Sunday, 12 February 2017

It’s not everyone who can say that he has shaken the hand of a man who has shaken the hand of a man who has shaken the hand of Adolf Hitler, but Alun Pugh is such a one, and on Thursday, 19th January he told U3A Todmorden all about it.

Alun’s father, Dei, was a bomber pilot during WW2 and at a reunion many years later he met some Luftwaffe pilots. One of them had shaken the Fuhrer’s hand; he shook Dei’s hand; Dei shook Alun’s later that day, and so family history was created.

Family History

Indeed, family history was partly what this excellently delivered talk was about, and Alun’s stories about his father were composed both of personal memories and objects, photographs and documents that had come to light in the attic after Dei’s death.

Dei Pugh was brought up on a farm in Tywyn in West Wales. Dei’s own father lost his left arm in WW1 in Egypt, and meted out family discipline with a metal prosthetic wrist. Dei may well have been motivated to join the RAF by way of escaping the regime at home as well as by a natural urge to see the world.

At first, Dei was stationed at Bomber Command in Pocklington. Statistics for Bomber crews were not promising: of every hundred men 51 were killed, 9 died in accidents in the UK, 3 were seriously injured and 12 became POWs. Undaunted, Dei became, in spite of his 6’ 4”, a pilot. At least his height saved him from the riskier placement as rear gunner.

Training took place in Canada in Halifax, Monckton, and Alberta where Dei found himself living in a Welsh-speaking community. A photograph taken while he was there always stood on the dresser in his parents’ farmhouse even though his father had opposed Dei’s joining the RAF and had for a while disowned him.

Back in the UK, Dei went on operations from Pocklington. At a local dance Dei met his future wife, who commemorated their meeting with the phrase ‘I went with a Canadian navigator and came home with a Welsh pilot’.

War diaries in Welsh

Alun recalls his father recording in his war diaries (which he kept in Welsh) that the night raid in August 1943 on Peenemunde where V1 and V2 rockets were being developed was carried out in bright moonlight at 6000 feet and was an ‘eerie, frightening and suicidal’ mission.

Ditched in the North Sea

This, however, was not the worst incident in Dei’s career as a pilot. In a raid on Berlin in January 1944, Dei’s Halifax was hit. He managed to pilot it homewards, but he ran out of fuel 100 miles from England and had to ditch in the North Sea. He and his two surviving crew members managed to stay alive in a dinghy for 2 days and nights with nothing to drink before being rescued suffering from exposure and frostbite. After this, Dei only flew non-operational frights.

Alun recounted three other memorable consequences of this traumatic experience. Dei ever after had cold feet and always wore two pairs of socks in winter, and he became a member of the Goldfish Club (Alun had the badge to prove it) for ‘people who have escaped an aircraft by parachuting into the water, or whose aircraft crashed in the water, and whose lives were saved by a life jacket, inflatable dinghy, or similar device’.

But Dei had also acquired a perfect laxative, for whenever he was feeling costive he would take out a map, any map, and within minutes he would have found relief. The map reminded him of the fears associated with preparing to fly a mission when he and his fellow aircrew had spent a lot of time shuffling to the toilet.

After the war, Dei became a teacher, and presented some of his memorabilia to Elvington Air Museum which he and his family visited one day and where Alun recalls Dei enjoying the chance informally to regale visitors with a first hand account of the significance of his material on display.

Most touchingly, Alun concluded this heartfelt talk with a description of ‘The Game’ he used to play with his father. On the lino floor of Alun’s bedroom, Dei would pretend to be ‘in the drink’ and it was Alun’s job to rescue him by hauling him into his dinghy-bed. Sharing this was, I think, a sure measure of Alun’s affection for his father, and his father’s appreciation of the security and joy of family. We thank Alun warmly for speaking to us.

Next meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, 16th February in the Central Methodist Church in Todmorden at 1.45 when our speaker will be Maria Glot whose subject will be ‘Titus Salt and Saltaire’.

Our contact details are (website) www.u3atod.org.uk, (email) enquiries@u3atod.org.uk or (phone) 01706 839175.

Many thanks to Anthony Peter for this report

 

Previous U3A reports on the HebWeb

HebWeb News: Masterclass on Gilbert and Sullivan at U3A Todmorden - with speaker Bernard Lockett (28 Oct 2016)

HebWeb News: Moses Holden, Autodidact of Preston - with speaker Steve Halliwell (7 Oct 2016)

HebWeb News: Volunteering in Palestine and Guatemala - with speaker David Gilman (9 Aug 2016)

HebWeb News: Snow, Permafrost, Insects, Iron - with speaker Dr Frank Nicholson (7 July 2016)

HebWeb News:Stranger in a Strange Land - with speaker Gill Russell (7 May 2016)

HebWeb News:Life with polio and a career as a TV and Radio presenter. with speaker Jane Shepherd (12 June 2016)

HebWeb News:Small in a Tall Person's World with speakers Hamish Willis and Penny Dean OBE (31 March 2016)

HebWeb News:In the Footsteps of Norbert Carteret (22 February 2016)

HebWeb News:Gallivanting on Public Transport - a Bus Pass from Berwick to Land's End (30 September 2015)

HebWeb News: Magna Carta - A (Mostly) Light-hearted look at 800 Years of History (1 September 2015)

HebWeb News: Summat a' Nowt - talk by Steve Murty (28 April 2015)

HebWeb News: My Convict Ancestors (12 April 2015)

HebWeb News: Aquaponics Lab - A Radical Solution (16 January 2015)

HebWeb News: British Professional Cycling – Tykes and Le Tour de France (11 December 2014)

HebWeb News: Life in La Serenissima, Venice - Kathryn Ogden (9 July 2014)

HebWeb News: University of the Third Age: The Machine that Changed the World (25 February 2014)

HebWeb News: University of the Third Age: Music and the Deaf (12 February 2014)

HebWeb News: University of the Third Age: Psychology and You - Part Two David Groves made a welcome return as a speaker at the October Todmorden U3A (26 October 2013)

HebWeb News: Hebden Bridge Little Theatre, A Short History was recounted by Ray Riches to the University of the Third Age. (28 Aug 2013)

HebWeb News: John Sheard, retired land agent to the Duke of Devonshire, gave his third talk to members of the U3A, this time on Sir Joseph Paxton, Knighted Gardener (26 July 2013)

HebWeb News: Off Stage Choices: Andrew Rawlinson recounts his theatre experience from Tod Operatic to General Manager of a leading Theatre Group. (18 July 2013)

HebWeb News: The Story of the Hebden Bridge Calendar (April 2013)

HebWeb News: Changing Times in the Press (March 2013)

HebWeb News: Cancer from Both Sides (Nov 2012)

HebWeb News: Steve Halliwell outlined the history of the Woodland Trust (Sept 2012)

HebWeb News: Ray Riches talks on Walking the Pacific Crest Trail (Aug 2012)

HebWeb News: Pitch and Pythagoras - Pulse and Prison (July 2012)

HebWeb News - Lord Shutt explains the workings of the House of Lords (May 2012)

HebWeb News - Claire Benedict talks acting to Todmorden U3A (April 2012)

HebWeb News - Kate Moreton-Deakin spoke about her day job as Associate Director - Corporate Social Responsibility with Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust. (Feb 2012)

HebWeb News - Fair Trade Movement (Feb 2012)

HebWeb News - Fancy a cruise to the Antarctic? (Feb 2012)

HebWeb News - Gail Allaby, U3A's Queen of the Underworld (Dec 2011)

HebWeb News - September meeting report - Report of meeting about Walking the Pacific Crest Trail

HebWeb News - August meeting report - Bolton Abbey

HebWeb News - May and June meeting report - Keep Learning: Live long and prosper and the role of the Lord-Lieutenant

HebWeb News - April meeting report - Belt and Braces - An Everyday Guide to Risk and Chance

HebWeb News - March meeting report - Growing Old in the Twenty-First Century