Sgt. (WOP/AG) E.B.(Ted) Cachart.Timeline and the airfield today
Sgt. (WOP/AG) E.B.(Ted) Cachart.
Contact & links to similar sites, page 1
|
The view depicted in this painting by Lincolnshire artist John Ward, is the last sight WAAF Driver Dot Smith( Nee Everett) saw of a former 49 Sqn crew and their Lancaster EA-N for Nan which she had nicknamed "Nancy Pants" before departing from Fiskerton on a night operation to Berlin in January 1944 and who failed to return. The story of Sergeant (W/O) E B (Ted) Cachart and his crew is an incredible one. On their seventh op, they were driven by Dot to their waiting 'B' flight lancaster before taking-off for Berlin. When some sixty-miles from the target, they made a 90 degree turn and suffered a mid-air collision with another Lancaster which is now strongly believed to have been S-Sugar from the same squadron and whose crew all perished as a result of the collision. Ted and his crew however, successfully baled out to become prisoners of war. Five of the crew, including Ted are still alive today. |
|
|
Lancaster EA-N for Nan,( Nancy Pants) last flight. My thanks go to Ted for personally delivering and signing my own copy of this superb print. My grateful thanks also for describing in detail, the events of that night in 1943 from the moment he and his crewmates left the locker rooms to when he was reptriated after the war. But most importantly, for giving me an insight into what ops were like. If you would like obtain a copy of this limited edition print, please contact Ted at: tedthelad@bigfoot.com |
Ted has also written a book about his wartime experiences with Bomber Command. These include his part in the Berlin raid on 13th December 1943 now known as Black Thursday and his last flight from Fiskerton, again to Berlin, on 2nd/3rd January 1944 as depicted in the painting. The book is called: "Ted The Lad". To put it in his own words: what else could I have called it? I would say, if for no other reason other than that was exactly what he was at the time- being the youngest Wop/Ag to serve with Bomber Command, enlisting at just fifteen, he was a "Bomber Boy" at seventeen and in a German prisoner-of-war camp at eighteen. |
|
|
The illistration on the front cover of the book is artist John Ward's impression of the mid-air collision between Ted's and another Lancaster which resulted in him becoming a POW. |
|
For details of how to obtain a copy of Ted's book, please contact him using the link above. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|