Fred Wheeler
Wireless operator who made 60 bombing missions over Europe
FRED WHEELER, who has died aged 100, survived 60 bombing operations as a wireless operator and air gunner and was awarded the DFM.
At the outbreak of the war, the 20-year old Wheeler lost no time in volunteering for aircrew duties in the RAF. After completing his training he joined 214 Squadron at Stradishall in Suffolk and flew his first operation, to Bremen, on March 12 1941.
Returning from a raid on Lorient in France, his Wellington was badly damaged and all electrical supplies were lost, including the navigation equipment. Running short of fuel, the pilot was forced to crashland in a field. Not knowing where they were, the crew were relieved to hear an English voice call out: “Are you OK, chaps?”
By the end of July, Wheeler and his crew had completed 28 operations with just two more to fly before being rested. To their surprise, they were told that “as the most experienced crew in the squadron” they had been selected to fly a specially modified Wellington capable of carrying the new 4,000lb bomb; their target was Berlin. They found the target, released the bomb and made the long flight back over enemy territory, landing after an eight-hour flight.
Four days later they bombed Mannheim and completed their tour of operations. Wheeler left the squadron to be an instructor at a bomber-training unit.
Frederick James Wheeler was born on April 29 1919 and educated at the Royal Masonic School, Bushey Park. At his training unit at Moreton-in-marsh, Wheeler flew with crews who had recently completed their initial flying training. He commented on some of the hazards for an instructor: “There we trained ‘sprog’ wireless operators flying with ‘sprog’ pilots on their first solos, which was often scary!”
During his time as an instructor he flew on three of the first “One Thousand” bomber raids when experienced instructors at the training units were used to supplement the main bomber force.
Wheeler returned to operations in April 1944 when he joined the newly formed 578 Squadron (RAAF) based in Yorkshire and flying the four-engined Halifax. Initially, many of
the targets were in northern France in support of the build-up to the Normandy invasion. He flew his first operation on May 1 1944 to Malines, and over the next few weeks attacked V-1 rocket launch sites and road and rail communications.
During this period, his pilot was frequently unfit to fly so Wheeler volunteered to fly with other crews who were short of a wireless operator. On August 12, when Wheeler flew his 60th and final operation to bomb Rüsselsheim, a Focke-wulf 190 fighter attacked his Halifax but was fought off by the two air gunners.
Two days later his CO informed him that he had been awarded the DFM and a commission. The citation commented on his “outstanding ability and enthusiasm”.
He became an instructor at a heavy bomber-training unit, and after the armistice he flew on “Cook’s Tours”, when the bombers took ground crew on flights to see the damage caused by the bombing campaign. “It was terrible to see the awful damage to the cities,” he recalled. “Especially I remember Cologne, completely destroyed, except for the cathedral which looked unscathed.”
During his last year of service he took a postal course in surveying, and after leaving the RAF he spent 32 years as a surveyor for the electricity supply industry. He covered the whole of East Anglia and attributed his long life to a working career spent mostly outdoors.
He sang in a local choir well into his nineties and travelled 20 miles each week to do his shopping until a year before his death.
Fred Wheeler’s wife Gwen died in 1999, and their son survives him.