P/O William Henry LIDDIARD 156829 - P.o.W.

[wwrsimon]

Hello

This Pilot Officer appears on the P.o.W. database here, but doesn't have an associated aircraft loss:

http://www.rafcommands.com/database/...&submit=Search

If I may, I'd like to add in some details to his story. Bill Chorley's Bomber Command Losses 1944 volume, page 104, has the following:

February 25-26 1944
Lancaster JA941 GT-A
156 Sqn
Op: Augsburg

Took off from Warboys at 19.03. Shot down by a night-fighter which picked up the Lancaster at 19,000 feet and believed to have crashed in the vicinity of Lahr/Schwarzwald. Those who died rest in Durnbach War Cemetery.
F/S B B Millen – killed
Sgt W H Johnson – killed
F/S J A Yeomans – PoW
S/Sgt B S Reynolds – killed
F/S A W Ingles RAAF – killed
Sgt C McK Hossack – killed
P/O W H Liddiard – PoW

Liddiard is missing from the entry for JA941 in the database:

http://www.rafcommands.com/database/...php?uniq=ja941

He was repatriated to the UK in September 1944, as reported in the Sevenoaks Chronicle and Courier of September 29th 1944:

HOME FROM GERMANY
Brasted Flying Officer Repatriated
Among the large number of British officers and civilians recently repatriated from Germany none is more delighted to reach home again than Flying Officer W. H. Liddiard, of Combe Wood, Brasted.
Flying Officer Liddiard was landed at Liverpool from the Drottningholm, one of the Swedish ships, and arrived home last week. Gunnery Leader of a P.F.F. bomber crew, he and his colleagues were shot down over Germany in February this year.
Blinded in the left eye, Flying Officer Liddiard also sustained a compound fracture of the skull and was wounded in the left arm. He joined the R.A.F. early in 1943, and at the age of 39, was one of the oldest members taking part in operational duties.
Very well-known in the district, Flying Officer Liddiard was, prior to joining the R.A.F., A.R.P. Superintendent at the Dunbrik Depot, a position he held for some three years, while Mrs. Liddiard is also well-known for her work in connection with the W.V.S. and Civil Defence. They have resided at Brasted since 1940.

He was trained at 4 A.G.S. at Morpeth, and the ORB has the following:

September 28th 1943
P/O W.H. LIDDIARD (156829) Cadet Commissioned – Posted to 10 O.T.U.

Regards

Simon