F/Sgt Peter Gould.

Training

10/03/1941.     No 2 Wing RAF Halton - Trainee Airframe Fitter

25/03/1942     No 58 MU Newark

02/04/1942     RAF Waddington

17/04/1942     RAF Conningsby

   /06/1942     No 226 M.U. Glengormley N.I.

   /04/1943     No 4 5 of TT St Athan - Train as a Flight Engineer

    /08/1943     No 1678 OTU Little Snoring/Oakington

    /12/1943     1651 HCU Wrattling Common

    /02/1943     No 5 LFS RAF Syerston

26/02/1943     Posted to 61 Squadron RAF Skellingthorpe

14/05/1943     Posted to 97 Squadron RAF Conningsby

08/01/1945     End of Tour

/03/1945     Posted to ACAC Catterick

Crew.

                                                Pilot.                F.Lt C J Woolnough          Awarded DFC January 1945

                                                Flight Engr.     F.Sgt P J Gould

                                                Nav.                F.Lt H W Haggerston

                                                B. Aimer.         F.Lt I E Ravenscroft RCAF

                                                W.O.P.             F.Sgt R Smith

                                                MUG.              F. Sgt H J Silzer RCAF

                                                RG.                 F.Sgt E G Smith

Peter and Crew at RAF Skellingthorpe.

 L-R: Back Row: F/Sgt Eric Smith RG.  F/Sgt Peter Gould FE.  F/Lt Cyril Woolnough Pilot RAAF        F/Lt Ian Ravenscroft AB RCAF.  F/lt Bert Haggerstone Nav.

L-R Front row:  W.O Harry Silzer MUG RCAF.  W.O Ginger Smith WOP.

61 Sqn OPERATIONS

 1.  15-16/03/1944  Stuttgart            LM359 QR-B

 2.  26-27/03/1944  Essen                 LM478 QR-K

 3.  05-06/04/1944  Toulouse             ME719 QR-F

4.  10-11/04/1944  Tours                   LM478 QR-K

5.  11-12/04/1944  Aachen                LM478 QR-K

6.  18-19/04/1944  Juvisy                  LM478 QR-K

7.  20-21/04/1944   La Chapelle        LM478 QR-K

8.  22-23/04/1944   Brunswick          LM478 QR-K

9.  24-25/04/1944   Munich               LM478 QR-K

10. 26-27/04/1944  Schweinfurt       ME725 QR-G

11. 28-29/04/1944  Bordeaux          ME725 QR-G

12. 10-11/05/1944  Lille                   ND988 QR-W

13. 11-12/05/1944  Bourg Leopold  LM478 QR-K

        Overshot runway on landing: All crew safe.

        14/05/1944:  Posted to 97 Sqn RAF Conningsby.

97 Sqn was a Pathfinders squadron and Peter and crew completed anoth 32 operations to complete a Pathfinders tour of 45 Ops on 8th January 1945.

Post War:

1946 Lancastrian Crew flying to India

1947 RAF Brize Norton, RAF Transport

1948 Took part in Berlin Airlift

1951 Demobbed

Following demob, Peter worked as a Sales Manager for Remmington and as a Fire Protection Engineer for Chubb.

Peter maintained his RAF links as Treasurer of the RAF Benevolent Fund and as a member of the Bromsgrove RAF Association.

Peter sadly passed away in March 2024.

From Peters book, The Best Twelve Years referring to his last op fror 61Sqn to Bourg Leopold.

There was some difficulty in locating the target and accuracy was of the essence in occupied countries, we were instructed to abort the operation and return to base. I calculated that we were some 3500lbs over our maximum landing weight on our return and a general discussion took place  over the intercomas to whether we should get rid of 3 x 1000lb and 1 x 500lb bombs or lose the 1 x 4000lb "Cookie" as it was called. The matter was soon settled and I opted for the "cookie" to give us a margin of error. This was dropped in the middle of the North sea and we proceeded to base.

Unknown to us, while battling through the defences, our compressed air wheel brake system had been damaged  and this we did not discover  until we were hurtling down the runway on landing and found that we had no effective brakes. We sped past the end of the runway and into a field  until we hit a broad deep ditch which buckled the undercarriage and brought the plane to an abrupt halt on its belly. The 4000lb  bombs had thin casings and were prone to exploding on impact, whether fused or not. Had we retained the "cookie" it is more than likely we would have been blown to pices. The entry in my logbook stated "Returned with Bombs. Crashed on landing. Although understated, we laughingly reffered to our logbooks as "The Greatest Unpublished Thriller of the war"