Description
Mr. Fawcett reflects on betrayal and being unable to forgive his Mid-Upper Gunner.
Charlie Fawcett
Mr. Fawcett was born June 15, 1922 and grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He first became interested in planes when his father took him to Regina to go for a ride in one. It was this early interest in aviation that led him to sign up with the air force in 1942. He received gunnery training at Dafoe, SK and from there went overseas in the latter part of 1942. He chose to be a rear gunner as it was the fastest way to get overseas. Once in England he was assigned to an RAF squadron, stationed in Yorkshire, that consisted of an Australian pilot and an all English crew. In 1943, while on a trip to Czechoslovakia, they were shot down over Germany by a Messerschmitt. After bailing out of the aircraft Mr. Fawcett landed in a tree. The following day he was taken prisoner by the Germans. Over the next 2 ½ years he was interned in three different POW camps. Mr. Fawcett remained a POW until the end of the war.
Transcript
But the sad part really was losing a pilot and the bomb aimer that never should have happened. Our mid-upper gunner avoided us all the way through POW camp. He was only thinking of himself. And I opened the gate, begging him to come and he was travelling the other way and so then I knew I’d had it and then I tried to get through to the skipper to tell him I had to go out of the... out to the turret and the intercom wasn’t working. You know the thing that has bothered me most all the time was opening my turret and seeing my mid-upper gunner going out the front. That’s a... I’ve never forgotten that. Never forgiven him either. You know, before... before we went on “ops” together, we... I used to visit him in... in his home in London and we were pretty good buddies. Being both gunners, why we had something in common. He did the wrong thing and he knows it and he knew it and he lived with it. We both lived with it. He’s dead now. I’m the only one left.