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Ron Vaughan No Photo Available

Flt. Lt. Ron Vaughan, DFC Joined the RAFVR in December 1940 and trained as a pilot-cadet with the US Navy at Pensacola, Florida. After further Coastal Command training in the UK, he joined 10 OTU (detachment) at St Eval, Cornwall. The tour was completed, as a Whitley co-pilot, on U-boat patrols over the Bay of Biscay, between December 1942 and March 1943. After training for command on the Catalina, he joined 210 Sqdn at Sullom Voe, Shetland from June 1943 to October 1944. In October 1943, with all landing areas closed with fog, his Catalina, out of fuel, ditched in the Atlantic, west of the Shetlands. It had remained airborne for 22 hours and then survived, on the water, for a further 18 hours before the crew were rescued. The pigeon which had carried the SOS message to base, later received the 'Dicken Medal' (Animal VC) for flying over 60 miles, in fog, in nine hours! In May 1944, U-boat 394 was attacked in northern waters, without success. On 18th July 1944, U-boat 742 was sunk 180 miles west of the Lofoten Islands, off Norway. The Catalina was badly holed but managed to return to base, 500 miles in six and a quarter hours, on the port engine. F/Lt John Cruickshank had sunk U-361 on the previous day, from the same Arctic U-boat Flotilla. F/Lt Vaughan instructed on Catalinas in Northern Ireland and was then posted to India, yo join Catalina 240 Sqdn in Madras, and then until VJ Day with Liberator Sqdn 357 in Ceylon. He left the RAF in 1946 having flown Halifax 7, at Linton and Cranwell. He joined BOAC and captained many types of aircraft for 29 years before retiring in 1975.

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