Personnel Index - Detail

Name
RICHARDSON
First Names
Donald Samuel
Rank
Flying Officer
Service
RAF
Service Number
1393645 (NCO) 172879 (Officer)
Crew Position
Navigator
Posting In
16/6/45
Posting Out
1/10/45
PoW Camp(s)
-

 

F/Sgt Richardson first flew operations with 50Sqn.
Flying Officer Richardson completed 12 ops with 207Sqn before the end of WW2.
Squadron Leader Richardson retired in January 1971.

Post war they took part in the PoW repatriation flights from Lille. In June the crew went on an aerial inspection of bomb damage to German cities including Dortmund, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Essen, Duisberg, Düsseldorf and München.

As 207Sqn were not selected to be part of the force to operate against Japan, the whole crew joined 49Sqn at Syerston who were to be part of Tiger Force.

With the dropping of the atomic bombs in August, Tiger Force never became operational.

The 207Sqn crew who transferred as a whole to 49Sqn are listed below.

D Balme....Pilot
D Brett....F/E
D Richardson....Nav
K Dagnall....B/A
J Evans....W/Op
A Haywood....MUG
L Mitchell....RG

Information supplied by Squadron Leader Don Richardson DFC RAF(Retd) who was David Balme's Navigator on 207 and 49 Squadrons.