大象传媒

Frank Edward Gardiner (known to his fellow crewmen as Freddie Gardiner) was born in Piddington, Northampton on 18th August 1924. At the age of sixteen he joined the RAF - family legend has it that he lied about his age. He trained to be a pilot in Bomber Command, and flew in Whitley Bombers, first as Second Pilot and later as First Pilot. He completed many missions over Germany while still only seventeen. On May 30/31st 1942 he took part in the Thousand Bomber Raid, and was congratulated for this by the Duke of Kent.

In June 1942 he was commissioned and became Captain of a Halifax Bomber. He was selected for the newly-formed Pathfinder Force, and celebrated his eighteenth birthday in August 1942 by taking part in the first Pathfinder operation. A week later, on the 25th August 1942, he flew in the second Pathfinder operation to Frankfurt. On the return journey over France his plane, call sign 鈥淭 for Tommy鈥�, was attacked by German fighter planes and fires started on the badly damaged aircraft. Frank continued to pilot the plane as five crew members bailed out. The last one to leave had the impression that Frank was then going to go back and see if he could help the injured crew member, Flight Sergeant Ryan.

After the plane was reported missing in action, the families of the crew members were given each others鈥� contact addresses while waiting for news. (The friendships forged in those dark days lasted for many years after the war.) One by one five families got the news that their relative had been captured, and was a prisoner-of-war. But there was no news of Frank and Flight Sergeant Ryan, until one family received a letter from one of the crew telling them of the fate of the aircraft, and passed on the news which put an end to the hopes of Frank鈥檚 family. The crewman had been visited in the POW camp by the German pilot who had shot down the plane, and he had been given Frank鈥檚 cigarette case, which had been taken from his body. It was twisted and blackened, showing all too clearly the horror of the plane鈥檚 last few moments. Letters visible on its surface seem to have come from the plane鈥檚 controls, showing that Frank was at the controls at the last 鈥� perhaps finding that he could do nothing for Flight Sergeant Ryan, and too late to bail out, he decided to pilot the plane away from civilians on the ground, or maybe he attempted to land. The plane had crashed just outside a small town in France. Frank and Sergeant Ryan were first interred near St Dizier, and then at the Air Force war cemetery at Choley, France.

After the war the cigarette case found its way into the hands of Frank鈥檚 cousin, Joan Old, (my mother), who had been corresponding with the other families. It was never shown to Frank鈥檚 mother, Mary Gardiner, who survived her only child by about 40 years. In 1946 two of the ex-POW鈥檚 visited her, and told her that they owed their lives to the bravery of her son, who gave his life for his friends and his country. She was a cheerful, warm-hearted lady, always smiling, always helping others, never showing her grief. But when she died she had asked to be buried with all her mementoes of Frank inside her coffin, so only the cigarette case survives to bear witness to Frank鈥檚 story.

After about 50 years my mother finally decided to travel to France to visit Frank鈥檚 grave, in company with another cousin. She felt a great sense of peace to find Frank there, amongst so many of his fellow servicemen, in the beautifully tended cemetery. She had kept in touch with some of the crewmen, who lived long lives after the war, but Frank will always be just eighteen.

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