Number 1 British Flying Training School, Terrell, Texas, Volume 2

[dennis_burke]

This might interest some of you, its a big file from this interesting, US AAF focused site:

http://aafcollection.info/index.html

Class book for British airmen in the Royal Air Force who trained at the Kaufman County Airport in Terrell, Texas. These are British airmen who trained in the United States under a 1941 arrangement.

68 pages; PDF (.pdf)
Original item: Book
Resolution: 100 dpi
Quality: 75%
Viewed: 25 times


http://aafcollection.info/items/detail.php?key=110&pkg=ls!title!!3!title!up!20

Good quality photos of each of the training airmen, I'll see if my will power allows me transcribe the names in due course

Dennis

[Amrit]

Thanks Dennis

I was just browsing through the names of the RAF trainees. One name that I found on the CWGC:

Name: BODIN, HUGH ALEXANDER ANDREW
Initials: H A A
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Flight Sergeant (Nav./Bomber)
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Age: 23
Date of Death: 02/09/1944
Service No: 1050107
Additional information: Son of the Revd. William Bodin and Elizabeth Patterson Marr Bodin, of Lochee, Dundee.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Compt. 2.B. Linn Extn. Grave 905.
Cemetery: CATHCART CEMETERY

Halifax LW344 of 1656 HCU

[dennis_burke]

Thaqnks Amrit,
if you leave me a day or two I'm trying to trawl everyone of them through CWGC, LG, Flight etc.

185 men in the book, I got through 65 last night in a hurry!

I'll pop it on my webpage if/when completed.

Quite a number of them died in the service.

Again, leave it for a few days, see how far I get.

[paulmcmillan]

Has anyone succeeded in downloading this?

[Eddie Fell]

Just a matter of seconds ago.

Don't click on the pdf icon to the right but use the left hand side (can't remember what it's called)

Cheers

Eddie

[paulmcmillan]

Got it Thanks

Methinks same helmet and jacket used for each photo!

[dennis_burke]

Ok here is what I've done so far, if anyone is interested.

At this link are two files
http://www.skynet.ie/~dan/war/1bfts/

1bftsbyname.pdf
http://www.skynet.ie/~dan/war/1bfts/1bftsbyname.pdf

1bftsbyoffno.pdf
http://www.skynet.ie/~dan/war/1bfts/1bftsbyoffno.pdf

They are self explanatory I think, but to bear in mind the following:

Some are complete guesses and stabs in the dark, expecially with common names.
The POW column is from Ross's list on this site
London Gazette and CWGC are their databases.
Flight is not comprehensively checked but I did pop in some awards where I seen them.
LG column is the header info from the LG showing the commishioning.

The POW column might not refer to the same airman in the other colums etc, lots of guesses there.

So, from 185 airmen in those photos, I have found up to, and its probably way over the mark, 51 or so CWGC entries for men that did not/may not have survived the war.

Time for some sleep I think

Regards

Dennis

[dennis_burke]

One additonal man that might be added.
Name: FINDLAY, ALEXANDER MCGEOCH
Initials: A M
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Flight Sergeant (Air Bomber)
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Unit Text: 49 Sqdn.
Age: 22
Date of Death: 02/11/1944
Service No: 1556361
Additional information: Son of George Thomson Findlay and Mabel Miller Findlay, of Knightswood, Glasgow.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: 5. C. 24.
Cemetery: RHEINBERG WAR CEMETERY

[paulmcmillan]

J Alton - may be this one... Note Pilot and Service Number within range of others

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2734624

[paulmcmillan]

Just thinking...

Aren't the US Immigration records for the period on line somewhere?

Can't a cross reference check reveal the full names?

Paul

[dennis_burke]

I hadn't looked at the enlistment numbers just yet, i.e. sorted them in order. Will do though.

I haven;t gone through the immigartion records on Ancestry.com just yet, it was so late last night.
I did try a sample of two or three and got no joy.
Thanks

[dennis_burke]

I have further updated my little files with a few more names and added a file where they are sorted by NCO number.

At this link are three files
http://www.skynet.ie/~dan/war/1bfts/

1bftsbyname.pdf
http://www.skynet.ie/~dan/war/1bfts/1bftsbyname.pdf

1bftsbyoffno.pdf
http://www.skynet.ie/~dan/war/1bfts/1bftsbyoffno.pdf

1bftsbyncono.pdf
http://www.skynet.ie/~dan/war/1bfts/1bftsbyoffno.pdf

They are self explanatory I think, but to bear in mind the following:

Some are complete guesses and stabs in the dark, expecially with common names.
The POW column is from Ross's list on this site
London Gazette and CWGC are their databases.
Flight is not comprehensively checked but I did pop in some awards where I seen them.
LG column is the header info from the LG showing the commishioning.

Cheers Dennis

[jossleclercq]

hello

I'd like to thank Dennis for showing us this excellent ressource. I downloaded the pdf last night, and perused through it this morning, when I found the portrait of "Mike" SHELTON.

He was killed in action while flying a Typhoon, with No. 609 (WR) Squadron, straffing barges at Paillencourt, between Cambrai and Douai, on 29th February 1944. On 29th February 2004, exactly sixty years after, I organised the unveiling of a plaque at Paillencourt, where he died. The plaque was unveiled by George JASPIS, DFC, who was the last survivor of the 9 pilots who flew that mission.

We had no picture of Michael Howard SHELTON at the Squadron association, just a cartoon published in the Kent Messenger in January 1944.

Mike's elder brother was killed by a sniper in Italy in 1943, shortly before he was posted to No. 609 (WR) Squadron in mid-october 1943. There were no other siblings. His mother passed away in 1954 and his father in 1961 and the 'track' was cold.

So many thanks for pointing us this document, you really made my day !

I'll go through the rest of the file and will probably find another airman with a connection to the Nord-Pas-de-Calais area in France.

Cheers

Joss

[PeteT]

I thought I would resurrect this thread to see if a complete list of all those that trained at 1 BFTS is available following this exercise.

Volume One (in the series of six volumes on the site), lists those that were on course No 4+; I believe that the person I am looking for was on one of the first courses (possibly number one), but there doesn't seem to be a volume / listing of these.

Can anyone assist? Will signing up to Ancestry to get the US immigration listings help?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Regards

PeteT

[dennis_burke]

Provide us the name and we can check.

[PeteT]

Dennis

The name is GBH King who, according to his service record, was PTC Toronto [13th June 1941], (@) Dallas [17th July 1941].

This query is linked to thread http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?15558-RAF-Service-Record.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards

PeteT

[dennis_burke]

I cannot see anything jumping out at me from ancestry.com for Geoffrey Bernard Herbert King's born 1921 or there abouts in relation to border crossings/shipping etc.

[PeteT]

Dennis

That's a shame; it's a bit of a mystery then; but thanks for putting in the time and effort.

Regards

PeteT

[PeteT]

UPDATE: The museum at 1 BTFS has confirmed that GBH King was on Course No 2. Sadly, the journals which were produced for Course 4 onwards (as mentioned in previous posts), were not produced for Courses 1 to 3.

Regards

Pete

[1bfts25course]

My father trained at Terrell in 1944/45 on 25 Course. His name was Geoffrey Felix Huff, and he survived the war, (no combat that I'm aware of) dying in 1972. As far as I'm aware he ended up as a Sgt. Pilot. I have a fairly extensive album of his trip to Terrell via Canada, the course and shots of wartime Terrell (supplied on DVD to the 1 BFTS museum) if anyone is researching people on that course. Amusingly I also have a shot of a large explosion on an Ealing garden-path, where he and his brother, as right-thinking inky schoolboys of 1940, built home-made bombs in case of invasion. (my father was a keen amateur chemist/inventor) These days they'd have ended up on some bloody watch-list with a clutch of ASBO's! A certain amount of difficulty ensued, after the bang, as they'd not counted on the sirens going off on as a consequence! - so family legend has it.