Des Fullilove Lancaster pilot

[MOD]

I might have mentioned on here before that my next door neighbour was a Lancaster pilot during WWII.

He is now 92, his father lived to be 95 and his mother was 93 when she died.

Des is an example to us all. He went through hell as a young Lancaster pilot. He was involved in the raids over Hamburg/Dresden and Berlin. He was a Captain with 207 Sqn and he lost a lot of very good friends.

Des would never talk about WWII and if he ever saw a documentary of the Dresden/Hamburg/Berlin raids' that he had taken part in' he became absolutely distraught.. He hated what he had done!!!

I spent a long time today with his family as Des has just been diagnosed with dementia.

His son Christopher and I keep an eye on him. We keep telling him that the Dresden Firestorm was a freak occurrence that no-one could have predicted but, after all, the Luftwaffe, having lost the Battle Of Britain, initiated the cynical ploy of bombing our cities and ports.

Des took it very personally when Churchill and our subsequent leaders made the Bomber Command pilots/aircrew feel/look like murderers!!!!

Over 55,000 aircrew were lost. Remember these were young kids.


As Christopher said today - he was 2 years old before he saw his Dad for the first time...

ibw

[Jigsaw]

I do remember you mentioning this mate. For once I am speechless as this is incomprehensible to me. I have nothing but admiration and sympathy for Des and his comrades

[Mayfly]

On Monday DT took a 90something year old from Oz around BBMF - it was the first time since the 40s he had been in Lancaster and it made his day. He had come over for the Bomber Command Memorial and was a special guest of Waddington air show. I was to go with him but had to go for a diagnosis so couldn't make it so no pics unfortunately.

Did you see 'Who betrayed our Bomber Boys' the other night - evidently the death figures of Dresden were exaggerate 10 fold, figures still believed today.

[34053]

Thank you for sharing those stories with us, MOD and Mayfly. I am so pleased that there is now, at last , the Bomber Command Memorial in recognition of the bravery of these men.

PW

[MOD]

It is good to hear that some of those involved in those horrendous raids over Germany could get over their ordeal and move on.

Des couldn't deal with the horror of losing so many of his mates nor could he get over seeing the newsreels of the Dresden firestorm.

ibw