The Bravery of
Sgt. Gordon Pemberton
Many of you will have seen the
picture below of the aircraft of Sgt. Gordon G. Pemberton which
ditched in Lake Balaton, following a raid on the Manfred Weiss
Armaments Factory on the night of April 3/4, 1944. Attacked by a
fighter, the aircraft sustained hits in the rear turret area, but
Sgt. Pemberton was able to maintain enough control of his aircraft to
ditch in Lake Balaton, Hungary. All of the crew except Sgt. Pemberton
were able to exit the aircraft and were taken prisoners of war.
Tragically, the brave skipper was hit in the chest by the control
column because of the force of ditching and was killed.
Recently we were contacted by Nigel McTeer, the son of the rear gunner of this aircraft - the late Sgt. A.P. McTeer. Nigel was able to fill us in on the details of this picture and the incident. The crew of Y- Yorker was:
Sgt. G. G. Pemberton - Pilot
Sgt. L.L. Taylor - Nav. B
Sgt. W.R. Bennett - Air Bomber
F/S H.C. Redpath (R.A.A.F.) - Wireless Operator
Sgt. A.P. McTeer - Rear Air Gunner
Nigel sent along a picture of his father and a postcard sent from the P.O.W. camp.
Sgt. A.P. McTeer - R.A.F.
Postcard sent home by Sgt. McTeer from P.O.W. Camp
Our thanks to Nigel for this material.
Recently Nigel sent me a copy of a portrait of Sgt. Pemberton and of the crew:
To
view an artist's representation of this incident click
here.
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