WARTIMES.ca

This one might be a stumper.

In Les allison's book Canadians in the Royal Air Force is the following entry:

p.o.w.
OSBORN, K.A., W/O (755111) from Winnipeg, joined in June /39. He was wounded in July /41 and later was a p.o.w. flying with No. 59 Sqdn. coastal command.

I have not been able to find out any reference to either of these events. And as he was a Canadian in the RAF I don't know if this site can help, but it's always worth a post.

All the Best,

Paul Squires
Wetaskiwin, Alberta

Paul, I’ve gone thru the Operations Record Books for WO Osborn in July 1941 and I see no reference to him at all.


CORRECTION: I found the record, it was the 16 Jun 1941
He was wounded by FLAK during the mission. Aircraft also had to “crash land” on return

Found these Records……Japanese record say No 1 Squadron RAF, but these could be incorrect

Found this record. It tells you date he was captured (I will look this up tomorrow) and it says he was ATTACHED to NO 1 SQUADRON RAAF

This information says he was captured on the 15 April 1942 in Tasik, Malaya

More records….you can see in one of these records it says he was captured 8 Mar 1942

Hi Temujin,

A PoW of Japan. That explains a lot. Turns out I had him in the PoW listing, from the www.fepow.family list, but didn't make the connection. Getting old, I guess.

https://www.fepow.family/Research/Briti ... base_6.htm

Date of capture given as March 8, 1942. Allied units in Java surrendered March 9, so that makes sense. And ended the war in Japan, so he matches all the information you had.

Looking further I found him referenced on the 59 Sqn. page, https://number59squadron.com/far_east.html, as departing England Dec. 27, 1941 as part of the crew of S/L Garrard DFC (I note a reference to a P/O J.F.P. Foster, and wonder if that was the pilot of V6310 when Sgt Osborn was wounded).

Puzzling is the date of April 15, 1942, but perhaps that was when he was officially recorded by Japanese authorities. Or as mentioned in the 59 Sqn. site he might have been part of the group trying to get to Australia, and that is the date he surrendered, while March 8 is the date of the official surrender.

Having that information I looked him up in Shores, Cull and Izawa's Bloody Shambles - Volume 2, and found a reference to him with 59 Squadron detachment, attached to #1 Sqn. RAAF, flying Hudsons, from one of the quotes from Sgt Les Patrick. On Feb. 15 he is mentioned when their Hudson was one of several attacking a Japanese landing at Muntok on Banka Island, as manning the ventral guns in Hudson AE506, one of three 59 Sqn. Hudsons plus three more of #1 Sqn. RAAF making an attack on this operation.

He certainly saw a lot of the War.

But, again, you have found and answered my questions. And now I will have to include the known information in the Chronology. Many Thanks, again, Temujin.

Paul Squires
Wetaskiwin