My sister called round today and I explained about this blog. She has few memories of Dad talking about wartime, but he did talk about his childhood holidays - something I need to cover separately.
He had told her too about the incident shooting up the van. We think it must have weighed heavily on his mind - would it have made any difference to the war had he left the van alone? And was the van any threat to him? I doubt that we will ever know, but it was one of the many dilemmas of war. A mark of the great decency of the man that he related this story with sadness rather than relish the fact that he had been successful in pursuing this target.
She said that he had made a firescreen while in the hospital - part of rehabilitation. It was based on stitching. I don't recall him having such a skill later on, or being much good with his hands - something I have inherited!
She had no memory of the court-martial, but her husband said that if your plane crashed you might well be court-martialled for failing to bring it back to base. Guilty unless you could prove yourself innocent!
There are entries for his war record that my other sister has, but these are incomplete and in code, apparently.
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