大象传媒

My father, Squadron Leader Philip Robert Goodwin joined the RAF when he lived in Plymouth in 1940. My mother, Dorrie Annie (nee Brown) also lived in Plymouth and acted as an air raid warden during the terrible bombing of Plymouth. They married in February 1944.
Philip was a Lancaster Bomber Pilot for 156 Squadron in the Pathfinder Force. He flew 47 missions, the last one being the famous Nuremburg raid, on 30 March 1944, when many planes were lost. He was shot down by a German Night fighter over Gemany. Four crew members of the Lancaster were killed and four lived, saving their lives by paracute and ejector seat. Philip was captured by two farmers and taken as prisoner of war to Stammlager Luft 1, 35 miles northeast of Rostock in Germany.
My parents had only been married for six weeks when Philip went missing in action. Although he was captured quickly, my mother didn't know he was alive until June. He was only 23 years old when he was captured and it is amazing to think just how young these pilots were when given such responsibility.
Philip was a prison of war until the end of the war when he was returned to England on May 12th 1945 eventually reaching Plymouth again by May 14th. They lived there until 1949 when they moved to Leicester where Philip sill lives.
Philip and Dorrie were married for 33 years and had four children. Sadly Dorrie died in 1977. Philip now has Alzheimers and has to live in residential care. When we were clearing out his house we came upon his diaries written during the time he has a POW and also some letters written to my mother. I have typed out all these diaries from pencil written books which was hard going especially the German place names. I was amazed by how quickly the POW's managed to get news of bombing raids and troop advances. Unfortunately Philip now has very little memory of his time in the RAF. He continued to fly until he was 75 and held a private pilots licence for 50 years. He is still in touch with his navigator Flight Officer Jack Scrivner who now lives in Canada.

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