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Looking for the home town on

P/O Hugh Cornelius Murray, J/90425, RCAF
R.C.A.F. No. 417 Squadron
Spitfire, JF952, was shot down while flying a mission over Italy, he abandoned the aircraft and was captured and became a P.O.W.

Appreciate any help on this, Cheers

George

georgetanksherman wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:17 pm

Looking for the home town on

P/O Hugh Cornelius Murray, J/90425, RCAF
R.C.A.F. No. 417 Squadron
Spitfire, JF952, was shot down while flying a mission over Italy, he abandoned the aircraft and was captured and became a P.O.W.

Appreciate any help on this, Cheers

George

George, I believe he was from Brooklyn, NY but was born in Scotland, He was a naturalized American (document below)

Stalag Luft I, Barth, Germany

417 Squadron Operational Record Book for that day

Source: http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... uti.net%2F

Source: http://www.rwrwalker.ca/RAF_owned_JA100.htm

Source: http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p047.html

Additional information from Operational Record Books

I’ve plotted the location of approx where his aircraft would have went down. The target they were attacking was at MR 292 435

The first map is 1:250,000 and shows the location with an arrow
The second map is 1:250,000 ZOOM in showing the approx location in a circle
The third map is 1:25,000 and shows the target with a blue arrow, and a red circle showing the approx location of his bail out. You can see on this map the detail that the Operational Record was describing, attacking near a road and a “house” across the road from the target. Of course his aircraft could have crashed (and his bail out) further north, as the records say his aircraft was banking towards the German lines, but it wouldn’t have been much further north, as the bail out was seen by the ROVER PADDY group which would have been observing the target to direct the aircraft onto the target

Forward Air Control in Italy (Rover Missions)

Italian campaign

By the time the Italian Campaign had reached Rome, the Allies had established air superiority. They were then able to pre-schedule strikes by fighter-bomber squadrons; however, by the time the aircraft arrived in the strike area, oftimes the targets, which were usually trucks, had fled. The initial solution to fleeting targets was the British "Rover" system. These were pairings of air controllers and army liaison officers at the front; they were able to switch communications seamlessly from one brigade to another—hence Rover. Incoming strike aircraft arrived with pre-briefed targets, which they would strike 20 minutes after arriving on station only if the Rovers had not directed them to another more pressing target. Rovers might call on artillery to mark targets with smoke shells, or they might direct the fighters to map grid coordinates, or they might resort to a description of prominent terrain features as guidance. However, one drawback for the Rovers was the constant rotation of pilots, who were there for fortnightly stints, leading to a lack of institutional memory. US commanders, impressed by British at the Salerno landings, adapted their own doctrine to include many features of the British system.

Call signs for the Rovers were "Rover Paddy" and "Rover David" for the RAF