James Wallace Potts 12 Squadron RAF April 1943

[msimpson]

Good afternoon,
As part of an attempt to reconstruct the missing O.R.B. for April 1943 for 12 Squadron RAF, I wonder whether anyone here can help with the sorties flown by J.W.Potts during April 1943 with this squadron. I have the biographical detail from volume three of 'For Your Tomorrow' and am wondering whether anyone has a list for the five or six sorties flown before he was lost on a sortie on Essen 30/4-1/5/43, or can point me to a source that I might be able to access when things return to something like normal.
Thanks for your time,
Regards, Mark Simpson.

[errolmartyn]

Jun 27, 2020 1:45:13 GMT 12 msimpson said:

Good afternoon,
As part of an attempt to reconstruct the missing O.R.B. for April 1943 for 12 Squadron RAF, I wonder whether anyone here can help with the sorties flown by J.W.Potts during April 1943 with this squadron. I have the biographical detail from volume three of 'For Your Tomorrow' and am wondering whether anyone has a list for the five or six sorties flown before he was lost on a sortie on Essen 30/4-1/5/43, or can point me to a source that I might be able to access when things return to something like normal.
Thanks for your time,
Regards, Mark Simpson.

Mark,

According to a bio about him constructed by the RNZAF in the late 1940s with access to the log book:

. . . took part in a further six operational flights to targets at Foggia in Italy, Pilsen in Czechoslavakia, including in the Baltic, and to Stettin, Duisberg, and Essen in Germany.

Cheers,
Errol

[msimpson]

Errol,
Thank you very much for that, it fills some of the gaps.
Regards, Mark Simpson.

[wallace]

Hi Mark
What do you want to know as I have his flight log book. I was named after James and have a lot of info if you require it. Regards, Wally.
PS: it would be great to fill in the missing ORB for April for 12 squadron!

[msimpson]

Wally,
Apologies for the late reply and thank you very much for your kind offer. I would be interested in any details regarding his time 12 Sqn in April 1943, especially his operational sorties, any crew details, aircraft codes or serials and times. If you have anything about his time on 103 Conversion Flight after his first tour, that would also be of interest. I have been lucky enough to make contact with relatives of some 12 Sqn airmen of that period and fill in some more details to information given to me by Anne Law of The Wickenby Memorial, which Iam happy to share, if of interest.
Once again, many thanks,
Mark.

[wallace]

Hi Mark
Sorry but I had no idea that you had answered...I would have expected some response to your request through email. Probably be best if I could photocopy his log book and send it to you. What is your email address so that I can do this for you. I'll also have a look at what I can find on the 103 Sqn stuff.
Regards, Wally.

[msimpson]

Hi Wallace,
It never occurred to me to send a message. However, I have now sent you one through the board messaging system with my email.
Apologies and thanks,
Regards, Mark.

[Dave Homewood]

One of the little quirks of this forum is that new members do not automatically receive an email notice when a thread they participated in has received a reply. You need to set up your personal profile to do that. To do so you:

- Click on Profile on the top bar of the page (that opens your profile)
- Click Edit Profile (a silver button top left)
- Click the 'Notifications' tab
- Set up which notifications you want to receive.

- You also need to ensure that the email you set up your profile with is the one you want notifications to come to. Lots pof people change their emails and never update the forum email, so they do not know why they never get notified. To change that you have to do it yourself, and the simple steps are here:
rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/25862/important-change-email-on-forum