2021 11 Ron Gard

                                2021 11 15  AT COWDRAY GOLF CLUB

                                           RON GARD,  RAF POW

Our Remembrance Day guest of honour was Ron Gard, a World War Two veteran and prisoner of war. Ron described how he came to volunteer to be a Rear Gunner on Lancasters at the age of only 18. He recounted a crash landing when he re entered the burning aircraft to save the life of the trapped wireless operator. He was shot down near Leipzig on 15th February 1945 on his 17th operation. After parachuting to earth he was nearly shot by an angry farmer, and then taken for interrogation at Frankfurt. He was interned in a POW camp, but then forced to march for 16 days with no shelter or food to another camp, in the coldest winter for 50 years.

He was eventually liberated by General Patton’s US army troops, and, fittingly, flown back to the UK in a Lancaster. When his father took Ron to the polling  station for the 1945 general election he was informed that he was too young to vote!

We presented Ron with a certificate which recorded our grateful thanks for his war service.

Ian Goodall