War Memories - Peggy and George Wood

My Nana and Grandad, Peggy and George Wood, were involved in the war. My Uncle went into the RAF because my Grandad was in the RAF.

My Grandad was a Flying Officer in 525 Squadron on a Dakota C47 flight 562, on a flight from Lyneham to Karachi and back. The journey lasted 10 days and started on 13th October 1944. (Photos of flight schedule)

On arriving over the Brittany coastline, flak was sighted from St Nazaire. Unfortunately, the plane was very low on fuel and would not make it to the British coastline. A decision was made to land on farmland in St Nazaire, near Nantes. The 'Maquis' saw the plane descending to their land, ran out with camouflage tarpaulin, hurriedly covered the plane, and towed it under trees. The Nazis were in the next village. After such a long journey, the crew and passengers were very grateful to be welcomed for a cooked chicken dinner and overnight accommodation. The USAAF were in the village on the opposite side to the Germans. They managed to get aviation fuel to the Dakota, enabling it to continue on its journey to Nantes, then on to Rennes. From Rennes, they flew to Lyneham, arriving on 23rd October 1944 at 09:10. The total time of this journey was 53 hours.

This was the only 'story' Dad told us, as since reading the whole logbook of his experiences during WWII, he always kept them 'in the past'.

Dad finished his time with the RAFVR as Flt/Lt.