Came across an interesting name on page 99 of Scholes' Air War Diary: Figured I'd add the entire entry for context. Waddo is of course Waddington. As an Aussie, Scholes would have known a few of the blokes there serving with 463 and 467 Sqns RAAF at the time. Of course, Borsht may not have been Australian but the entry above indicates he would have been a pilot. Geoff, any listing in your loss records?
Service Record Name BORSHT, CYRIL Service Royal Australian Air Force Service Number 426416 Date of Birth 28 Mar 1922 Place of Birth BRISBANE, QLD Date of Enlistment 20 Jun 1942 Locality on Enlistment Unknown Place of Enlistment BRISBANE, QLD Next of Kin BORSHT, POLLY Date of Discharge 31 Oct 1945 Rank Flying Officer Posting at Discharge 3 MEDICAL REHABILITATION UNIT WW2 Honours and Gallantry None for display Prisoner of War Yes Lancaster NF977 Mission to Walcheren] Took-off at 14.20 from Waddington to attack batteries near the port of Vlissingen on the island of Walcheren. Crashed in the target area. Sgt Leigh, who at 39 was well over the average age for aircrew, was buried at Middelburg. He has been subsequently re-interred in Bergen op Zoom War Cemetery. F/O C Borsht RAAF PoW Sgt E Leigh + F/Sgt B G O'Connell RAAF Evaded F/Sgt T D Laing PoW F/Sgt M R Staughton-Smith RAAF PoW F/Sgt T P Lonergan RAAF PoW F/Sgt R G S.Cooper RAAF PoW
Kyt: how did you obtain a copy of his service record? I am stuck as regards filling in the blanks on my WI airmen
Jerome, I'm afraid the Australians have the advantage because their National Archives are digitising and releasing the service records of their personnel. Unfortunately, for UK personnel, and those who served in UK units, records are still restricted to NoK. However, the Canadians are also starting to release basic service information for those who have been dead for 20 or more years. I need to check who and how to do that
Wonder if this was his wife ? ... and if he came home after being a POW - maybe he's still living in Queensland ?
Thanks a mil Kyt; we have quite a lot of West indians who served with the Canadians, so look forward to your heads up. I guess the UK lot will have to stay a bit bare pro tem
Hi Jerome ! I don't know if I've mentioned this before ... but some time ago we found men from the West Indies living in the US in WW1 and their draft registration cards - they transferred to the British regiments ( the ones we were researching were in the Rifle Brigade about 50 - 60 of them ) I imagine there was a lot more ! Might be worth looking into .... I would assume the same happened in WW2 ! Annie
Annie: I believe WW2 was a bit different - the few Trinidadians I located enlisted in and served with the US Forces throughout. I have not yet started on WW1, but for future reference can you give me the link of the WW1 source? I have registered for WW1Talk, but since my research is still time warped in WW2, have not yet found the time to participate in WW1Talk - but will pop over there as soon as my very preliminary recce on WW1 matters is completed
I'm not sure where he got his list from but Andy P ...... had a list of Americans in the Rifle Brigade .... when I started looking up their draft registrations on Ancestry they all turned out to be West Indians ! gave POB NOK etc ... I don't have access to Ancestry right now but if you put out a "blanket" plea on WW1 .... as we're a small community over there it may take some time but at least it would be out there !! Annie
