Flight Sergeant William Norman Currums   1685011

R.A.F.

In his teens Norman joined the Air Training Corps because of his love for flying. He was employed as a printer at Tillotsons of Bootle, Liverpool, involved in the design and production of chocolate boxes before joining the Royal Air Force. He was sent to Canada to complete his training.

1941 saw Norman’s family move from Liverpool to Bickerstaffe because their home was bombed. Harry (Father) Henrietta, (Mother) and his sister Sheila moved to Corcorans Farm, off New Way, Bickerstaffe, (now demolished)

In the early hours of the morning of 13^th June 1944. Norman was flight engineer on a bombing mission to Amiens in France.

The D. Day forces had recently landed in Normandy and Amiens was still occupied by German forces. Norman’s mission was to prepare the way for the allied advance.

His Halifax bomber mark three, no. M.X.592 had left Burn, R.A.F. base near Selby, Yorkshire loaded with sixteen 500lb  bombs.

The approach to Amiens was made from the South, and when over the village of Mailly Raineval the bomber was hit by enemy gunfire and exploded in mid-air, killing all seven crew members, three of whom were Australian.

Only two bodies were recovered, Norman and the pilot Robert Wilden. They were buried at the village cemetery at Mailly Raineval, ten miles South East of Amiens. A year later the two were transferred to Abbeville communal cemetery extension, France by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission into plot S, row A, graves 3 and 4. This lies to the North of Amiens.

Not having met the criteria of identification, Norman’s name does not appear on the grave and is buried as an unknown R.A.F. Officer.  He is commemorated on panel 228 of the R.A.F. memorial to the missing at Runnymede, Egham, in Surrey.

Norman was known personally to the author and they were talking together just days before his final flight.

The Runnymede Memorial

The Runnymede Memorial stands on Cooper’s Hill, overlooking Run­nymede, the Thames-side pastures three miles east of Windsor where King John signed Magna Carts in 1215. The large site was given to the Commission by Sir Eugen and Lady Effie Millington-Drake. (Sir Eugen was British Ambassador to Uruguay at the time of the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939.)

The design of the memorial consists of a square cloister. On the far side from the entrance is a tower, reminiscent of a war-time airfield control tower, available for access and giving fine views. The cloister on this side, which is on the edge of a wooded hill and overlooks the River Thames, has two curved wings, terminating in look-outs, one facing Windsor, the other Heathrow, London’s main airport.

The tower has a central arched opening above which are three stone figures sculptured by Vernon Hill, representing Justice, Victory, and Courage. The focal point for ceremonies is the Stone of Remembrance on the lawn enclosed by the cloisters, and for contemplation, a chapel in the tower.

The memorial commemorates 20,000 airmen and airwomen of the Commonwealth Air Forces who, during the 1939—1945 War, died over north-western and central Europe, the British Isles, and the eastern Atlantic, while in any of the Air Forces Commands, and have no known grave. These airmen were in the following Air Forces: Royal Air Force 15,400 (including 25 from Newfoundland); Royal Canadian, 3050; Royal Australian 1400; Royal New Zealand 600; South African 17; Royal Indian seven, with others from the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, British Overseas Airways Corporation, etc.