220760 W/O. Raymond Thomas Marquet Royal New Zealand Air Force 75 Squadron from:Christchurch, NZ My father, Ray Marquet, joined the RNZAF in 1940 aged 21.
He was trained as an observer (gun aimer) at Jervis 1 Bomber school
in Ontario Canada passing as a navigator on Ansons and later Wellington bombers. He flew 13 operations before being shot down over Benghazi on 3rd of April 1942.
He and all the crew bailed out safely with only the rear gunner Joe Galland spraining his ankle on impact with the Western Desert.
They were taken in by the local tribesmen who initially looked after them, but after a few days alerted the local German troops of their whereabouts (an entire Wellington bomber crew would have been a good prize.)
They were taken to Germany and housed at Dulag Luft where my dad (who was a jazz pianist in his spare time before the war) entertained the troops. He was actually kept there longer than was normal as he was judged to be good for morale.
He was later sent to Stalag Luft 4B where he stayed for 3 1/2 years until the war ended. He never really talked about this time, but when he was demobbed and sent home to NZ he weighed 6 stone (he was a strapping 6 footer before the war).
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