• Vergeltungswaffe 1

Date of birth:

September 19th, 1918 (Dorking/Surrey, Great Britain)

Date of death:

1998 (Liskeard/Cornwall, Great Britain)

Service number:

742582 (NCO)/84925 (Officer)

Nationality:

British (1801-present, Kingdom)

Harry Poulton was forced to bale out of his fighter plane over Northern France in 1944 during an escort mission on a V1 rocket bombing raid. He parachuted at very low level and consquently broke his leg and was captured by the Germans.
He was in Amiens Hospital when the nearby Gestapo Headquarters were bombed in a daring raid (Operation Jericho) by Mosquitos led by Group Captain Pickard to release French Resistance members under sentence of death. Some patients in the hospital were killed by the bombing to mark how close the buldings were apart.
He was interned at Stalag Luft I where he learned to paint and write poetry. He kept a diary, making daily notes of the food and the weather. But as his leg did not heal the Red Cross Commission passed him for a rare Repatriation Exchange. He left Berlin in January 1945 and after an operation in England he was released from the RAF in 1946. He rejoined the Air Traffic Control Branch in 1951 and finally left the service in 1968.

He was also awarded the Air Efficiency Medal.

? Sergeant
August 28th, 1940: Pilot Officer (probation)
August 31st, 1941: Flying Officer (war sub)
November 30th, 1942: Flight Lieutenant (war sub)
July 16th, 1951: appointed to the Aircraft Control Branch As Flying Officer, short service (five years on the active list and four years on the reserve)
December 4th, 1952: Flight Lieutenant
July 31st, 1953: permanent commission
September 19th, 1968: retirement own request

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• - The London Gazette Issue 34964 published on the 8 October 1940
  - The London Gazette Issue 35335 published on the 4 November 1941
  - Third Supplement to The London Gazette Issue 35827 published on the 15 December 1942
  - Third Supplement to The London Gazette Issue 36027 published on the 21 May 1943
  - Second Supplement to The London Gazette Issue 39309 published on the 10 August 1951
  - Second Supplement to The London Gazette Issue 39724 published on the 19 December 1952
  - Third Supplement to The London Gazette Issue 40037 published on the 4 December 1953
  - Supplement to The London Gazette Issue 44699 published on the 18 October 1968
  - Parade Antiques
  - The Daily Mail