Family learn of RAF man's dangerous missions

[Kyt]

Family learn of RAF man's dangerous missions - ChronicleLive

A QUIET hero’s tale of death and derring do over war-time Germany has been unearthed after more than 60 years.

Tommy Walker had been a tail gunner in a Halifax bomber who distinguished himself during a raid over Germany in 1943.

But when he left the RAF and returned home to North Seaton, near Ashington, he put his five service medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the 1939-45 Star, into a drawer, where they stayed out of sight for the rest of his days.

He died in 1983 having barely mentioned the war or his distinguished service to his son Philip, now 59.

“He just didn’t talk about it, like a lot of other people who had been through the War,” said Mr Walker, a joiner, of New Sandridge, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea.

More than 60 years after they were awarded, the medals were taken to a professional restorer in Newcastle, who was amazed at their condition and said the only explanation was that they had never been touched.

The medals were taken to be restored by Matt Janson, Philip Walker’s son-in-law, who wanted to have them professionally cleaned and framed as a Christmas gift for his father-in-law.

Mr Janson, 37, said: “I worked for Britannia Airways for 17 years and when I met my wife Claire, 15 years ago I was interested to learn that her grandfather had been in the RAF.

“About five years ago I started trying to find out more about him and wrote to the RAF and 51 Squadron, who he flew with. But nothing came back. I was on the internet at the time, but I could not find anything there either.”

After moving home to just outside Morpeth he did not use the internet for the next three years, but recently rejoined and within 24 hours had found the answers to most of his questions.

“I knew the skipper of Tommy’s Halifax bomber was called Reg Levy and when I first searched the internet a few years ago the only information it gave me was that after the war he had become a pilot for the Belgian airline Sabina and was involved in a hijacking. But this time when I put his name in I got a lot more information. One of the items was a piece in a South African newspaper about Reg.”

Mr Levy was one of the 140 people saved on May 9, 1972, when a dozen Israeli commandos stormed his aircraft, which had been hijacked by Black September, a Palestinian Liberation Organisation splinter group, after leaving Vienna, where it had stopped on a flight from Brussels to Tel Aviv.

Mr Janson managed to trace Mr Levy through his daughter and contacted him at his home in Dover.

Now aged 85, Mr Levy said he remembers his crewmate Tommy Walker well.

“I have very good memories and was lucky to have him in what was an outstanding crew,” he said. “We flew together from Snaith, near Selby from July or August 1943 until our last trip together on January 28, 1944.”

He added that the raid over Mannheim was one of the “nastiest” they faced. They were caught in the beam of many searchlights on the way home and the pilot had to throw his aircraft around the sky to dodge the fire from enemy aircraft.

As tail gunner, Tommy Walker had the worst of the ride because of the whiplash effect, said Mr Levy.

He added: “Tommy was a fine crew member who saved all our lives on many occasions by his phenomenal night vision and lightning quick reactions. Your survival depended on absolute, complete crew co-operation, and a lot of luck and Tommy was always to be relied upon.”

[spidge]

How much these lads went through night after night must have been horrific. Many just wanted to forget.