My Brother's War

One of my earliest memories is what my elder brother told me to say if anyone should ask where he had gone.

At the start of WWII I was only two and Arthur would have been eighteen or nineteen. He had signed up for 22 years service in the Fleet Air Arm.

I don’t know which year it was, but probably 1940, when I told the wife of Air Vice Marshal Sir John Baldwin what Arthur said. At the age of three it would have been difficult for me to see over the top of the gate to the drive of our cottage. But I did as I was told and explained to the lady, “Arthur has gone to stick a bayonet up Hitler’s arse.”

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My niece recently sent me a video containing over 120 frames of Arthur’s wartime photographs. I am converting them back to individual photos. This is the first:

George Arthur Scotney

Amongst the rest are a series of photos of planes which I think meet this week’s theme.

Landing on Aircraft Carrier(My sepia effect)

 No problem apparently with this one’s engine, but perhaps the engine of the next was too heavy for the plane.

Nose Down

The engine on the flying boat below is plain to see, but perhaps the aircraft should have landed on the sea.

Flying Boat 'grounded'

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I am still trying to identify the type of planes and the name of the aircraft carrier. What follows is at this stage conjecture on my part.

Another of Arthur's photos is an aerial view of a port under attack from the air. I’m reasonably sure that it is the Italian port of Taranto which was attacked by Swordfish aircraft from HMS Illustrious on the night of 11 November 1940. This successful attack is said to have been used as a model for the later Japanese attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbour.

I know that Arthur served on the Illustrious and visited Malta as part of his service when the carrier protected convoys supplying the island. Was he aboard when the Illustrious was bombed by German planes?  On 10 January 1941 HMS Illustrious made it to Valetta’s Grand Harbour with 196 of its crew killed and 91 injured – the convoy arrived safely.

I have a lot more detective work to do.

Arthur died in 1977, aged just 56.

This is a Sepia Saturday post; there's more at Sepia Saturday 80