down until further notice and celebrations began.
On May 3rd, a flying accident occurred when an
Anson
, flown by
Gordon Hughes
,
crashed on take-off near Suchteln and
Michael Spender
, who was the only passenger,
was so severely injured that he subsequently died: Gordon also suffered severe
injuries. Michael had been the senior Air Force Photographic Interpreter in the
Wing since January 1944 and, as such, had been responsible for the initial Air
Force reports on all the sorties which the Wing had flown. He had as wide a
knowledge of his subject as anyone else in the Air Force and so well understood
the problems which would have to be faced in this direction when the war was won.
His clearsighted grasp of these problems is a tragic loss to the Service.
There is not much more to say. After the excitement of Victory had died
down, the Wing started training programmes concerned with matters Eastern, and
peace time hours of duty were introduced.
Philip MacLean
arrived to take over
Gordon Hughes
' duties as Wing Commander in charge of Administration, and
Bobby
Pearson
, fresh from the American Staff College Course, returned as his Squadron
Leader. 69 sent a detachment to AALBORG, in the North of Denmark to carry out
a geodetic survey between Denmark and Norway and they spent five very enjoyable
weeks there during which the task was completed. 140 returned to England in
July to re-equip for the Far East but as a result of the end of the Japanese War
it was disbanded in September, and 69 returned to England in August to disband.
16 remained at
Eindhoven
till September when it also went to England and the
rest of the Wing folded its tents and
dispersed
- some to put on bowler hats
again and some to soldier on.
-
+
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