This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this siteplease consider making a donation.
Site Home
WW2 Home
Add Stories
WW2 Search
Library
Help & FAQs
WW2 Features
Airfields
Allied Army
Allied Air Forces
Allied Navy
Axis Forces
Home Front
Battles
Prisoners of War
Allied Ships
Women at War
Those Who Served
Day-by-Day
Library
The Great War
Submissions
Add Stories
Time Capsule
TWMP on Facebook
Childrens Bookshop
FAQ's
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Volunteering
Contact us
News
Bookshop
About
207212Tech Sgt. Ray Sidney Pearson
Royal Air Force 192 Squadron
from:Honiton Rd, Coventry
My brother and I were in Coventry during the Blitz in 1940 and 1941. Ray joined the RAF in 1941 and after training in Terrill Texas and Ontario Canada qualified as Air Bomber. He actually passed as a pilot but developed a phobia about flying the aircraft so did extra training to be an air bomber. He arrived to 424 Squadron at Topcliffe and took part in approximate 19 raids including 'gardening- laying mines' until Mar 5th 1943 when he reported sick with a painful lump in the groin. He had an operation for a hernia and was off flying until April 21st. When he returned from leave he found that 424 Squadron had left for North Africa and No 1659 Heavy Conversion Unit had arrived At Topcliffe.Ray then did a mad thing, he volunteered for the secret 192 Squadron at Feltwell (see Espionage in the Ether by W and J Rees). These guys did all sort of things with RADAR and Wireless some of which involved arriving over the target before the bomber streams and hanging about after the raid had finished. Rays career at flying finished after the raid on Hamburg 27th July 1943 when the German defences were baffled by the anti Radar action with 'Window' and misdirection of their fighters by wireless and Hamburg was destroyed. It was Ray's last raid of his tour and he refused to fly any more. He was transferred to the Royal Signals. After the war he went to reunions and one of his comrades told me 'They should have given him a medal, not thrown him out. He brought the plane back three times'. And this was inspite of his phobia about flying the aircraft! A condition not unknown in commercial flying.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area?
If so please let us know.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items.
The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved
We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.