The Longest Day

On the night of 21 June 1943 my father, a bomb aimer/navigator on an RAF Halifax, was shot down and on the run in Nazi occupied Holland. This is a photo of him ( far left) with three of his great pals, from the seven crew members of his original crew. The pilot, Flight Sergeant Edwin Sims, RAAF, is the jaunty fellow in the middle of the front row, ( Everything's apples!" was his favourite saying, according to my mother) To his left is a Canadian and chap at the back is from Northumberland, England. ( I have all their names but cannot yet identify which is which due to my father now being dead and my 87 yr old mother's fading memory). On the 21 June, bomb aimers being in short supply (!) my father volunteered to join another crew on their mission that night even though he was not on duty. His plane was shot down but he survived, with the help of some very brave young Dutch Resistence helpers. Sadly all the other members of his original crew, died on their mission the following night. Two are remembered on the Runnymede Memorial ( bodies unrecovered), Sims is buried in a Belgium Commomwealth Graves Cemetary (CGC) and his name appears in the Roll of Honour in the Australian War Memorial. I am researching the others.

The story of my father's evasion from Holland and his young helpers has been touched on in the book , "Shot Down and on the Run" published a couple of years ago. He was one of only three airmen to evade capture and escape from Holland by sea during WWII. The helpers were extraordinarily brave. The leader of the group was just 27 and his own escape, having been betrayed to the Nazis, was touched on in a 1948 Time Magazine report of a US tour by 29 students from europe and the Middle East, applauded by Dwight Eisenhower. ( Six degrees of separation anybody?)

Anyway, this was my Dad and I loved him.
   

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