Add Information to Record of a Person who served during the Second World War on The Wartime Memories Project Website

256624 F/Lt. Donald William Thompson DFC. Royal Air Force B Flight 51 Squadron from:Bournemouth My father Donald Thompson was called up May 1941 and after initial flight training was sent to Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada and then onto Basic flying training school at Terrell Field, Texas. By April 1943 he was a qualified pilot and posted to 51 Squadron. Here he carried out 27 missions in his Halifax MK2. One of the scariest moments was on the night of 12th/13th of May 1943 flying Halifax DT637 he was returning from a raid on Duisburg when, with poor visibility, the crew were diverted to Riccall airfield. With a port engine leaking glycolgone and out of action, and running out of fuel, they landed and over shot the runway into a ditch. The Halifax was badly damaged, but the good news was that all of the crew survived. He was later awarded a DFC for services to 51 squadron and promoted to F/O and later in August 1945 to Flight Lieutenant. Please type your message:      We recommend you copy the text about this item and keep a copy on your own computer before pressing submit. Your Name:             Email Address:       @ **Please type the first part our your email in the first box (eg. john.smith) the @ sign is added automaticallly, please type the second part in the second box (eg. gmail.com). Do not enter your full email in each box or add an @ sign or random spaces.** Please type in the code shown here:    If you are unable to read the code please click here. If you have received an error message for incorrect code, please click to refresh the code before resending. This should overcome the error message.