31-07-2008, 03:14 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Terra something or other
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You're Top Poster: #1 Points: 15,560, Level: 80 | | Search for details of lost Spitfire pilot
Search for details of lost Spitfire pilot - News - Middleton Guardian Quote:
WE all have hidden gems lurking in our basements, but one lucky find on the Fylde coast has led to a plea to the people of Middleton for help.
Leader of Fylde Borough Council, Councillor John Coombes, says he has found some old boxes containing details of a Spitfire that residents and councillors of Lytham St Annes helped to buy back in 1941.
The find, in the cellars of the town hall, has now sparked a search for more details on the history of the aircraft and the brave pilots that flew her during the Second World War.
And it seems the trail has led to Middleton.
The aircraft was sent to Active Air Service Training at Hamble on 1 August, 1941, for repairs and although there is no information as to what these repairs were for, the plane was delivered back to RAF Brize Norton.
From February 1942 she served with No 19 squadron, flying Ramrod and Rhubarb operations.
But sadly on 23 June 1942, the fighter was shot down by a German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and crashed into the sea off Star Point.
Its pilot was Sgt Alan Lever Ridings, 20, from Middleton. Sgt Lever is still listed as missing and is commemorated on panel 92 of the Runnymede Memorial.
Councillor Coombes said: "The trail has grown cold and we are hoping that there may still be some surviving family of Alan, still living in the Middleton area, that may have a photo of the pilot with his aircraft. It would be the final piece in the jigsaw and would help put together a fitting tribute to the pilots and aircraft of WWII which would be on permanent public display in the St Annes Town Hall."
The residents of Lytham St.Annes raised the required £5000 for a Spitfire, and the Ministry of Aircraft Production matched it with the other £5000 to pay for its construction in 1941.
Cllr Coombes added: "With an ever reducing number of veterans remaining, we run the risk of losing these memories for ever, it is the current generations responsibility to ensure that we preserve such historical facts and where possible record and display them for all to admire and remember."
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