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Graphic Gallery >> Photos & Cameras >> A Victoria Cross /yabb?num=1360010846 Message started by C on Feb 4th, 2013 at 3:47pm |
Title: A Victoria Cross Post by C on Feb 4th, 2013 at 3:47pm
Over the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to fulfill a "pilgrimage" (for want of a better word) to the grave of one of the Royal Air Force's finest pilots of the second world war. Most would immediately think of Bader, Cheshire, or Gibson (whose grave I did also visit in the village cemetery at Steenbergen in the Netherlands), but the man I refer to is certainly not as well known as any of those.
24 year old Sqn Ldr R A M ("Bob") Palmer had already completed three tours of 30 ops each (and several more) by the 23rd of December 1944, being awarded a DFC and a bar to it in the process. Starting as a Sgt pilot, he was commissioned, and eventually ended up flying Mosquitos with 109 Sqn as part of 8 Gp, the Pathfinder Force, becoming an expert in the use of OBOE, a radio precision bombing aid. On 23rd December 1944 he led an unusual daylight raid on a German target - the Gremberg marshalling yards in Cologne. It would be his 110th operational sortie. To add to the unusual circumstances he and his navigator, 21 year old Flt Lt George Russell DFC were not flying their usual Mosquito, but a Lancaster of 582 Sqn, alongside the usual crew of Flt Lt Owen Milne. The date is significant - the 23rd December 1944 is right in the thick of the Battle of the Bulge, and disrupting the Nazi logistical operation was critical. Cloud was forecast over the target, but as OBOE was being used, this wasn't an issue. 27 Lancasters and 3 Mosquitos took part in the raid. The cloud over the target had dispersed by the time the formation arrived, but a radio message cancelling the raid was either never received, or possibly ignored. The formation carried out the attack. Palmer stuck to the OBOE beam like glue, despite numerous fighter attacks leaving the aircraft on fire and on two engines by the time the target was reached. Dead on target, on the OBOE signal, the bombs rained down on Gremberg; after his aircraft's bombs were released, Palmer finally lost control, and his Lancaster crashed within the perimeter of the Gremberg yards. Palmer, Russell and Milne's crew were all killed, bar the tail gunner, who was thrown from his turret. Palmer's Victoria Cross (roughly equivalent to the US' Medal of Honor) was gazetted on 23rd March 1945. Quote:
My interest? Bob Palmer's portrait and citation hang in the hall of my old school, which he attended in the 1930s. |
Title: Re: A Victoria Cross Post by ozzy72 on Feb 5th, 2013 at 2:49pm
A true legend. It is true, the good die young.
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Title: Re: A Victoria Cross Post by Zaphod on Feb 5th, 2013 at 3:30pm ozzy72 wrote on Feb 5th, 2013 at 2:49pm:
Ozzy, I couldn't agree more. Lest we forget. Zaphod. |
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