Bomber boys final reunion
The perils of war could not take them down, but time has finally taken its toll on Nelson’s veterans of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command.
Four of the five surviving World War II servicemen attended their 50th and final luncheon on Friday.
RNZAF Lancaster pilot Rex Waters, RNZAF Lancaster navigator Dave Knight, RAF Mosquito ground crew engineer Geoff Pattenden and RAF Mosquito pilot John Beeching gathered at NMIT’s Rata Room Restaurant for a final reunion, 72 years after their war service in Europe concluded.
Lancaster pilot Buzz Spilman was the only absentee from the event because ill health.
Spilman and Knight were members of the No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron, which flew more sorties than any other Allied heavy bomber squadron, and suffered the second most casualties of all Allied squadrons.
Joining family and friends of the crewmen were Nelson MP Nick Smith, deputy mayor Paul Matheson, representatives of the Returned Services Association, Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the NZ Bomber Command Association.
The first lunch gathering in 1993 drew around 20 servicemen.
Almost a quarter of a century later, the numbers have dwindled and with those left now in their 90s, the men have decided this will be their last time together.
London-born Beeching said while ‘‘natural attrition’’ had shrunk the local membership, the camaraderie had not diminished over the years.
‘‘We never seem to run out of things to talk about, it’s a perennial subject that keeps on being perennial.’’
Beeching said he still vividly recalled the feeling of flying Mosquito planes on numerous bombing missions over Germany that lasted up to six hours at at time.
‘‘It had probably the worst aircraft seat ever devised – the seat went up and down but the arm rest stayed still – there was less space in the cockpit of a Mosquito than there was in a Morris Minor.’’
Knight - now 93 - said the nature of air operations gave little opportunity to forge close bonds during the war.
‘‘It’s not like the army where you make friends because you’re living with them over a long period – with an air crew you’re busy doing your scheduled activities – crew members came and went and of course many of them perished.’’
Air crew that served on the command suffered one of the highest fatality rates on the allied side during WW2 with over 40 per cent of the 125,000 air crew killed and 8,325 aircraft lost in action.
Luncheon organiser Graham Pullyn, whose father Phillip was a bomber command veteran but died in 1999, said the sacrifice of the command went largely unrecognised following the war but has attracted growing recognition in recent years.
Beeching and Spilman were present when the bomber command memorial was unveiled by the Queen at London in 2012, while the crews’ efforts were finally recognised in the medal system with the issue of the bomber command clasp in 2013.
While the acknowledgement was not forthcoming in Pullyn’s father’s lifetime, he was proud to finally have some recognition in his family’s possession.
‘‘We owe you and your colleagues a huge debt of gratitude for the sacrifice and contribution you have made to allow us to live in our free societies today,’’ an emotional Pullyn said in addressing the veterans.