[BITList] "Waves Beneath my Wings"

[John Feltham]

G'day folks,

How many pilots in the RAF Coastal Command flew hours and hours during WWII and never even saw a Uboat?

Leslie Baveystock sank two Uboats!

Read about it from your local library - "Wavetops at My Wingtips: Flying With RAF Bomber and Coastal Commands in World War II" - Flt Lt Leslie Baveystock (Author)

Not only that but previously he had been shot down while on the first 1,000 bomber raid over Cologne. The aircraft crashed in Belgium and its pilot was awarded a Victoria Cross. Leslie Baveystock evaded capture by the Germans and went on to serve in RAF Coastal Command.

The VC winner was FO Leslie Manser, an old boy of the school that I went to when my family lived in India.

See...

http://www.vsdh.org/vsdh/manser/index.htm


This map shows where Baveystock landed in a pond with his parachute (para) and where the Manchester crashed, killing Manser.






And from the blurb on the book…

"Leslie 'Bav' Baveystock sank two U Boats in the summer of 1944 when flying a Short Sunderland flying boat in Coastal Command. Earlier in the war he flew as second pilot aboard an elderly Bomber Command Avro Manchester on the first 1,000 bomber raid. When returning from Cologne his aircraft was hit and seriously damaged by flak. With only one engine powering the bomber it was steadily losing height and the pilot ordered the crew to jump. The crew, except for the pilot, landed safely and eventually escaped occupied territory via the renowned Comet Line escape route. Baveystock was transferred to No 201 Squadron, Coastal Command, where he flew Sunderlands on long-range Atlantic patrols. His first success was the locating and attacking the German armed blockade-runner Alsterufer. In June 1944, when flying a patrol to protect the D-Day landings, U-995 was sighted in the Western Approaches. Baveystock immediately attacked, dropping flares to illuminate the submarine and dropped depth charges from a mere seventy feet, dispatching the U Boat to the bottom. On August 18th of that same year he sank U-107!"



ooroo



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