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Gordon Alexander Duff 1919 - 1943

Gordon Alexander Duff was born on November 10, 1919 in NSW Australia to Colin Edgar Brown Duff and Alice May Thursby, and had siblings Peter C. Duff, David Thursby Duff, Jean Margaret Duff, and Katherine Duff. Gordon Duff died at age 23 years old on September 23, 1943 in East Kirkby, West Lindsey district County, England United Kingdom, and was buried at Cambridge City Cemetery Grave 13937. in Australia.

Gordon Alexander Duff

November 10, 1919

NSW, Australia

September 23, 1943

East Kirkby, West Lindsey district County, England, United Kingdom

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Gordon Alexander Duff Gordon Duff (1919 - 1943)

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Gordon Alexander Duff's History: 1919 - 1943

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Introduction

Gordon, 'Sandy' to his friends, was raised with his family on a rice and sheep property, "Burnt Hill", near Murrami, 9 miles out of Leeton on the road and rail line to Griffith, NSW Australia. 'Sandy' enlisted in the RAAF in August 1941, was posted to Somers in Victoria, then transferred to Temora in NSW in November 1941 where he learned to fly aircraft. He later became a Flying instructor at an airfield in Victoria. In September 1942 he was transferred to "Bomber Command" in England and trained on Avro Lancaster Bombers. By mid 1943 he was appointed Pilot and Captain of a Lancaster flying out of Scampton, north of the city of Lincoln and later from East Kirkby. The following letter was sent to his Father by one of the two survivors after being shot down by a German fighter plane on the morning of 23rd September 1943, whilst 'in circuit' awaiting their turn to land at East Kirkby, 40 Km east of Lincoln. Middlesex, England Wed. Jan. 1944 Dear Mr Duff, It has taken me a long time to write to you hasn’t it? I really do apologise for not doing so much sooner as I should have done, but I just couldn’t pluck up enough courage for it. However, hearing from Miss Scott today telling me that you are anxious to hear from Sandy’s friends, then I really couldn’t hold back any longer. It must have been very hard for you to know that your son died so far away from home and you will probably want to know also the details of what happened, so I will write them down as I wrote them in the diary I kept from when I started operations as Bombardier under Sandy. 22. 09. 43 Today we are off again and did an N.T.F down to Pet_______ to see where Bert (engineer) lived and Sandy did a few tight turns, dives and things, hoping that Mrs Cherrington would see them and realise it was Bert, and at the same time give her a bit of a scare. Everything was OK in “S” Sugar (Avro Lancaster), so after three quarters of a hour Sandy brought her back to her resting place at dispersal. He made one of the finest approaches and landings that I have ever experienced, although the tail wheel shuddered on landing and gave Bill (rear gunner) one hell of a time. We were briefed at ______ Hrs. and found that the target was to be Hanover, one of the “hot spots”, however we didn’t think a lot of it as we had been to Berlin and returned without a scratch. The only thing I thought about was that there had been no attacks for ______ days and would it give the Hun time to prepare a reception for us? Well, old Phil. (the Navigator} got all his ‘gen’ worked out and I drew out all the tracks and memorised various landmarks. There were only a few and it didn’t take long. The next thing was to get dressed ready and have supper. The mess is rather crowded tonight as there are ____ aircraft taking part in tonight’s Squadron effort. It was a very early take-off tonight ______ hrs., setting course an hour later. After having been out at the Kite for an hour or so, doing last minute checks, and Bill putting a piece of chewing gum on the door, and ‘Cherry’ and I tossing a coin which came down ‘heads’, we climbed aboard. We were rather late taking off as the port outer engine didn’t want to start. But, we did get off eventually although we didn’t have much time to make height because of it. We set course with the other boys and gained height as we went along, getting up to _____000 ft. Well, there was plenty of ‘stuff’ coming up over the other side but we managed to plough through it and get to Hanover. On the ‘run up’ we had to go through 15 or 20 miles of searchlights which probed and groped all over the dark sky for us and the boys who were with us. However we managed to avoid them except when they had us for a second and then went off. That split second was enough, because Bill called out to Sandy to do evasive action hard as there was an JU.88 on our tail. We heard Bill say, “although I can see gun flashers there is no tracers”. We all heard Bill return the fire and then he said “ OK skipper, resume the course”. Apparently the Hun had no stomach for ‘S’ Sugar when she knew she was about and returning his fire. Now I took over to bomb, and the place was well alight with the fires mostly concentrated. There was a thick pall of smoke already some thousands of feet high with millions of tiny pin points of light where the incendiaries were feeding on everything that would burn. The Pathfinders were letting go their coloured flares making it all look like November 5th on a grand scale. There was a beautiful group of markers that I was running up on.... “Bomb doors open Sandy ... left, left ... steady, hold her boy ......... this is a wonderful run ............ THERE they go..... hold her steady for the photo Sandy”, “Hello Bob” says Bill, “ I can see the ‘cookie’ (4,000 lbs) going down and now the incendiaries, .........OK Bill, bomb doors closed, Sandy” .......” bomb doors closed, Bob”. Then there was a pause as we waited for the camera to operate. It was half a minute only, but seemed like half an hour!! “OK Sandy, photo taken.” “Right Bob .......Phil, what’s the course for home please?” “_____ Degrees, Sandy” “OK Phil, turning starboard onto _____ degrees, here we go!! “ Then there came another hush as I checked up if everything had gone, only to find that a container had failed and that we still had 150, lb incendiaries on board but not worth jettisoning them as they would not hurt where they were. There was plenty of ‘air to air’ firing going on so we knew that there were bags of fighters about and all eyes were strained to the utmost. I could feel (nurie?) coming out of my head watching for them. I felt terribly tired so took an anti-doze pill to keep my eyes open during the long journey home. There were planes going down every now and then and their Cookies going off, so we knew that they were the blokes on their way into the target. It was pretty hot coming back, especially over the Frisian Islands, they caught us in the searchlights there for some ten minutes on and off, and were bashing away with everything they had, but never got us once. I could hear the sigh of relief when we got out of that mess and the breathing in the oxygen masks gradually became normal again. The next thing was a nice hot cup of tea, and, did I enjoy it!! Sandy put the nose down to gain speed to try and get home before Stan, our Australian friend and rival, We always had a shilling bet on with his crew as to who gets home first. They've won every time so far. By this time it was Thursday morning and the moon was beginning to come up, I could already see the searchlights of home. “Don’t relax Fellows, there has been a lot of intruders about lately” said Sandy. “OK “we answered. The lights of our Aerodrome appeared down below so I came out from the front ready for landing and stood beside Sandy. We entered the circuit at 5000 ft, switched on our navigation lights now and began to think of our breakfast. Then the ‘drome called us up and told us to circle at 4500 ft as one kite had just landed (and it was Stan!!). Then ‘M’ Mike called up from 5500 ft and said he only had 100 gallons of fuel left and could he land immediately. They gave him permission and told us to circle at 4000 ft. Then things began to happen. I saw flashes bursting behind the port rudder, couldn’t quite understand it and shouted ...“what’s that!!” Thirty seconds later tracers passed under us, then up a bit and hit the port outer motor which exploded. Before I knew it, I had my ‘chute on my chest. Then Sandy said ....“Bale out boys, this is it!” So I went down the front, pulled the escape hatch out, took my helmet off and then pushed the door through its opening. I then curled up in a ball and went out head first. I remember seeing the kite going away from me, well alight by this time, then I remembered that I hadn’t pulled the ripcord ..! So I did this and floated down to the ground, watching Bill firing at the enemy until the aircraft “S” Sugar crashed. When I landed I unhitched my ‘chute unconsciously and went to get help. When I returned to the plane I went as near as I could because of the heat and ammunition going up, to see if there was anything to do but it was impossible.
11/10

1919

Birthday

November 10, 1919

Birthdate

NSW Australia

Birthplace

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Nationality & Locations

Australian
Military Service

Service number: 413078 Rank: Pilot Officer Regiment: Royal Australian Air Force Unit/ship/squadron: 57 (r.a.f) Sqdn.
09/23

1943

Death

September 23, 1943

Death date

Plane crash

Cause of death

East Kirkby, West Lindsey district County, England United Kingdom
Death location

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Gravesite & Burial

mm/dd/yyyy
Funeral date
Cambridge City Cemetery Grave 13937. in Australia
Burial location
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