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Those known to have served at RAF Brindisi, italy during the Second World War 1939-1945. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
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Add a Name to this List
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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
Announcements
- 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time.
- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 25 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 19th Nov 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than
264989 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
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Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our
Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them.
The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
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Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Want to know more about RAF Brindisi, italy? There are:39 items tagged RAF Brindisi, italy available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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L.A.C William Hugh Steed Flight Mech. 462 Squadron I was called up in 1941 and did my basic training at Boscombe, Bournemouth. Followed by Technical training at RAF Hednesford and was posted overseas in 1942 in troopship HMT F1 Arundal Castle. I joined 462 squadron, then at Fayid on nightly bombing of the German supply ports of Benghasi and Tobruk. We moved up the desert after Alemien and when the war in Africa ended I was posted to 148 ( SOE ) squadron engaged in dropping supplies and agents to Tito and other resistance groups. We moved to Brindisi in Italy and were amongst the squadrons that attempted to supply the Polish Home Army fighting in Warsaw in 1944 and suffered horrendous losses as a result.
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Bert Drummond 111 Squadron My dad, Bert Drummond, was with 111 Sqn and flew Mk V Spitfires into Cuers in North Marseilles in early 1945 to the Free French. When there were six planes, they would send a Dakota to fly the pilots back to Brindisi Maintenance Unit in South East Italy. They used long range tanks which they would jettison into the Med when empty. He had colleagues called Eddie Fox and Dai Deverell.
My dad is 86 in Dec and I would dearly love some more information on what he and his colleagues got up to, and also to hear from anyone who knew him then because he is not very forthcoming about his exploits.
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WO. Bonifacy "Bonek" Banasik KW & Bar. 301 Squadron (d.2002) Bonifacy Banasik was my father-in-law. He was born in Czestochowa, Poland in 1912. He lost his father in 1918 or 1919. There is no clear record of his father's death except that his dad went off to war and was killed, grave site unknown. He graduated from his hometown schools and then attended Mechanical School in Warsaw. From 1932 to 34 he served in the 3rd Air Regiment, Polish Air Force and then remained in the Polish Air Force Reserves until 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland.
At that time, he was reported to have destroyed a Nazi plane and went into hiding. The Nazis captured and tortured his mother but finally released her after she signed a document saying she did not know his whereabouts and would report him immediately if he returned to her. Otherwise, she herself and the rest of by the family would be killed. Bonek, as he was called, fled into Russia, was captured by the Russians and sent to a Siberian Concentration POW camp in the Ussa River area, from which he managed to escape. He eventually found his way to England in 1942 and served in the Polish 301 (Pomerania) Squadron of the RAF. There he met my English mother-in-law who served in NAFFI and they married in 1944. She related stories to me of how he would go on bombing missions and she feared never seeing him again. She said he served in and we recently saw his photo posted on another site while in Brindisi. After the war, he brought his family to the US in 1954 where he worked as a design engineer. He passed away in 2002.
Dad rarely spoke of his war days and we never knew of his Cross of Valor award with Bar or his title of Defenders of Warsaw until a few months before he died. He never saw his mother again. (She died in 1955). He returned to Poland only once in 1974, still fearing reprisal. After his return he stopped all contact with his family. They found us on Fb in 2016 and we were reunited last year in Poland.
I am writing this to share his story and honour his memory.
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LAC. Leo Bernard Lamb No. 73 Squadron My dad, Leo Lamb served with the RAF during World War II. He signed up in 1940 and went out to North Africa with No. 73 Squadron. On completion of their duties in North Africa, the squadron were then transferred to Italy where the use of Hurricanes was changed to Spitfires. I have traced his movements to Montecorvino (Oct to Dec 1943), to Foggia Main (Dec 1943 to Sept 1944), then onto Canne (Sept 1944 to April 1945). During this spell, detachments were transferred to Hassani in Greece (Sept to Dec 1944), Prkos in Yugoslavia (April to May 1945) plus Brindisi in Italy (May to July 1945).
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