Williams Family Tree

IF himself went to the Grocers' Company School at Uppingham. He started work for Imperial Tobacco at age 16 in engineering costing. He joined the RAF in WW2 and was a flight engineer, or general dogsbody IF says, in Lancaster bombers. He flew first 30 missions with 101 Squadron. This was a specialist operation which flew aircraft with a crew of 8 including a German speaker. His aircraft flew with a German jew. They intercepted radio messages to German night fighters and rebroadcast them to direct the fighters to the wrong place. Eventually the germans caught on and reacted by replacing all their ground radio operators with women. [wikipedia says: 101 Squadron Lancasters were later equipped with a top secret radio jamming system codenamed "Airborne Cigar" (ABC) operated by German-speaking members known as "special operators" commonly abbreviated to "spec ops". They sat in a curtained off area towards the rear of the aircraft and located and jammed German fighter controllers broadcasts, occasionally posing as controllers to spread disinformation. The aircraft fitted with the system were distinctive due to the two large vertical antennae rising from the middle of the fuselage. Breaking the standing operating procedure of radio silence to conduct the jamming made the aircraft highly vulnerable to being tracked and attacked, which resulted in 101 Squadron having the highest casualty rate of any squadron. [1] ]

IF then had 2 months leave, then flew 30 missions with 460 Pathfinders, under GC Edwards who also captained the Australian cricket team. [I can't find him in any list of test captains or even team members, this doesn't look right.] [I can't find a Fielder in the list of aircrew at http://www.gordonstooke.com/460squadron/sqdprsnl/index2.htm or under pilot Marks at http://www.gordonstooke.com/460squadron/crews/pilotscrews.htm, but maybe I'm mistaken.]

He was then given 2 months leave again. After a few days, he received a telegram to report back. His skipper, squadron leader Johnny Marks, and Stuart, their bombardier, had been picked for a special mission, and they invited their old crew including IF to join them. They were to raid the U-boat pens at Brest. This was too far to return to the UK, so they were to fly on to Maison Blanche in North Africa. They arrived and the wheels sank into the sand! [I can't find a record of this mission but maybe it was too secret!] They had planned to return to the UK but were diverted to fly missions all over the Mediterranean, following the allied advance at the end of the war. They were based in Sicily during the battle for Monte Casino and later at Leghorn near Trieste.

Six months after the end of the war, they were still together near Naples. Flying was in short supply. They needed to test two new engines. The two new engines blew up and had to be shut down. Marks opted to fly the aircraft over a mountain pass used by DC-3 transports. There was a problem with the hydraulics and IF was dispatched to fix it. He remembers standing in the aircraft and seeing the tail hit the trees, then nothing until he came round on the ground, on fire. He walked and put the fire out in a stream. All the others on the aircraft died, one surviving a couple of hours. It had failed to clear the pass by a few feet. IF had a punctured lung and broken fingers.

IF was found by a hunting party of Italians after 3 days on the mountain. He was taken down first to Salupo [?] village, then a hospital in Benevento, then Caserta, then a British hospital in Naples, travelling on foot and in a jeep. In Naples, he was diagnosed with a broken back and put in a whole body plaster cast. He had pneumonia while still in the cast. He weighed 10 stones 2 pounds when they put the cast on and 6 stones when they took the cast off for the last time 2 years later.

IF was convalescing on Capri when the was to be flown home (he didn't want to go) in time for Christmas 1945. A DC-6 hospital plane started in India and picked him up from Italy. It was flying in bad weather over Southern France when it crashed. Out of 65 people on board, only 5 survived, one of whom was IF. [I can't find this crash at http://baaa-acro.com/archives/1945-JUL-DEC.htm which is supposed to be definitive. Am I misunderstanding something here?]

IF was eventually flown to Down Ampney. While there he had jaundice too.

After recovery, IF returned to Imperial Tobacco at the London Cigar Factory. He worked at the Regent Street Polytechnic to become an Associate of Cost Works Accountancy. After a short time, he was asked by Alex Money-Coutts to be his PA, IF thinks because of his RAF experiences. Alex M-C was 2nd son of Lord Latimer and later became lord himself. [That would be Alexander Burdett Money-Coutts http://www.geocities.com/adrian_money/286.html but I don't think he became Baron Latymer] IF played doubles tennis with him, with great success, in the company tournament. All this raised IF's profile in the company, and IF went on to manage cigar production and to sell to top accounts. Later he travelled widely to analyse local factory performance, leading him to recommend many to be closed, which distressed IF. He finished as Group Purchasing Manager with a budget of £6M/year in 1982 when he retired. He bought everything for the company except tobacco.

Maureen called Emrys 2016-07-25.