Wartime Bible returned to family - 75 years on
The friendship of two war heroes from opposite sides of the world has been pieced together 75 years after their deaths, thanks to the discovery of a Bible in Staplehurst. The holy book, which belonged to Flight Sergeant Morgan Swap, a wireless operator with the New Zealand Air Force during the Second World War, was found by Alison Round.
Her uncle, Sergeant Edward Finch, an upper gunner known as Teddy, was a comrade of Flt Sgt Swap’s in 153 Squadron. Mrs Round, 54, said: “I was just going through my aunt’s belongings after she passed away when I found this little blue Bible which I had never seen before. “It had been given to somebody called Morgan Swap. I had never heard of him before but since finding that Bible, I found out more about the flight crew and what happened to my uncle than I ever thought I’d know.” It was this moment that triggered a series of events taking Alison and her husband Paul, 55, halfway across the world to return the Bible to the Swap family in New Zealand. Mrs Round added: “After a lot of research I found out that Morgan was the youngest of four brothers from a town called Matamata in New Zealand. “Morgan was on the same Lancaster Bomber as my uncle. It crashed over Germany after a night raid on March 16, 1945. This was just seven weeks before the end of the war in Europe.”
Ten Lancaster Bombers from the 153 Squadron flew out to bomb Nuremberg that evening and only nine made it back.
All seven men on board were killed. Morgan was 22 and Teddy just 20 years old.
Mrs Round added: “It was so tragic as it was their first operation together and they were all so young, just boys.”
Alison and Paul were returning to New Zealand, where they had got married, for their silver wedding anniversary and felt compelled to return the bible to Flt Sgt Swap’s family.
They managed to track them down online and arranged to meet at their home in Matamata in March - 75 years after their ancestors’ plane was shot down. Mrs Round said: “We exchanged photos of our visits to the Durnbach War Cemetery in
‘We met as strangers but said goodbye as friends, just like Teddy and Morgan’
Germany where the crew were buried and that’s when we realised we’d all been there at different times throughout the years. “It was a really special moment, it seemed to be fate. We met as strangers but said goodbye as friends, just like Teddy and Morgan.”
Despite the devastation of losing seven men, 153 Squadron continued serving to the end of the war and, when the hostilities were over, was called upon to drop food parcels to the Dutch. The crew was given special permission to fly over St Paul’s in London on VE Day to see the celebrations en route to Holland.