Page 20/Scanlon/Arnhem/Sept 44

Page 20/Scanlon/Arnhem/Sept 44

An extract from Fred's autobiography about Scanlon. Both men were flying close together when Scanlon's aircraft was shot down.

Two handwritten sheets

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

MWestonF126909-161113-020001, MWestonF126909-161113-020002

[underlined] Page 20/Scanlon/Arnhem/Sept 44 [/underlined]

Shortly after briefing Scanlon – a typical Australian of Irish stock was throwing his brash noisy weight around which I found irritating

I remarked that he was typical of some of the "Colonial" troops – no sense of reserve or discipline [indecipherable word] observation which invariably got under their skin Scanlon took considerable umbrage and hooted "and I'll tell you what you are Ginger (hair was red in those days) you are a typical stuck up blue arsed Pommie bastard and those are only your first names"; I fell about laughing

Scanlon was flying on my port quarter over the target area At about 1000 feet in relatively close formation with no room for evasive action; the flak/cannon fire was ferocious. Scanlon was hit and slid away to starboard under my turret so close that he nearly knocked me out of it. I had a brief glimpse into his cabin. There was nothing recognisable there and the cockpit was a shambles.

He had come a long way from home to meet such a violent end

Arnhem was my last [missing word]

[page break]

The Wing Commander was shot down the next day