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Sgt. John Porrelli . Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 514 Sqdn. from Bradford (d.16th June 1944) My father, John Porrelli and crew were lost after a raid on Valenciennes on 16th June 1944. Six of the crew are buried at Croisilles British War Cemetery (one member survived and evaded capture). I have a photo of the funeral cortege. It was taken by the brave French resistance I believe. If anyone has an interest or further information about the crew please email me.
His Lancaster was DS816 JI-O. The full crew were:
F/Sgt C.F. Prowles, KIA
Sgt. H.A. Osborn, KIA
F/Sgt R.B. Spencer, KIA
Sgt. R. Surtees, KIA
Sgt. J. Porrelli, KIA
Sgt. A.A.Holmes, KIA
F/O A.H.Morrison, evaded capture
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Horace C. Porrett . British Army Horace Porrett served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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A.C.I/LAC Donald George Porritt . Royal Air Force MU/MEF 107 B Squadron from Bradford I have found many photos of my father,- Palestine, Egypt, RAF Halton and Cosford.
I think he may have joined up in Jan 1940? - RAF Malton, in A Squadron initially. He was in Egypt by June 1941.
One or two of the photos, have all the names on the back, a group, with names, is dated 28th Aug. Cosford. Block 3. A squadron. 2 Wing. RAF Malton.
I will happily attempt to copy some of the photos if needed.
My father was in the RAF after the war, based in Ismalia, by now married, with mum and me as a baby.
He died in 1950, polio, having left the RAF in approx.1949.
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Pte. John Porritt . British Army 1st Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment John Porritt enlisted into the Northamptonshire Regiment on the 16th of August 1934 and was posted out to the 1st Battalion in India where he earned the India General Service Medal 1936-37. The Battalion was in Burma from 1943 and he was finally discharged on the 16th of August 1946.
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Cpl. Dan D. Port . Royal Air Force No. 39 Maintenance Unit from Broomfield, Kent Whilst serving in the Motor Transport section of 39 MU at RAF Colerne, Dan Port met my mother.
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RV Port . British Army RV Port served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Able Sea. Thomas John Port . Royal Navy HMS Anthony from Aldbourn, Wiltshire
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John Porte . British Army 240 Coy Royal Army Service Corps from Hull Jack Porte served with 240 Company, Royal Army Service Corps.
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Supply Ass. Andrew Goldie Porteous . Royal Navy HMS Prunella (d.21st Jun 1940)
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J Porteous . British Army Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders J Porteous served with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Sub.Lt.(E) James Porteous . Royal Naval Reserve HMS Forfar from Glasgow, Scotland (d.2nd Dec 1940)
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Sgt. Lawrence Stokes Porteous . British Army Seaforth Highlanders from Scotland, Edinburgh
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Sgt. Thomas Porteous . Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 144 Squadron (d.6th Jul 1941) Thomas Porteous who died aged 25 was born in Jarrow in 1915 to William Scott Porteous and Mary Porteous (nee Harvey) of Jarrow.
Thomas is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial and is commemorated on the WW2 Roll of Honour Plaque in the entrance of Jarrow Town Hall.
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Sgt. Alec Porter . Royal Air Force 9 Squadron from Carlisle (d.22nd May 1944) My uncle Alec Porter was, I think, bomb aimer on Lancaster DV395 code letters WSV on a bombing mission over Duisberg on the night of 21/22 May 1944 & was missing presumed killed. He was 20 years old. He trained in Canada originally as a pilot but failed a medical. I'm not sure if he was a bomb aimer or navigator.
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Fireman Arthur John Porter . Auxiilary Fire Service from Abbey Road, London Arthur Porter was my father who joined the AFS and was based at Lords Cricket Ground in St John's Wood. The vehicles used to tow the pump were London taxis, now known as black cabs. He went through the London Blitz fighting the numerous fires.
He was eventually invalided out because of a hernia, but was then called up for the Army in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps finishing up in North Africa and Italy.
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Flt Sgt Bernard Leslie Porter . Royal Air Force from Downpatrick, N.Ireland I am trying to trace anyone who was in the evacuation of Crete. My father, Barney Porter, was one of the last to leave and told us very little of the fierce fighting except that the serving men were held back in order for the Belgian royal family to get out on one of the last planes. Does anyone know anything of this?
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W/O Denis Porter . Royal Air Force 550 Squadron from Glasgow Hi,
I have my uncles (in law!) log books and bombing records while with 550 Sqd 1943-45. He was W/O Denis Porter, from Glasgow, who survived to become a teacher and deputy Headmaster in Glasgow. He flew with P/O Vaughn. Anyone interested in this stuff? I can scan and send pages from logbook. It makes sparse but terrific reading..with 'sticky landings' mentioned.
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Sgt E J C Porter . Royal Air Force 434 Bluenose Squadron. (d.20th Jan 1944)
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W/C E. L. Porter DFC.. 97 Squadron
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Capt. Eric Oakley Herbert Porter . British Army from New Milton Eric Porter was my father. He was born in 1908 and died in 1970.
He volunteered and joined the army in 1939 but did not see active service in the fighting as he had contracted a duodenal ulcer. He spent a large part of the war looking after POWs at the camp in Mardy, initially Italian soldiers and latterly German.
He resided with me and my mother billeted in a farm house belonging to the Evans family next to the camp. I have memories of crossing over a small fence from there and going into the camp when it was occupied by the Italian POWs and recall talking to an Italian soldier called Grinisi, this was probably in early 1944. At this stage the Italians were no longer belligerents.
My father continued looking after POWs at the end of the war and was posted to a Reception Camp (64 if I recall correctly) in Kuala Lumpar for the Japanese soldiers after the surrender. For a while families were not allowed to accompany serving soldiers but this was relaxed in 1946 and I and my mother sailed to Malaya in the Britannic and stayed there until the time of Indian independence. Schooling was carried out by the Army Education Corps and my teacher (who taught me to read) was a Sergeant Judge. We returned to the UK on the Georgic and were lucky enough to dock at Bombay over the few days that India got its independence.
My father was demobbed on his return to the UK and continued his prewar career as a banker with National Bank of Egypt.
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CSM. Frank Edward Porter MID.. British Army 4th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment from Sturminster Newton, Dorset Frank Porter served with D Coy, 4th Battalion, the Dorsets from early 1930 thro'to 1945.The 4th were a
Territional Regiment of volunteer soldiers.
Prior to D-Day+4 he trained with his men around bases in the South of England. The main and final camp was at St.Martins Plain,Folkstone,Kent.
Invasion for them was at the time of the "Great Storm" in the Channel just before the break-up of the Mulberry Harbour at Arromanche. Just the first of many hair-raising exploits I was to find out over time in the war over Europe. Wherever the fighting was the hardest the 4th Dorsets were in the thick of it!! But Old Frank made it through. The toughest test was in September 1944 at a small Dutch town call Arnhem.
The 4th were, as in army parlance "volunteered", for the suicidal rescue of the remaining Parachute Brigade. No words could convey the horrors or the heroism of that night of all who took part in the action. Frank said "It was down to a tin of bullybeef and some fags". He forgot to mention he was Mentioned in Despatches for what he alone did.
The heavy fighting continued right to the very end of the war with no let-up and a great many casualties.Frank's re-enforcements were largely 18-19 year old "Brummies", Dorset dialect and Birmingham accents!! Bet that confused the "Jerry".
The post-script to Frank's military career was on Lindenburgh Heath with the Battalion lined-up to give him a "Military General Salute" and a rousing farewell. Frank and Lil (his devoted wife) supported the RBL and attended all Regimental Re-unions until his death.
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Pte. George Harry Porter . British Army Gordon Highlanders
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Pte. George Harry Porter . British Army Gordon Highlanders from Glasgow, Scotland My dad George Porter enlisted on the 16th of October and served with the BEF in France from 19th of April 1940 to the 12th of June 1940. He was captured at Valery-en-Caux, France and was marched through France, Belgium and Holland. Then in the holds of barges down the Rhine to Emmirch, from there loaded into trucks and made the journey to Thorn, Poland. No food or water for days. Then onto Danzig then later transferred to Marienberg, Poland. Where he remained until January 1945 when his camp was liberated by the Russians. He finally made it back to the UK by the end of March 1945.
My dad didn't talk about the war, or what happened to him. A few years prior to his death in 2004, he wrote his memories down and handed me the diary, told me to not ask any more questions as he just wanted to put that in the past.
I typed these out and also applied for his war medals, but he would neither look at the newly typed document or accept the medals, telling me to give these to his grandchildren.
My dad was my hero.
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Flt.Sgt. Harvey James Porter . Royal Australian Air Force 103 Squadron from Five Dock, New South Wales, Australia (d.13th March 1945) Flight Sergeant Harvey Porter was the son of John James Porter and Stella May Porter, of Five Dock, New South Wales, Australia.
He was 20 when he died and is buried in a joint grave in the Tarm Isolated Grave in Denmark.
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Pte. Herman Reeves "Bud" Porter . United States Army Field Artillery from Dyer, Arkansas, USA Herman Porter was my great-uncle. I heard as a child that he had been a prisoner of war in Germany during WWII. My grandmother told me that Uncle Bud had come back from the war in bad health, thin and with feet that had frozen, and had a hard time walking at first. She told me that he had been forced to work in a mine (possibly a coal or salt mine?). She also said he never talked about it. I looked up his military records and found out that he was at Stalag IV-B, Sachsen 51 13 at Muhlberg, Germany. Through your website I was able to find out the information about the POW camp. He is buried in the Fort Smith, Arkansas Veterans Cemetery and his tombstone has Prisoner of War on it.
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Cpl. JA Porter . British Army Reconnaissance Regiment Cpl.JA Porter served with the Reconnaissance Regiment British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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JE Porter . British Army Lancashire Fusiliers JE Porter served with the Lancashire Fusiliers British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Marine John Robert Porter . Royal Marines HMS Aurora from 25 Crowland Street, Southport, Lancashire The following is an extract from my uncle’s memoirs of his time serving on the light cruiser HMS Aurora.
Bob Porter served on the ship from 1941 to 1943 and was subsequently transferred to the battleship HMS King George V on board which he serves the remainder of the war.
He had hoped to complete the remainder of his wartime memoirs, including tales of his time on the latter ship, but unfortunately he died in March 2013 at the age of 92, before he could accomplish this.
“I joined the Royal Marines in September 1940 having first volunteered 6 months earlier. After undergoing by basic training at Eastney Barracks in Portsmouth, I was drafted to HMS Aurora in August 1941 My drafting orders required me to report to the ship at Scapa Flow which entailed a 900 mile train journey from Portsmouth Harbour station up to Thurso, and then a ferry crossing to Orkney.
I was accompanied on this journey by Bert Worrall who was more experienced than me and suggested that we could break the journey and wangle a day’s home leave.
We had 48 hours to get to Thurso and he suggested that he would get off at Rugby and visit his family in the Midlands, and I should get off at Crewe and go home to Southport, on the proviso that we both catch the same train the following day.
As agreed I got off at Crewe but without a travel warrant had to rely on a railway porter to get me off the station via the luggage lift.
Having got home and surprised the family with my brief appearance, I managed to get back to Crewe the following day and was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Scotland train to see if my companion was aboard as we would both have been in trouble if we did not meet up.
Fortunately, as the train pulled in I could see him hanging out of the window to see if I was there.
He was clearly as worried as me that we would not meet up. We were both relieved to see each other and we continued on our way to Thurso without further mishap.
When we eventually arrived at Scapa I was notified that the Aurora was at sea and was not due back for a week or so and I was billeted in HMS Iron Duke to await her arrival.
When she did arrive and I was able to join her, as a member the Marines six inch guns crew. “B” turret, which was the Marines turret on Aurora, which therefore became my “action station” with my “defence station” being on the Bridge as a lookout.
When Aurora left Scapa again, she headed for the Denmark Straits, and after a short period spent patrolling there, then sailed for the Mediterranean, arriving in Malta at the end of October.
There were just two cruisers, us and the Penelope, and we were the senior of the two.
We along with two destroyers Lance and Lively, were the only striking force operating from Malta during the blitz which started in earnest at the end of November 1941.
We would get a message that a convoy had left Italy for North Africa and our job was to intercept.
We always seemed to be called on a Saturday night, and we called it “the club run”.
Our most successful foray in this role occurred on the night of 8th/9th November 1941 when we have left Malta at high speed to intercept an enemy convoy of transports, going from Sicily to Benghazi. At five minutes to one, we sighted the enemy convoy, consisting of 14 ships. There were 10 merchant ships and 4 destroyers. We attacked right away, and we succeeded in sinking 2 of the destroyers in five minutes. We continued firing all of our guns and we fired 2 torpedoes—each of which sunk an enemy ship. We fired 300 rounds of 6inch and numerous rounds of 4inch etc. The battle was very fierce all of the time, and after it had lasted exactly an hour, we had sunk 12 ships in all. I understand that this action is now known as the “battle of the Duisburg convoy”.
Another run I recall was after we were joined by the heavy cruiser HMS Neptune and her more senior captain took charge of the force. We were again told of another German or Italian convoy coming from Italy and we were to leave Malta with Neptune in charge, to intercept it. Unfortunately we missed the convoy and ended up only eight or nine miles off the port of Tripoli. We only then realised that we had strayed into a mine field when we heard over the Tannoy at about two in the morning, that we were in a “tense position”, and ten minutes later we heard a tremendous explosion. Once we realised that it wasn’t us, we heard someone shout that the Neptune had struck a mine and sunk, of a ship’s company of over a thousand men, I later found out that only one man survived.
After that our captain, Captain Agnew, took command of the force again. He addressed us very calmly and told us we were still in the mine field. He sent the destroyer Kandahar which was with us, to pick up any survivors, but five minutes later she too struck a mine. Then there was a further explosion and this time it was our turn. The bows were blown off the ship, but fortunately no one was killed.
We could now only do about nine knots, and we had to get out of the mine field and try and get back to Malta before dawn, as we would have been a sitting duck for the Luftwaffe in daylight. Fortunately we did get back before daybreak but the ship was so badly damaged that it would not put to sea again until the end of March 1942, and she spent the rest of her time Malta in the dry dock.
The six inch guns were generally only used against surface ships, so while Aurora was in dry dock, the six inch ammunition was taken off the ship, leaving only the four inch guns to be manned for use against attacking aircraft. In the event of an air raid therefore, we six inch gun crews were of no use to the ship, and the ruling was that anyone not on duty as a watch keeper, should leave her and go into the underground shelters in the rocks around the harbour. These shelters were only yards from the ship, but my mate Johnny Gay, (a fellow breach worker and “captain of the gun” in “B” turret) and I, wouldn’t go in them. I think that we thought that it was too sissy to do so, so instead, when off duty, we stayed on deck while the blitzes were on and had a grandstand view. You’d see 30 or 40 aircraft at a time coming over diving like birds.
I do remember one particular occasion however, when having heard the call “all men to blitz stations”, and seen everyone, either manning the guns or leaving the ship, I decided to have a little sleep by the turret as it was a nice warm day. Unfortunately our sergeant major was on top of the turret firing at the Stukas with an oerlikon gun. When he noticed me he shouted out “Marine Porter, you get in that shelter, that’s your duty!”, while all the time firing at the enemy planes. I’ve never seen such coolness and went into the shelter feeling very sheepish.
During the time that the ship was laid up I used to go ashore as much as possible. You could get a little bed and breakfast hotel for sixpence a night. One particular night I stayed at a hotel on the seafront at Valetta called “The First and Last”. Up to then the seafront hadn’t been bombed. As far as I can recall I was the only marine ashore from the Aurora that night, and I fell soundly asleep. When I woke up the following morning I found that my hotel and two other buildings were the only ones still standing on the seafront, all the others had been blitzed and were just rubble.
By the end of March 1942 the ship was ready for sea again. We took on heaps of stores, mail, and survivors on board, about 150 of them, so it was apparent that we were going to make a run for it, but where to? At 7pm on the evening of 29th March we left Malta and the Commander then told us we are going to Gib , which meant going at high speed towards Pantellaria, we called it, “Bomb Alley” and we expected trouble there. We eventually reached Gib without too much trouble and on the first of April, Captain Agnew told us that were sailing for Liverpool that night.
What a sight on Easter Sunday 1942 when we sailed up the Mersey and entered Brocklebank Dock for further repairs. The ship was laid up there for three months which was my happiest time of the war. During that time the ship had only a skeleton crew and we had plenty of opportunity for leave. It generally worked out that half the crew would get six weeks leave at time while the other half manned the ship and vice versa. As I only lived up the road in Southport I arranged for two of my shipmates, boy seaman Alex “Ginger” McLeod from Edinburgh, and Marine Jim “Jasper” Willis from Newbury, to stay over at our house at various times and we had some good nights out in Southport. I was also able to arrange for my family and friends to have a tour of the ship while she was in dock.
Aurora finally left Liverpool on 4th July 1942. After short visits to Greenock and Freetown, our next “action” was to take part in Operation Torch, the North African invasion in November 1942.”
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Sgt. John Porter . Royal Air Force (d.14th Feb 1942) Amateur historian wins right: The Northern Echo: Friday 15 September 2000 Nearly 60 years after a shocked schoolboy witnessed one of the saddest accidents of Britain's war in the air, he has won the right for two brave pilots to be commemorated. Harry Spence was just 13 when he looked on in grim fascination as two RAF Hurricanes collided in mid-air on Valentine's Day, 1942, hurtling to the ground near his home in Tudhoe Colliery, near Spennymoor, County Durham.
Like others who watched the tragic spectacle, Harry believes that the pilots saved their community from disaster by sacrificing their lives to fly their planes clear of Tudhoe's pit cottages and shops. At 22, one of the pilots, John Porter, was already a sergeant at RAF Usworth, near Sunderland, and taking part in a mock dog fight in the skies near his home village of Brandon, County Durham. As he flew into one of the most complex manoeuvres of the exercise, coming towards him was a second Hurricane from Usworth, in the hands of 26-year-old Sergeant Clifford Scott, married with a young daughter, and a member of the Canadian RAF. Now the courage of both men will be recorded on a plaque to be placed by Spennymoor Town Council in Tudhoe Cemetery. Harry, 72, a keen amateur historian, came up with the idea as a tribute to the heroes of the skies. He still remembers vividly the Saturday morning of the crash. Despite their sense 0of horror, he and his friend Harold Kirkup ran to where one of the aircraft fell and burst into flames, yards away from their homes. Harry said: "We ran towards the pilot, but, of course, we could do nothing. We heard him say his prayers and then he died. I found one of his flying boots in a nearby gully, full of water." Villagers found an old door and used it as a makeshift stretcher to carry the pilot's body away. Harry added: "The pilot stayed in his plane until the last possible moment after avoiding the houses. They were both flying away from the village." Three years ago, one of Harry's colleagues in the Spennymoor and District Local History Society, former fighter pilot Bill Fleming, laid a wreath at Tudhoe's war memorial in memory of the lost fliers
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