Sergeant George Smith. RAF. Retired.
George lives in retirement on Jersey Island, a self taught computer expert he has built up a website of his WW2 service. In 1944/45 with 202 Squadron he was based on Lough Erne, N. Ireland during the Battle of the Atlantic. This was the most westerly flying boat base in the British Isles. Eighteen Catalina’s and twenty three Sunderland’s crashed or failed to return from missions. A Roll of Honour in George’s website records the names of 374 young airmen from most Commonwealth countries who lost their lives while serving there.
Following a return visit to N. Ireland in June 2002, George compiled the history of the crashes and the names of those who died. As a result a number of families on discovering the website learned how their loved ones had died. Prior to this all they had was the brief telegram from a commanding officer offering sympathy and telling them that a father, husband, son or brother had been killed in action. Everything else was an unexplained mystery.
From George’s records, families from America, Australia, Canada, England, Scotland and Ireland learned where and when the crash had happened, where the bodies of those recovered are buried. They attended memorial services where plaques with the names of the dead crew had been placed at crash sites. They visited for the first time well tended war graves in Irvinestown, Co. Fermanagh where over 80 young men rest in peace. Over twenty crash sites throughout the island of Ireland are marked with memorial stones. Former comrades have attended the services held in honour of the men.
Even in this year 2007, at least two crash sites in the Republic of Ireland are in the process of being marked by memorials. All of this, as a result of information contained in the website compiled by George Smith.