera, Drew said "Dear God," remarked that the smell was not quite as bad as it used to be, then drank again. "Oh Christ," he gasped.

He found a less lethal diversion in carving some 40 statues of nude women, though he admitted that there was one trouble: "The memory was lacking."

The son of a moderator of the Congregationalist Church, George Shepherd Drew was born on March 5 1918 and educated at Wellingborough College and Sandhurst before being commissioned into the Northamptonshire Regiment. Young George became a platoon commander with the 2nd battalion at Ballykinler in Northern Ireland, where his untrained bulldog puppies did not win him universal popularity in the mess. On the outbreak of war in 1939, the Northamptons formed part of the expeditionary force sent to France.

Drew remembered wondering dreamily in the relaxed atmosphere of the "phoney war" whether to win the VC "straight away and get the others later on in the week, or whether to work up to it slowly". They were stationed at the Belgian border, opposite Menin, and moved to near Arras to prevent Rommel driving towards Calais.

After a skirmish in which several men were lost, Drew led a convoy over a canal in Belgium, where they found none of the defensive shelter they had been promised, and were quickly overrun. They were being marched off into captivity when the artillery barrage they had expected finally arrived.

He was taken first by train to a camp at Laufen, in Bavaria, where a dead donkey helped to make up for the lack of Red Cross food parcels. It was while sitting on the ground in the sun that he picked up a small branch and started to whittle away with a knife; to his astonishment, he found that a tiny, misshapen little man emerged from his efforts.

On being moved to Biberach, where he was inducted into the escaping community by being asked to produce a German bayonet scabbard, Drew was transferred to Warburg. He and his friend Fergusson built a tunnel, through which they duly escaped across the battlefield, on which the Marquess of Granby lost his wig in a charge in 1760, and reached a railway line.

After walking several miles, they turned into a wood, and flopped down to hear footsteps. Drew felt something pulling his trouser leg and, turning over to surrender, found that it was a fox. The pair jumped on several trains, which took them to a nearby mashalling yard, and walked along a deserted autobahn before turning into a field and falling into the hands of a German patrol.

Drew used his solitary confinement in a French camp at Soest to read through Hugo's Italian in Nine Days, an Italian dictionary and Pinnochio in the original, then was transferred to Eichstatt, where he worked on a highly professional tunnel escape by 65 prisoners.

He and Fergusson reached the Danube, where they found a punt without a paddle and drifted across to the other side. On landing they were challenged and ran into the arms of a policeman. Such inveterate escapers were now deemed suitable for Colditz, where he looked back with a professional eye on the Eichstatt break-out:

Worthy men! and none were pupils, men prepared to die or do

Men in fact just lacking scruples - men like Fergusson and Drew.

On arrival at the castle, Drew quickly became conscious that there was a hierarchy, and that he represented "a very amateurish lower class tunneller", compared with "a professional upper class escaper going through the main gate at will".

He used his skill to carve not only nudes - "I had not mastered how to show drapery" - but fantasy figures for a chess set. The black pieces included Merlin as the king, Hecate as the queen and members of the distilling team as the different pawns; while, among the white, the walrus and the carpenter were the bishops and the gryphon and mock turtle the rooks.

He made fake German belt buckles, and forged an eagle stamp on to a shoe heel, spending months cutting away with a razor blade before it was inked with an indelible pencil and spit to reproduce the right shade of purple ink for stamping on German official documents. But when Hitler ordered 50 men to be shot after the mass break-out from Stalag Luft III, London forbade any more escapes.

Following liberation Drew rejoined his battalion at Brunswick, and, in October 1945, married Mavis Gibson, with whom he had a daughter. He was next posted to Vienna and then Trieste, where he guarded the C-in-C, General Sir John Harding.

After attending the staff college at Camberley in 1950 he became deputy assistant adjutant general at the War Office, then was posted to the 26th King's African Rifles, operating against Mau Mau in Kenya. He went on to Aden and finally Malaya before retiring from the Army in 1973.

Drew then became an inspector for the Ministry of Defence and devoted himself to his smallholding in Somerset, which he described as paradise. Even when blind he enjoyed driving his Quad bike around his fields, accompanied by two lurchers.

George Drew, who died on October 20, did not believe in an afterlife; but he said that if there was one, he and Fergusson would talk for eternity and try to come home: "On past form we will not quite make it."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../18/db1803.xml

Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Morgan
(Filed: 18/11/2005)

Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Morgan, who has died aged 84, was awarded an MC at the Battle of Cloppenburg, south-west of Bremen, in 1945.



Morgan, then a major, was attached to the 7th Battalion the Hampshire Regiment. He was in command of the leading company and was ordered to secure a bridgehead across a stream which ran through the centre of the town.

On the outskirts of Cloppenburg, Morgan's company quickly overcame an enemy post covering the main road and pushed on to the stream. There the leading platoon was held up by machine-gun, bazooka and small arms fire from German positions on the far bank.

It was essential to clear the houses covering the main crossing-point without delay so that the sappers could throw a Bailey bridge over the stream and the advance could continue. Morgan carried out a quick reconnaissance under shell fire and made a new plan.

The Germans were so close that he was unable to call down mortar or artillery fire, but he launched one of his platoons across the stream under cover of smoke and supported their attack with every company weapon that he could bring to bear. This stratagem worked well.

The enemy troops near the crossing were forced to pull back and a third platoon was ordered to clear the houses on the opposite bank and along the main axis of advance. Morgan was awarded an immediate MC. The citation stated that his determination to reach his company's objective, his coolness in action and complete disregard of enemy fire were an inspiration to all.

Francis de Riemer Morgan, the son of Major-General Harold Morgan, DSO, was born in Oxford on March 30 1921 and educated at Harrow before going to Sandhurst and attending the shortened wartime course. He was commissioned into the Buffs, his father's regiment, and spent the first phase of the war with anti-aircraft batteries on the Kent coast.

Morgan landed in Normandy with the 7th Hampshires on D-Day+6 and took part in the bitter fighting around Caen before the breakout and the hard slog across north-west Europe. After the end of the war, he served on the Gold Coast with the Royal West Africa Frontier Force before rejoining the 1st Battalion the Buffs in Hong Kong and subsequently Khartoum.

After returning to England, Morgan went to the signals wing at the School of Infantry as an instructor. He attended Staff College and was then one of a dozen officers sent to help establish an Indian Staff College in the former Wellington Barracks in the Nilgiri Hills.

Morgan was posted as GSO2 to HQ Malaya Command in 1954 during the latter part of the Emergency. On coming back to England in 1957, he commanded the regimental depot at Canterbury before serving as second-in-command of the 1st Battalion the Buffs in Aden and BAOR.

A spell at the MoD was followed by promotion to lieutenant-colonel in 1962 and a posting to Gibraltar in command of a battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.

One Sunday, shortly before church parade, a driver arrived at Morgan's house to collect him and an admiral in the Indian Navy who was staying there.

On opening the door, he was astonished to find the two senior officers upside down in full dress with medals dangling. They were having a competition to see who could stand on his head the longest.

After a staff appointment at the MoD, Morgan was delighted to move to the QMG HQ Wales, at Brecon, the town he had chosen for his later years. He retired from the Army in 1971, but stayed on in the Military Secretary's department for the next 14 years as a Retired Officer.

Morgan finally retired in 1986. He hunted for some years, tended his kitchen garden and was a useful shot on his day. He was a churchwarden for many years and was a familiar figure at point-to-points, local shows and helping with events at the pony club.

Francis Morgan died on October 30. He married, in 1951, Elined Raikes, the daughter of Major-General Sir Geoffrey Raikes; she survives him with two daughters.

A son predeceased him.

Telegraph Obituary

Brigadier Gordon Viner
(Filed: 06/12/2005)

Brigadier Gordon Viner, who has died aged 87, was awarded an MC in France in 1944 and a Bar in Germany the following year.

The 7th Battalion, the Hampshire Regiment was one of the first British units to enter Germany, and early in 1945 took a leading part in the fighting to eliminate the enemy salient west of the river Roer.

On January 22 Viner, then a major, was in command of "A" Company during an attack on the villages of Putt and Waldenrath, north of Aachen.

After the capture of Putt, the company was the first to cross 600 yards of the snow-covered open ground to Waldenrath. Mines delayed the start by 45 minutes, with the result that the artillery smoke programme had finished by the time the attack got under way. Both flanks of the advance were exposed and came under heavy mortar, artillery and small arms fire.

Faced with this stiff resistance, Viner led his men across the open stretch with great dash and no regard for his own safety. His company dealt with enemy concealed in haystacks between the two villages and operating from strong points in trenches.

The Germans were relying on their enfilade fire to break up the attack, but they were caught out by the speed with which Viner's company overran the north of Waldenrath and they became disorganised. Two other companies came up in support, and the village was rapidly cleared. A large number of prisoners was taken, many of whom had to be routed out of cellars.

Viner was awarded a Bar to the MC he had received the previous year.

Charles Gordon Talbot Viner, the son of an officer in the South Lancashire Regiment, was born in Liverpool on May 6 1918 and educated at Brighton College and Allhallows School, Devon. In 1938 he enlisted in the 5/7th Battalion, the Hampshire Regiment and was commissioned the following year.

Viner commanded a rifle company of 7th Hampshires in north-west Europe from August 1944 to the end of the campaign. On August 2 1944, during an attack on Point 321, a dominating feature near Jurques, south-west of Caen, his company was held up twice by enemy machine-gun fire; but he led it to success at the third attempt.

Early in October an observation post came under intense shell and mortar fire. It was vital to the defence because it covered the crossing place used by the Germans to reinforce their bridgehead on the south bank of the Neder Rijn.

Viner manned the post himself and directed mortar and machine-gun fire on the enemy as they tried to cross the river. On the next two days, while under heavy fire, he led his company in a number of counter-attacks on the bridgehead. The citation for his first MC declared that the Germans had defended fanatically and that he had set a very fine example to his men.

After the end of the war Viner had several staff appointments before attending Staff College. In 1951 he commanded a company of 1st Battalion, the Royal Hampshire Regiment in BAOR and then moved to the School of Artillery as an infantry instructor. He instructed at the Staff College, Camberley, and the Canadian Army Staff College before taking command of the 1st Battalion, Aden Protectorate Levies, in 1960.

After a spell at the War Office as assistant adjutant-general, he returned to Aden in 1964 as Commander Federal Regular Army and was appointed CBE at the end of his tour.

Viner served at HQ Southern Command for a year, then retired from the Army in 1968. He became a dealer in fine art in Bond Street, specialising in portrait miniatures, and was an active member of the Bond Street Association.

A convert to Roman Catholicism during the Second World War, he did much work for the local community and the Church. In 1975 he became the first chairman of the Residents' Association of Mayfair, and endeavoured to improve the standards of the poorest accommodation in the area.

He also ran a vigorous campaign to restrict temporary office permissions and the proliferation of gaming club licences. In an effort to ensure that these issues received the attention they deserved, Viner and a fellow member of RAM stood for election to the Westminster City Council and were both elected as independent councillors.

In addition he served as chairman of Farm Street's church council, was a Knight of St Gregory and secretary of the Association of Papal Knights in Britain.

Gordon Viner died on October 14. He married, in 1942, Bette Fellows. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their two sons.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../05/db0501.xml


Squadron Leader Ray Hanna
(Filed: 05/12/2005)

Squadron Leader Ray Hanna, who has died aged 77, was the leader of the RAF's Red Arrows aerobatic team in its early years, developing a level of expertise and panache in formation aerobatic flying that attracted universal acclaim and established "the Reds" as the world's premier team and star attraction at airshows worldwide.



During the 1950s and early 1960s, the RAF instructed various fighter squadrons to provide an official aerobatic team to participate in public events and provide welcome publicity.

The Hunters of the "Black Arrows" and the "Blue Diamonds" were extremely successful; but, with the loss of fighter squadrons due to budget constraints, it was a wasteful activity to withdraw a squadron from the front line each year. The Central Flying School was asked to provide an official team and, in 1965, the Red Arrows were formed at Little Rissington. Hanna was selected to join the team and within a year he became its leader.

Hanna was the ideal candidate to lead a group of individualistic and brilliant fighter pilots. An outstanding and experienced fighter pilot himself, his determination, modest authority, skill and professionalism proved an inspiration to his nine colleagues.

After an intense period of practice, flying their highly manoeuvrable, all-red Gnat aircraft, the team's reputation for excellence on the airshow scene was soon established. In a very short time, the Red Arrows, together with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, had become the public face of the RAF, as it continues to be to this day.

Hanna led "The Reds" for four seasons, displaying at almost 100 events each year. Their appearances included a tour of the Middle East, for which the short range of the Gnat necessitated numerous stops en route before arriving in Amman to perform in front of King Hussein. This exposure to tens of thousands of new admirers immediately launched the Red Arrows on the world stage.

Raynham George Hanna was born on August 28 1928 at Takapuna, New Zealand. He was educated at Auckland Grammar School before taking flying lessons on the Tiger Moth. In 1949 he worked his passage to England by ship to join the RAF.

Hanna gained his pilot's wings before the demise of the powerful piston-engine fighters such as the Tempest, Sea Fury and Beaufighter, and his opportunities to fly them proved to be the beginning of a love affair with these evocative fighters that was to last a lifetime. He joined No 79 Squadron in Germany, flying the Meteor jet in the fighter reconnaissance role, one of the most demanding for a single-seat pilot. This gave him the opportunity to indulge in authorised low flying, at which he excelled. Formation aerobatics was a routine for all fighter squadrons, and Hanna developed a passion for this form of flying.

His appointment to the Overseas Ferry Squadron provided him with the opportunity to fly a wide variety of jet fighters. He ferried the early Hunters from Britain to India and the Far East; this involved flying over Pakistan, where he was often intercepted by Pakistani fighters, enabling him to indulge in mock combat when fuel reserves allowed.

On one occasion Hanna was returning a Vampire fighter to Britain when the aircraft's only engine failed over India and he was unable to restart it. He eventually made a skilful crash-landing amongst a series of giant anthills close to a railway line. He waited for a passing train, which stopped for him; but the Indian guard refused to let him board since he was unable to pay the fare. Hanna finally offered his watch as payment; the guard scribbled out an IOU and allowed him to travel.

After qualifying as a flying instructor, Hanna became a member of the Meteor aerobatic team at the College of Air Warfare, and in 1965 he was selected to join the new Red Arrows team on its formation.

Hanna led the Red Arrows for four years, the longest of any of the team's leaders, but in 1971 he decided to leave the RAF to begin a new career in civil aviation. Initially he flew the Boeing 707 for Lloyd International Airways, followed by seven years with Cathay Pacific operating from Hong Kong. In 1979 he headed a company operating executive Boeing 707s, which operated worldwide.

Shortly before leaving the RAF Hanna had been approached by Sir Adrian Swire, who had recently purchased a Spitfire IX. Swire invited him to fly and display the aircraft at a time when there were few of the wartime fighters flying regularly. This proved to be the beginning of a unique relationship between Hanna and MH 434 (the aircraft's serial number), an association which will be one of the lasting memories for Hanna's countless admirers.

In 1981, together with his only son Mark, whom he had taught to fly when he was 16, Hanna founded the Old Flying Machine Company, specialising in the restoration and operation of classic "warbirds" such as the Mustang, Spitfire and Kittyhawk. In addition to appearances at hundreds of airshows, Hanna and his son and their pilots were in regular demand by the film industry. Some of their flying sequences in the films Empire of the Sun (1987) and Memphis Belle (1990) were breathtaking in their skill and audacity. After seeing the stunning sequences in the former, Stephen Spielberg insisted that Hanna and his pilots should provide the flying elements for his film Saving Private Ryan (199. Hanna also featured in the 1988 television series Piece of Cake, a drama about an RAF fighter squadron.

Hanna regularly shipped some of the company's aircraft to his native New Zealand to participate in the Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow, recognised as the premier warbird flying event in the southern hemisphere. In later years he established a branch of his company in New Zealand.

In September 1999 Mark Hanna's death in Spain, whilst flying a restored Me 109 fighter, was a devastating blow; but Ray Hanna vowed to continue their joint work, and the Old Flying Machine Company continues to be a major force today.

Hanna retained his passion for flying to the end, and six weeks before his death he was practising formation aerobatics in Spitfire MH 434. An internationally-renowned airshow pilot who was flying alongside him on that occasion has commented: "At every stage of a flying routine, one had utter trust in his skill and judgment - he was the doyen of display pilots."

Hanna was never afraid to be blunt when the occasion demanded, but his intolerance of bureaucracy and all but the very highest standards was tempered by his great modesty, warmth and approachability.

For his leadership of the Red Arrows, Hanna was awarded a Bar to the AFC he had received earlier. He also received numerous international awards, including the Britannia Trophy. In 2000 the Air League awarded him the Jeffrey Quill Medal for his "outstanding contribution to the development of air-mindedness in Britain's youth".

A very great loss indeed to the Warbird community.