Name/Title
RAF/PW: Davidson, letter 45-01-03Entry/Object ID
2023.1249Description
Letter from Roy Arthur Hale to Mrs Jean Davidson. (2 images)Context
This is possibly the R. Hale who was shot down on 25 June 1942, pilot Sgt J J Makarewicz RCAF. The crew of five were flying from 19 OTU on an operation to Bremen; all survived to become POWs. (There were heavy losses for the pupils sent from various OTUs on this Bremen operation, perhaps contributing to the later banning of such operations for relatively unskilled aircrew.)
The R.Hale on the Makarewicz crew was repatriated due to ill-health in early 1945, as is the case in the writer of this letter, Roy Arthur Hale. No other Hale has as yet been identified who became a prisoner and was repatriated in a prisoner exchange due to ill-health. Roy Arthur Hale would have been amongst the last prisoner exchanges of the war.Collection
RAF Prisoners of War, YDAV: JACK DAVIDSON COLLECTIONCategory
QAE: Personal letters, cards, postcards, telegrams