A Special Odd Bod Memory of ANZAC Day

 

"25 April 1944 my dad (Cliff Bridges, former member of the Odd Bods) was flying Wellington X HE489 O for Oboe (Oscar today). Their target tonight was the San Stephano Docks in Italy with six 500 pound bombs for 4.5 hours flight all at night. (The Australian War Memorial's  Lancaster, G for George, flew with 460 Squadron which was originally a Wellington squadron.)

Four months later dad was shot down by a German ME 110 while bombing Ploesti oil fields near Bucharest in Romania. His aircraft, Q for Queanie, lost an engine (twin engine) and he jettisoned his bombs near the Danube River and diverted into Yesilkoy aerodrome (now Istanbul). He destroyed his aircraft by firing into it with his very pistol (which I still have - don't tell the rozzers). He was interned with his crew (records have them as POWs). This was a few weeks after I was born in Scotland and not long after my mum was badly hurt by a German bomb while she was doing ARP work in London. Can you imagine what my poor mother was going through. 

Much later in life, dad told me the internment was one of the best few weeks of his life! In a reunion in England, dad met the Luftwaffe pilot, Manfred, and they became good friends. Manfred described how he attacked a Wellington which, in the dark, rolled over and dived to tree top level. He said he was not going to do that! Manfred was trapped behind the iron curtain until it was removed in 1989."

By Alistair Bridges

Alistair Bridges is a member of Friends of the Odd Bods Association Inc. and a guide at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. A number of members who attended the Commemoration of the Odd Bods plaque in 2020 would have been escorted by Alistair in the tour following the service. We would like to thank Alistair for this article which appeared in the War Memorial Guide Monthly Magazine.