WWII Clandestine Photo Reconnaissance

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo Dave,

My E-mail address has not changed. However in the last week or two I have had difficulty logging on to the Internet, though I seem to be receiving Spam at an unimpaired rate !

I will try a quick post to you directly to check if all is OK from my side.

Regards,

Martin.

[dp_burke]

Hello all,
back from my holidays!! Nephews and nieces made short work of my excellent wrapping!

Anyway, Dave, the spelling of the Norwegians name is waht I took from a newspaper article in the old file. With that in mind I certainly do not take it as correct! The handwriting of the name in the file is very poor.

My e-mail address is dp_burke AT yahoo.com

Martin, you and Tony might be able to make good use of this postcard?

Dave, my interest lies in the 1945 aircraft incident only. Of course there seems to be a little bit of possible mystery to this one? All info adds to the picture no doubt.

Happy New Year
Dennis

[Dave Lefurgey]

Update for anyone interested in and reading this:
Eulogy: Received a letter from Pat Martin's (Conran) daughter, Virginnia. Pat was the lady spy who worked with Cotton and my uncle and even spied in Italy on the ground. Pat died last October in her early 90's. When I first contacted her a few years ago, she was riding her horse on her ranch in Hawaii every morning. At 18 years she sailed a boat around the Mediterranean in the early 1930's. She also did yacht racing and car racing at a time when women didn't do those things. With her spy activities in Italy, she was in the social circles of Herman Goering and Benito Mussolini. When she and Cotton broke up, she married an RAF pilot who was killed during the war, then later married a US army officer from Eisebhauer's D-Day planning staff, who later became a Brigadier General. They travelled a lot and on one trip, Pat played polo with the President of Pakistan, then took her 4 children on a horseback trek through the Khyber Pass and into the Hindu Cush, and played polo with the local tribal chieftains there. People where Pat lived in Hawaii knew & loved her, affectionately calling her their 'spy'. A couple of years ago she took an ocean cruise to South America and at 88 yrs of age went riding out on the plains with the gaucho cowboys, then went on some kind of expedition to Antarctica. She was a strong proponent for the environment. Last January she was training to race row boats in a 500 metre race. My wife and I visited her in March last year and she was the type of person who you could talk with for hours and days and not even notice the time pass. When we left, she grabbed my hands, looked me in the eye and said, "You're a rebel." My ego aside, coming from her, I consider that to be a very high compliment. She told her children that "Life isn't fair. If it was fair, you wouldn't have half the things you have now." What a remarkable woman and lady! I'll miss her. She wrote out her lifestory for her family and I've been encouaging her daughter to publish it as a book. It would be a fitting tribute, so I hope she does.

[Dave Lefurgey]

Hello again, whoever is reading this:
I received a bit of a surprise last fall when Bob Niven's son contacted me to say that one of Bob Niven's old friends from before he joined the Royal Air Force wanted to nominate his dad to the Canadian Aviation Hall of fame. He asked if I could help from all the research I had been doing and I agreed. It's taken a lot of work, but the submission to the Hall of fame finally went in about 2 weeks ago. I'm told that the "powers that be" who decide will deliberate on the submission over the summer and may contact me if the submission is accepted by early fall. If successful, then there is a formal banquet held in our nation's capital of Ottawa sometime next May or June. Here's hoping he's accepted.

[Dave Lefurgey]

For those interested, I received an answer from Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame and my uncle, Bob Niven, was not selected. It seems that because he was in Britain's Royal Air Force at the time, it's questionable what his contribution to Canadian aviation was. Haven't given up, but am starting to research the Canadian end of things more and will resubmit my uncle's nomination to them again for next year.
I have been getting a lot of "suggesting" that I write a book ever since I started this research and should have seen it coming. That was never my intention. Now people and organizations have become downright pushy about me writing a book and I've finally caved in and have begun looking at that possibility. I've been in contact with a publishing house, so who knows, maybe in a year or two I'll actually have written a book. I'm not sure if my writing skills are up to it, bit I guess I'm about to find out.
Take care.

[Dave Lefurgey]

I had provided another update, but it doesn't seem to have gone through. In researching the Canadian end of things, I've found a lot of interest from the Canadian military, plus our national Air Museum and War Museum. I was put in touch with our Air Force Association and they've asked me to wriite a 3,000-3,500 word story about my uncle, likely to be put in their Spring 2007 issue. Magazine is called "Airforce" and they advertise it as "Canada's Top-Selling Aviation Magazine". For those interested, you can look it up on their website of www.airforce.ca , and likely order a copy from them when it's published.
Take care and a Merry Christmas to all, Dave

[Dave Lefurgey]

Hello again, for those who are following this:
Well, it's happened. I wrote an article for Canada's Air Force Association magazine entitled "Airforce" and it has just come out a few days ago in their Spring 2007 edition on page 21. It's five pages long with photos and the editor's pen has been somewhat gentle with it. I was favorably impressed, as it was very professionally done and presented. For those who are interested in obtaining a copy of the magazine, copies are available for $5.00 Cdn each through the Air Force Association's website and you can e-mail Rose Lalonde at kitshop@airforce.ca or telephone (613) 232-5491. If anyone does obtain a copy, please get back to me and let me know what you think. The book is under way and I've just completed up to Chapter 15 of the "first draft" of an expected 20-25 chapters. Chapter 16 is to start with the outbreak of war in Sept '39 and the very start of the formation of the first PRU unit. I think I've also found an editor and the publishing company is Trafford Publishing, who have an office in England as well and perhaps another office somewhere else in Europe. That I don't know yet, nor do I have a publication date for the book. Thanks for your interest. I assume others are reading these posts, as the number count keeps going up each time I check this website.

[Sander]

Hello Dave,

Maybe of interest for you. For more than 10 years now I'm researching the crash of one of the first PR Spitfires(N-3069) your uncle worked with. Can provide info regarding this a/c and its crash near German/Dutch border east of Arnhem.

Kind regards from the Netherlands
Sander
Foundation Aircraft Research group Achterhoek(ARGA)
www.arga-nl.nl

[Dave Lefurgey]

Sander:
Yes, I would definitely be interested in any information you may have. My e-mail address is on one of the earlier posts on this thread. I tried your website, but it's in Dutch and I don't speak Dutch.
Thank you, Dave

[Dave Lefurgey]

Update for those interested:
I've had a chance to go through the "Airforce" magazine article I wrote, in some detail and find that I was wrong. The editor's pen was hard at work, and I find a lot of information about other people who were involved has not been included in the story. It almost sounds as if Bob Niven did it all by himself. However, I'm still relatively pleased with the article. If anyone hasn't been able to obtain a copy of the magazine article and would like one, please e-mail me. I've scanned the story and can send it as an attachment.
If I don't reply right away or there is a delay, then don't worry. If I get your e-mail, I will get back to you. We've just sold our house and have spent the last few months preparing and selling our house. We're moving out July 19th and into our new home in the nearby town of High River on July 31st, so I'll be off the internet for a while. Will check the computer in our public library from time to time until we are moved into our new home and up and running with the internet.
One of the interesting responses I received as a result of the magazine article, came from Scotland. It seems that a man named Rennie had a friend in Canada send him a copy of the magazine and he e-mailed me. He stated that his next door neighbour was a former PRU photographer and they were both quite pleased to read the story I wrote. It seems the neighbour, who is Jim Muncie, told him that Bob Niven was his Commanding Officer in the PRU and that he has many Bob Niven and Sydney Cotton stories, as well as many photos. We've established contact and he is interviewing Mr. Muncie for me and taping it. I would love to go over there to visit him, but I don't think I'll be able to just yet.
Take care all, Dave