Eulogy - Wing Commander David Harold Bernard MBE

Eulogy - Wing Commander David Harold Bernard MBE

A biography of his life. He joined the RAF as a wireless operator/air gunner. He volunteered for the Special Operations Exceutive. He was shot down in the Black Forest area and ended up at Sagan, Stalag Luft 3. He spent time building secret radios using valves blackmailed from guards. He was evacuated on the Long March and escaped only to serve alongside the Russians.
He continued in the RAF until 1975.

Four printed sheets

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[underlined] Eulogy – Wing Commander David Harold Bernard MBE [/underlined]

David Harold Bernard was born in Liverpool on 23rd May 1920. His father was a retired Royal Navy officer who had the distinction of forming the Chilian Navy and became their temporary Admiral, not bad for a lieutenant commander. David, like wife, son and daughter-in-law was an only child and enjoyed a happy childhood in prosperous surroundings until, at the age of 8, his father died suddenly and all that changed. He was sent to live with his 5 female cousins and endured a harsh upbringing until his mother re-married her bank manager. The arrival of his new step father in his life together with an improved cash flow followed by the birth of a half brother, Peter, transformed his life to normality from the age of 15 onwards. David became an accomplished rugby player, swimmer and gold medal life-saver while at Hoylake Grammar School after which he joined the Automatic Telephone Company as a trainee engineer. He had his sights firmly fixed on a career in what was, at that time a booming telephone industry. However, Adolf Hitler had other ideas and in early 1939 David joined the nearest unit of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force as a trainee wireless operator and air gunner and was mobilized into the RAF by mid-September following the outbreak of war. By the Spring of 1940 David had completed his training and spent the period known as "The Battle of Britain" flying up and down the area of The Wash in a bombed-up Anson armed with 2 small calibre machine guns awaiting the arrival of invasion barges that never came, and posing as a sitting duck for any enemy aircraft in the area. His most startling memory of these operations concerned the many occasions that the pilot left the controls to relieve himself causing the aircraft to climb wildly out of trim and having to take the controls to stop the aircraft falling out of the sky. He then volunteered for Special Duties to form the first ever crew of the Special Operations Executive, known as SOE, operating out of Stapleford Tawney and then North Weald as 419 Flight. He completed a tour of operations as tail gunner in the lumbering and obsolete Whitley aircraft, dropping spies throughout Europe. It was said of the Whitley that it climbed at 80 knots, cruised at 80 knots and taxied at 80 knots! One of his memories was donning the many layers of flying clothing due to the freezer-like qualities of the aeroplane; working up a severe sweat as he travelled to the aircraft then his perspiration promptly freezing when the aircraft climbed to its operational height on journeys often lasting several hours. During this time, he and his crew were awarded the prestigious Polish Cross of Valour personally by the Polish exiled General Sikorsky for one particular spy-dropping mission over Warsaw, which necessitated a tail wind to complete the round trip return

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to the UK. Following his first operational tour he was posted to Abingdon on instructional duties. On arrival at Abingdon he found no-one in the Sergeant's Mess, found himself a room and promptly fell asleep only to be woken by the sight of enemy aircraft machine gun bullets striking the wall opposite his bed. A short while later he discovered that the remaining members of the mess had taken shelter as an unexploded 2,000 pound bomb had lodged just feet from the room in which he had been sleeping! Following 4 months so called "rest" during which he survived 2 spectacular crashed, which wrote-off both Whitley aircraft he returned to SOE operations during which he flew his 13th mission on Friday 13th with his incredible luck still holding. On the night of 14th February, however, this spectacular luck ran out and his aircraft was hit by ground fire – flack [sic] as I [sic] was known, and the aircraft made a successful crash landing in the Black Forrest [sic] area of Germany. The crew were swiftly captured and made to walk barefoot through the city of Luxembourg and having stones and rotten vegetables hurled at them before being interrogated, tortured and moved from one Prisoner of War camp to another before finally arriving at Sagan, in what is now Polish Silesia, at the infamous Stalag Luft 3 of Great Escape fame. David with many thousands of others had survived to become a POW or Kriegie as they called themselves. Here he met Alfie Fripp, David's oldest and dearest friend who is here today, having been shot down flying a Blenhiem bomber in October 1939. Almost immediately David put his ingenuity and electrical training to good use manufacturing, among many other devices, complete radio receivers from everyday items such as soap, candle wax, cigarette packet foil and powdered milk (known as KLIM) tins. With only the valves being supplied by blackmailed German guards or "Goons" as they became known, the POWs were able to tune into the BBC and obtain the latest news, which was announced very professionally throughout the camp. David designed radios that fitted inside books and attached to wooden wall panels. The signal to warn him of Goons in the area was the playing of Rimsky Korsakov's "Flight of The Bumble Bee", which used to give him goose pimples and make his hair stand on end whenever he heard it years later! Escape was never far from any Kreigies mind. David's first encounter of this pastime came as he was taking his morning constitutional sitting quietly in a multi-seat latrine when he heard a voice from below begging for help. No-one would go near the unfortunate tunneller, who had badly midcalculated his bearing and come up in a very deep cesspit. By 1945 with the Russians advancing rapidly from the East, the German authorities gave the order to evacuate the camps and what became "The Long March" began during the winter of 1945. The opportunity to escape came during the march and he and one other left the line of POWs only to be confronted by a Russian tank gun muzzle, For

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the next 2 months David was forced to fight alongside the Russian allies only to be interned in Buchenwald Concentration Camp as hostages in reprisal for a Cossack Regiment, which, having committed overt atrocities against German Civilians, were interned by the Allies advancing from the West. He spent 3 months in Buchenwald, enduring the most horrific and obscene experiences before eventually repatriated to the UK and home in Liverpool. While 70% of the RAF was being demobbed David was selected for a commission and while serving at Cranwell met Elaine, his future wife, who was the assistant to the camp Fang Farrier – or dentist to you and I. He and Elaine became amateur thespians appearing and producing a number of plays during their travels, including the leading roles in what today has become a revived West End hit, "See How They Run". There were no married quarters during the 1950s so like many others; they lived with son David in a caravan for over 7 years literally following the flag wherever David was posted. During these heady days David owned an old Singer 8 which he was able to strip down to basic components before embarking on any major journey. The engine, steering, axle and half-shaft would all be removed, examined carefully, repaired if necessary, washed in petrol and hung on the washing line to dry. He carried a tool kit that would be the envy of any garage proprietor at the time, complete with vice, spare gears, half-shafts, torches and the like. While on one journey with his mother on board David was wrestling with the steering which had completely failed and ploughed headlong into a ditch; his mother, never known for her tact exclaimed, "What did you do that for dear?". David rarely swore at anyone other than himself or inanimate objects, which would not behave themselves; only then he would terrorise those within earshot by cursing loudly and lucidly and in impeccable German, a skill he had mastered as a POW. However, he made his mother an exception to this rule on this and many other occasions!

His RAF career lasted until 1975 during which time he served abroad in Cyprus during the EOKA uprising in the late 1950s and with NATO in Fontainebleau. Son David remembers his father exercising his multi-linguistic talents on arrival at the NATO base when he blurted out "Bongiorno, Ich Bien neuvaux arrive" to the startled American gate guard who merely replied, " Oh you must be British Sir!" His outstanding dedication to duty, professional and leadership skills were rewarded by promotion to wing commander and being made an MBE. After retiring in later life David enjoyed his small but steadily growing family, who are all here today. In fact David had adopted 3 other families, his dear neighbours in Longwick with whom he developed a close and very special relationship; his fellow congregation members here at St Mary's

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who also gave him so much support following Elaine's death some 10 years ago; and finally his RAF and Ex-POW colleagues of whom many believe that David never actually left the RAF and that if it was possible to view a scan of his entire body, the words "Royal Air Force" would be etched on every part of him akin to a stick of Blackpool rock. There are many who have said that David would never die, rather that he was indestructible and would have to be dismantled. Sadly, his body was not as strong as his mind and we are now here to celebrate and give thanks for the life of a man who has touched the hearts and minds of so many people with kindness, compassion, humour, fun and above all . . . Love.