BUSY WITH AUSSIES IN WEST WALES 2023 - Again
We've been at it again..........Having hosted a former OC10 of the Aussie No 10 Sqn earlier this year, former RAF 10 Sqn Victor pilot John Rattenbury has been at it again by kindly offering to assist an 81 year old Australian lady who wrote to us earlier this year asking for information about her father. He had been lost serving in an Aussie Sunderland flying boat in September 1943 while based at RAF Mount Batten, Plymouth. His daughter, Maureen Kutner's story is a heart-warming 'must read' tale and can be found by clicking on the 'Aussie Visit' link further down this page.
It would therefore appear that we are becoming quite popular with Australian ladies as readers may recall the young Aussie schoolgirl who wrote to us nearly two years ago asking for information about her relative who had been lost on the RAAF 10 Sqn Sunderland based at Mount Batten in WW2.
This time we learnt that Maureen was born just two weeks before her father Sgt Sydney Leech left his home in Melbourne to fly with 10 Sqn RAAF in the UK's Coastal Command. He was a fitter/engineer on the Australian squadron's Sunderland flying boats which carried these extra crew members on their long 'Battle of the Atlantic' patrols. Sgt Leech was lost over the Bay of Biscay on 21 September 1943, presumably shot down by a German Ju88 whose squadrons were based near Bordeaux and Nantes in western France.
Maureen who, having lived in Melbourne all her life, lost her husband last year and then moved to Queensland just south of Brisbane, to be near her son Darrel and his family.
She came to the UK in September on a pilgrimage to see where her unknown father last flew from. In a whistle-stop tour of the UK, she visited the Runnymede Air Forces Memorial to see the plaque with her father’s name on it and then travelled to Plymouth where she was fortunate to be given a sea-trip boat ride to the former RAF Mount Batten. She then had the long train journey to Pembroke Dock where she met our member John Rattenbury who acted as her host and guide.
He introduced Maureen to a group of enthusiasts who have formed the Sunderland Heritage Centre: No 10 Sqn RAAF was based there before it moved to Mount Batten in 1942. The Centre are hoping to restore a Sunderland flying boat which has been brought ashore there after sinking at it’s moorings during WW2 and they have many items of memorabilia on display there.
Here at the Heritage Centre, where she was given VIP treatment by John Evans, a trustee historian, John Rattenbury then presented her with a small gift from us, in the form of a framed memento which link both the RAF's and RAAF's 10 Squadrons. Her gift had been prepared in advance by our webmaster Dick King, to whom the initial enquiry from Australia had reached. It comprises a metal plate on which the two Squadron badges of the Australian and our own RAF 10 Squadrons were mounted side by side in a frame. (the twin badges being personally made to requested sizing on the same aluminium plate, by the kind owner of the Ebay website shop at Pictureshack, Chippenham.) - Ad: These plates are on sale at very low prices.
After a day’s sightseeing in Pembrokeshire hosted by a lady who is a past Mayorof Pembroke and a leisurely Sunday Lunch with John and Ruth Rattenbury, Maureen left for Australia just a couple of days later: - her lifelong mission to see where her father had lost his life from, was now complete.
After an 11 hour transit stop in Singapore on the way home, she must have been shattered on her return to the Queensland sunshine but nevertheless was later glowing in her emailed gratitude to our Association for providing the key to learning about her father’s loss 80 years ago to the day on 21 September 1943 in Sunderland DV 969. Our gratitude goes yet again to John and Ruth Rattenbury for hosting Maureen.
Click on the link here AUSSIE VISIT to open the attached pdf file which includes Maureen's narrative and photos of her pilgrimage to the UK.
The Sunderland Heritage Centre's Press Release may be seen by clicking on that link to it as well. They were most kind to host Maureen's visit at their HQ.
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Immediately after that busy week for John, he was able to greet the Mayor of Pembroke Dock on Friday 20th October when he attended the official opening of a maritime library close to the Pembroke Heritage Centre.
John has been busy over the past months cataloguing the many volumes that have been acquired by the library and his efforts came to fruition with the official opening of the Joan Hague Maritime Library.
Many congratulations John for your sterling efforts. You deserve one of King Charles' Volunteer MBE's, recently awarded to all IBCC volunteers, who include our Association member Susanne Pescott. However, in spite of my last name, I regret that I hold no sway in that matter. - Web Warden.
