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raf records

Discussion in 'Military Service Records & Genealogical Research' started by olgadp, Feb 17, 2010.

  1. olgadp

    olgadp recruit

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    I am trying to find out about a relative's war record. I know he was in the RAF volunteer reserve, he was leading aircraft man george norman teasdale 941699 and I believe he was in Singapore and was killed whilst on board a Japanese boat. Does anyone know how I can find out which squadron he was with, where he was held and how I can verify the story that he was on a boat that sank. He died on 29 November 1943.

    Thank you
     
    Icare9 likes this.
  2. Icare9

    Icare9 Member

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    From the "other" Forum, which has a "sticky" for all personnel addresses (if you can't find it after using the Search button)...
    WW2 Service Records Address - Page 2 - World War 2 Talk
     
  3. brnhndy100

    brnhndy100 recruit

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    My Uncle served with the 139 sqdn. He was lost 4/23/1942 Whether or not they served together, UNK to me.Uncle William was lost and buried in India. This site found a record of him which listed the sqdn he served with when he was lost.
     
  4. Liberator

    Liberator Ace

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    I know this is an old thread but just in case..........

    George Norman Teasdale 941699 - RAF Seletar - Held Java, Moluccas (Ambon) -Died on the Suez Maru 29 November 1943

    http://www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/Hell_Ships/Suez_Maru/


    On the islands of Ambon and Hasuku in the Moluccas, Allied prisoners were dying daily through starvation, disease and beatings by their guards. In the past six months almost 400 had died and around 700 were too sick to work. The Japanese then decided to send the sick back to Java. A total of 640 men, including a number of Japanese sick patients, were taken on board the 4,645-ton passenger-cargo ship Suez Maru. In two holds, 422 sick British (including 221 RAF servicemen) and 127 sick Dutch prisoners, including up to twenty stretcher cases, were accommodated. The Japanese patients filled the other two holds.
    Escorted by a minesweeper W-12, the Suez Maru set sail from Port Amboina but while entering the Java Sea and about 327 kilometres east of Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies, the vessel was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Bonefish commanded by Cdr. Tom Hogan. The ship started to list as water poured into the holds drowning hundreds. Hundreds more, Allied and Japanese, managed to escape the holds and were struggling in the water. The Japanese mine sweeper W-12 started to pick up survivors, but only their own nationals, leaving the British captives behind. Between 200 and 250 men were floating in the sea. The minesweeper then made several slow circles around the survivors and minutes later machine-gun and rifle fire were directed towards the defenceless swimmers. Empty rafts and lifeboats were then rammed and sunk by the W-12. The minesweeper then picked up speed and sped off towards Batavia (Jakarta). They had rescued 93 Japanese soldiers and crewmen and 205 Japanese sick patients. Sixty-nine Japanese had died during the attack. Back at the site of the sinking only floating wreckage and an oil spill was all that was left of the Suez Maru. Of the 547 British and Dutch prisoners, there was only one survivor, a British soldier, Kenneth Thomas, who was picked up twenty-four hours later by the Australian minesweeper HMAS Ballarat. After the war the perpetrators of this crime were traced and arrested but later the decision was taken not to prosecute and the accused were released. In 2008, BBC investigative news reporter Mike Thompson approached a defence counsel of the International Criminal Court in the Hague whether the case could still be tried.
     

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