Modern-day Batemans Bay may be a long way from World War II England, but more than 70 years after the end of the war, two locals have discovered a surprising connection.
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Earlier this year, The Eurobodalla Independent ran an article on Australian Bomber Command veteran Bob Wade, 93, after his visit to the official opening of the International Bomber Command Centre in England in April.
The article caught the eye of Batehaven resident Joan Smith, 94, whose late husband, Jim, also served in the Bomber Command, with the RAF.
After reading the article, she tracked down Mr Wade and the pair have since forged a connection, sharing their memories of the war.
While the Smiths and Mr Wade didn’t know each other personally during the war, efforts to track down a long-lost log book could reveal if the airmen ever took part in a mission together.
Mr Smith, who passed away in 2003, served as a bomb aimer on the Lancaster Bomber for 37 operations during the war.
He role was vital in guiding the aircraft into position to release bombs on Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe.
At the end of the war, Mr Smith was involved in flying Allied prisoners of war back from Italy.
Mr Wade carried out 26 operations over Germany as a navigator attached to the Mosquito Squadron of the RAF Pathfinder Force.
The task was fraught with danger, with the average life expectancy of crewmen being just two weeks.
While Mrs Smith did not meet her husband until after the war, she knew the risks all too well, living and working in wartime Boston, England, located only a few kilometres away from a key RAF base.
“Boston had two bomb attacks. We all expected there to be more, being so near to the airport, but there was very little,” Mrs Smith said.
“It was a huge area for the Bomber Command and the town was always full of airmen.”
Mrs Smith recalled losing her 20-year-old boyfriend, an RAF Bomber Command gunner, on the night of her 18th Birthday party.
“The worst experience was on the night of my party. A crew was going to come and they all went down,” she said.
“(My then-boyfriend) was the gunner. The bomb aimer on the plane had only been married the weekend before.
“It was awful. We noticed it so much when a group would come back from a mission and you’d notice so many not there.”
For now, Mr Smith’s memory lives on through this chance encounter and sharing of history.
