Flight Logs & Diaries - October 1944 to January 1945

So here we are at the end of the flight logs and diaries for Mom and Dad's war. I will be inserting some other photos as I find them over the next while but the this project is almost finished. It has been a long journey. I found out some very interesting things about my Mom and Dad's lives from 1938 through 1945. There are still some gaps and questions but they may have to wait for a while as I digest it all.

As I said at the beginning of this blog, this project would not have happened without the material in my possession now plus material that has come to me from siblings and relatives and great friends along the way.

I remember back in the 90s transcribing the logs and the diaries. I had just retired from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and this was a good way to unwind. I gave copies of that document to siblings and cousins at a family reunion.

Then there was a gap of over 10 years. When my cousins John and David got fired up over those documents and I had acquired a scanner, the project took on a new life. And if you go back to the beginning of this blog, you'll see how it all unfolded.

There are still some entries in Dad's second log book which were made in dribs and drabs into the 1950s. After I do some work on this past part, I will enter them here as well.

I will save some final words for the very end. But it's been a trip!

Anne C.

Flight Logs & Diaries - June to September, 1944

Flight Logs & Diaries - April to May, 1944

My Dad and me in Chester.

This photo is labelled 130 Punjab Squadron. Dad is in the second row and second from the left.

Diaries - March, 1944

Not too much here.

Diaries - February, 1943

This is who Leigh Mallory was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafford_Leigh-Mallory.

The telegram above is from Dad's parents in Ottawa.

Diaries - January, 1944

This is the month when Dad received the Distinguished Flying Cross. Here is the entry in The London Gazette.

And then there is a long gap in Dad's flight logs until April of this year. One of Mom's entries says he was posted to Grangemouth which seems to have been a training base. I'll wait to hear from the "experts" on this.

In the meantime, here are Mom's diary entries for January, 1944. Her beloved brother Bill came to see us this month. He was Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Army and was one of the soldiers who helped to liberate the Netherlands. I think he was in the Service Corps. Mom's friend Pat Pimlott took the photo of the three of us.

I think some of Mom's entries are really revealing. She went to meet Dad in Newcastle and says he seemed to be much better. She adds that she thinks it's "just his nerves bothering him".