Personnel Index - Detail
Flew three operations in the last months of the war.
The final trip was on 25th April 1945 to Berchtesgaden.
F/O was extremely fortunate to survive the war and we thank his son, Paul Geoghegan, for the following information.
In many ways I think my father was an amazingly fortunate man, except that he died at the relatively early age of 61, following a heart attack. What a waste of a great man.
His background before joining 49 Squadron was as follows.
Immediately before the war he was a fire officer with Staffordshire fire brigade. When the war started he remained in that position and was involved in fighting the fires at Coventry during the blitz.
For some reason he decided to leave the fire service and join the RAF, which he did in 1944. It is said that he felt he could contribute (even) more in the RAF and that certainly sounds like him.
He qualified as an air gunner in June 1944 and then there is a two month gap in the log, until August 1944 when he joins F/O Elkington.
In Jan 1945 they transfer onto Lancasters and in March he flew two operations to Bohlen and Harburg………..in the last operation my father has written, "F/E Chestnut killed, B/A O'Keefe missing. F/O Elkington wounded”.
As F/O Elkington was wounded, my father was transferred to the crew of F/O Binns and bombed Berchtesgarten on 25th April 1945.
That chance injury to F/O Elkington presumably saved my father’s life since he did not return to F/O Elkington’s crew following his recovery.
F/O Elkington was the pilot involved in the "Fulbeck Tragedy".