The Flier

1940...WW2... "Forward, the Light Brigade!" Was there a man dismayed?, Not tho' the soldiers knew Someone had blundered: Theirs was not to make reply, Theirs was not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: In to the valley of Death...

Poetry by Lord Tennyson

I remember the sadness, when the young men left to sail across the Atlantic Ocean and to take up arms for our King and country. They joined the Army, Navy, Air Force and Forestry unit. Our young men applied themselves to their training, gave their best; among them was Howard Harvy Hoddinott, Brig Bay, Newfoundland. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force and graduated a Sargant and Radio Operator, ready to fly.

At sunset on May 4, 1943, the Vickers-Wellington Bomber, Captain, Warrant Office Robert Moulton, took off from their base in Yorkshire, England. Many bombers were gathered in a raid on Dortmund, Germany. They climbed into the sky and joined a fleet of other planes. As they flew over German territory they encountered terriffic fire from the anti-air craft batteries, so fierce that some planes may not have made it through.

Warrant Officer Moulton's bomber got through and droped their bombs on the target. He turned bomber and set a course for home, passed through the Anti-air craft batteries, and was over Holland. Suddenly they were attacted my a German Messerschmidt-110 a Night-fighter, who had been waiting for the returning planes, he raker the bomber with heavy cannon- and turned away. Small fires were flickering in the plane, the motors faultered and they were losing altitude rapidly. The captain ordered the crew to bail out; two airmen parachuted out from the doomed ship that night, Sargant Gordon Carter, Navigator, and Sargant Howard Harvey Hoddinott, Radio Operator.

When Howard hit the ground in the darkness his foot twisted over with severe pain. He could not stand up. He crawled to a nearby shed and got in side, it appeared to be a farmer's hay shed. He heard the farmer coming out in the morning; he must have heard the crippled bomber go by. The man checked his shed and saw the person hidden in the hay. He spoke kindly and told him that he couldn't stay there as he,the owner, would be in great trouble. Realy they could not understand each other very well, but Howard understood enough. He could not travel; he pushed aside his hay covering and showed the man his swollen leg. The farmer noticed his uniform, he examined his wound and said the airman needed a doctor and that he would go back to his house and telephone for one.

The doctor arrived, followed by several military vehicles, the soldiers jumped out and rushed around the area searching for other airmen as they knew a bomber had crashed nearby. Howard was arrested and brought to the hospital; from there he was sent to a prison camp in Germany.

Meanwhile, in due time Aunt Sarah Samson recived a Telegram from the authorities advising that her brother's bomber had failed to return from a mission and that the crew had been listed as missing in action. They would advise her of any change. We morned with her of the great loss, but thankfully we rejoiced when days later another telegram came advising that Howard was a prisoner in Germany.

After the war Howard married and settled in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he pursued a career in education until his retirement.

Updated 7/ 2006