Add Information to Record of a Person who served during the Second World War on The Wartime Memories Project Website
Add Information to Record of a Person who served during the Second World War on The Wartime Memories Project Website
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237804
Sgt. Henry Tennyson "Bob" Exiled
Royal Air Force 207 Squadron
from:Market Harborough, Leics
My father, Bob Exley, flew in Lancaster ME631 and was shot down in April 1944 and spent the next year in various camps including Stalag Luft VI. He rarely talked about it, but one evening late in his life, I got him to tell me abut being shot down and parachuting into trees in the Black Forest. He talked about the silence once he had landed after all the noise, and then the sound of the Squadron returning home, a lonely feeling.
In 2011, my daughter and I went to the site of the crash, to meet with other relatives of the crew members, and also to a German chap who had collected pieces of the plane as a boy, fascinated by the stories of planes coming down near his village. It was an incredibly moving and somewhat healing experience.