28 June 1943
To 1290709 Sergeant Cleary, DD, Award of Path Finder Force Badge
You have today qualified for the award of the Path Finder Force Badge and are entitled to wear the badge as long as you remain in the Path Finder Force. 2. You will not be entitled to wear the Badge after you leave the Path Finder Force without a further written authority from me entitling you to do so.
Air-Commodore, Commanding, Path Finder Force
Priority CC Mr J Cleary c/o King School Cambridgeshire
Regret to inform you your brother Flight Sgt Daniel David Cleary is missing as the result of air operations on night 23/24 August 1943 stop letter follows c/o RAF Graveley
Immediate KWY157/25 not WT from am Kingsway PC287 25/8/43 regret to inform you that your son no 1290709 Flight Sergeant DD Cleary is reported missing as the result of air operations on night 23/24th August 1943 stop enquiries are being made through the International Red Cross Committee and any further information received will be communicated to you immediately stop should news of him reach you from any other source please advise this department stop his brother has been informed letter confirming this telegram follows – 250719A –
Dear Mrs Powell
I am writing to express my sympathy in your anxiety over your son who was reported missing on the night of the 23rd August 1943.
Your son’s aircraft was engaged in an important mission against the enemy, but we are not in possession of any details of the events leading up to the failure of the aircraft to return to the base, and very often it takes some while for any definite news to reach us.
Experience up to the present has shown that quite a fair proportion of our flying personnel who are reported missing in operations against the enemy have managed to make a safe descent by parachute or in the aircraft itself. Therefore I am able to assure you that there must be some hope that your son is safe and a prisoner in enemy hands…
One further point I would ask you to be discreet concerning the information in this letter which might be of value to the enemy. Please do not hesitate to ask for any assistance that I or my staff may be able to give you.
Yours sincerely,
(DFEC Dean) Wing Commander RAF Graveley
25 August 1943
1290709 Flight Sergeant Cleary, DD
Award of Path Finder Force Badge
The above named Non-commissioned Officer, who was reported missing on the 23rd August 1943, is permanently awarded the Path Finder Force Badge.
Air Commodore, Commanding Path Finder Force
30 August 1943
Dear Mrs Powell
I am enclosing a certificate for the permanent award of the Path Finder Force Badge to your son, which no doubt you will be pleased to keep for him. I regret that I have as yet, no further news for you.
Yours sincerely,
DFEC Dean, Wing Commander, RAF Graveley
29 Sept 1943
1803 CWDS. 191/C Hull 13 28. GLT Powell PO Box 600 DSLAAM
David safe as prisoner airgraph following. CLEARY
Immediate from Air Ministry Kingsway PC712
9/10/43 information received through the International Red Cross Committee states that your son F/Sgt Daniel David Cleary is a prisoner of war in German hands stop confirming this telegram follows stop his brother is being informed
Dear Mrs Powell
I have the greatest pleasure in being able to confirm the cable you will have received stating the glad news that your son has been reported safe, though a prisoner of war , in Germany. This information was received from the International Red Cross Committee quoting a German source. Please accept from the whole of the Squadron our heartfelt congratulations on your son’s survival. We share with you the feeling of relief that this news brings after so long a period of anxiety. I can assure you that our aircrews receive good treatment in the German prison camps and there is no cause for any worry on that account.
Yours sincerely,
(DFEC Dean}, Wing Commander, RAF Graveley
Dear Miss Such,
I have to thank you for your letter of 27th November, 1943, enclosing the donation of £1 for the parachute personnel concerned with the packing of your fiance’s parachute. This gesture has been greatly appreciated and I have been asked by the parachute workers concerned to convey their most grateful thanks and good wishes to F/Sgt Cleary for a speedy and safe return to this country.
I myself am new to this station and had not the pleasure of your fiance’s acquaintance, but I am forwarding his address to the Squadron Adjutant so that he can circulate it amongst F/Sgt Cleary’s friends.
Yours sincerely,
J Raylance
F/Sgt
Adjt to
Group Captain commanding
RAF Station Graveley
Front cover of War Log
Front insert, address details of the crew.
Dear Friend
When the folks at home ask us to choose and send you something special on their behalf, they confront us with a not too easy problem. The “War-time log” is one solution – others may be coming your way before long.
These blank pages offer many possibilities. Not everyone will want to keep a diary or even a journal – occasional notes on the story of his war time experiences. If you are a writer, here is space for a short story. If you are an artist (some people are) you may want to cover these pages with sketches of your camp, caricatures of its important personalities, whether residents or authorities. If you are a poet, major or minor, confide your lyrics to these pages…
W/O D. David Cleary RAF
222494 Stalag IVB
Muhlberg on Elbe, Germany
Gunnery School RAF Evanton 1942
Night-flight photo.
The POW’s 10 Commandments
Issue day was ‘holy’ for POW
While in captivity, Allied war prisoners honoured a number of self imposed rules, which in one camp were published as the “Ten Commandments for Prisoners”
The commandments were:
(1) Thou shalt not refuse anything.
(2) Thou shalt not work, neither shalt thou do any dhobi, nor labour, nor stooge nor do anything in haste.
(3) Remember parcel issue day and keep it holy.
…
Crew photo taken at 77 Squadron Elvington, Yorks
(taken by Dave Bland, Navigator)
From Corporal to Commander
Wing Commander A E Lowe MBE, who has just been awarded the DFC, commands a heavy bomber squadron in which he served as a corporal five years ago. He was the first air gunner to be given command of a squadron. Normally, pilots hold the position.
The official citation of the DFC award described him as “an exceptionally fine leader of an operational squadron.”
Born at Alverstoke, Hants he lived at Gosport and joined the RAF as an apprentice in 1930, at the age of 16. He took part in some of the first leaflet raids of the war, including the long flight to Vienna, and was in many of the bombing attacks on Germany and Norway.
Our bomber dead equal troop losses
In a 3000 word Order of the day to all ranks of Bomber Command, Air Chief Marshall Sir Arthur Harris says:
“As the count is cleared, those of Bomber Command who gave their lives to bring near to impotence an enemy who had surged in triumph through a continent, and to enable the United Nations to deploy in full array, will be found not less than the total dead of our national invasion armies now in Germany. In the whole history of our national forces, never have so small a band of men been called to support so long such odds. You indeed bore the brunt … No Allied nation is clear of your debt.”
RAF Crest
