An Impossible Task?

[Icare9]

Try Ashford Library for newspaper archives or for a local history group that may be able to search further. Or you could email a letter for the local Ashford paper to print, asking for information.
With respect, your grandmother would have been in her mid twenties at the start of the War, so I suspect she would have mixed with "boys" close to her age group, indicating that the mystery W/O was in the RAF pre war. Does your g/m remember anything else that could help? Accent, where he was from, any idea of Squadron, aircraft he flew or when she last heard of him?
I had a somewhat similar experience with a friend who had a great pal during training, but heard he was shot down and killed. Recently he asked if I could find his grave etc, and was wonderfully surprised to find he'd been a PoW. Sadly, couldn't find any sign of him still being alive, he died in 2002, but there is always hope!!
This might be worth floating past her, did he have an American accent?
Name: LUKHMANOFF, GEORGE BORIS
Initials: G B
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Pilot Officer (W.Op./Obs.)
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Unit Text: 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit.
Age: 24
Date of Death: 12/07/1942
Service No: 127470
Awards: D F M
Additional information: Son of Boris and Valentina Lukhmanoff, of San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: 3. D. 11.
Cemetery: CALAIS CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY, LEUBRINGHEN
Of course, if he was given a rocket for beating up Ashford, then he could have been posted far away.....
Name: LUCAS, BRUCE ROY
Initials: B R
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Warrant Officer (Pilot)
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force
Age: 23
Date of Death: 19/07/1944
Service No: 591156
Additional information: Son of R. Lucas and Hilda Dewson P. Lucas, of Northampton; husband of Lillian Irene Lucas.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: 1. B. 3.
Cemetery: KIRKEE WAR CEMETERY
Again, trying to be delicate, he may have survived, is there any reason why you think he died? Were they that close that he would have returned for her?

[Dr. Terry]

Keith,

RAF P/O Al Lukas (American in RAF posted to RCAF no. 418 Squadron) was my father-in-law and he did go by "Luke" but that's not him in the photo.

Too bad...buzzing a cinema is something he would have done to impress a woman. He once got into trouble later in the war buzzing co-ed college dorms in Florida to see if any were sunbathing topless.

Dr. Terry

[Brian Bines]

Anything to suggest he was a local lad known to Gran/Auntie, if he was and was KIA/MIA would his name be on a Ashford Middx. war memorial

[smokie]

Happy New Year to All!

Wow - Many thanks for all of the Posts regarding the elusive Warrant Officer "Luke" - Unfortunately I ran out of time as my Grandmother recently passed away but I made a promise & will still persist in my Quest.

I must say the last couple of posts made me smile especially the one about Al Lukas - You can just picture the Event - Priceless!

Will follow up the local Lad theory As have not thought of that one as yet Something for some reason still tells me that he may well have been stationed in the Essex/London Area - On Single-Engined fighters? - Perhaps Mustang III,s/Spitfires but they must have had Red Noses - This has been told to me by someone who was only 5 or 6 Years old at the time who actually saw the event happen but memories fade & it was a long time ago?

This is a great Web-Site & never ceases to amaze me on how much knowledge is out there on Aviation History - Absolutely Brilliant!

Best Regards - Keith.

[Larry]

If you need to research national or local newspapers then you should visit the British Library Newspapers, Colindale NW London just up the road from the RAF Museum.

See their web site

http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/quickinfo/l...ale/index.html

A phone call to them might establish which papers covered Ashford / Staines in WW2.

I have been there on many occasions and it is amazing the amount of papers and magazines they keep.

[Larry]

You mention the possibility that the aircraft was a Mustang. Well 234 Sqn had Mustang III aircraft with red spinners and were at RAF North Weald from 28th August 1944 to 17th December 1944 when the unit moved to RAF Bentwaters and stayed to 1st May 1945.

234 Sqn lost a W/O James Morgan Harris (RAAF) on 7th Feb 1945 in Mustang III FB115 but nothing indicates the use of Luke. Perhaps I'm barking up the wrong tree here unless he called himself 'Juke'

But as to the type of aircraft most people knew a Spitfire when they saw one even later Marks so unless Spitfire with a red nose was mentioned I'd research other fighter types

[Brian Bines]

I assume your Aunt would have been born around 1915 which would have made her 30 around 1945, and the Luke photo appears to be of someone in their late twenties( could have joined the RAF around 1933). I wonder whether he went to junior school with Aunt or Gran, or whether his parents lived in one of the other flats above the shops. As you say an impossible task unless a photo with name or dates appear in any family albums. The British Newspaper Library is a good place to look for the Cinema story, which may just report the incident without naming the guilty pilot. Good luck with your search.