- Contributed by听
- A7431347
- People in story:听
- George Charles Shepherd
- Location of story:听
- Freetown, Sierra Leona
- Background to story:听
- Royal Air Force
- Article ID:听
- A6814064
- Contributed on:听
- 09 November 2005
George volunteered for the RAF on 26th May 1941. As he was a practicing optician at the time, his papers stipulated 'Not to be employed other than as pilot or Observer without reference to the Air Ministry.'
He did his aircrew training in South Africa becoming an Observer/Navigator. Their boat was torpedoed on the way home. George was luckily on gun duty at the time, fully clothed. They were three and a half days in the life boat without food or water, six hundred miles from Ascension Island with women and children on board. The pumps needed constant manning.
Happily a small foreign ship rescued them and took them to Freetown Sierra Leona.
This story was submitted to the People's War website by Helena Noifeld of 大象传媒 Radio Kent and has been added to the website on behalf of George Charles Shepherd with his wife Margot Shepherd's permission. She fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
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