A wide range of talks at the Probus Club of Ludlow

At a recent meeting, members enjoyed a talk titled "An Unassuming Bank Manager," by Mike Read.

Mike introduced Clive Jones:

Brought up in a rural community near Cardiff he had secondary education funded by his grandparents and left to take a job in the local bank in whose employment he stayed until he retired. Seemingly the mundane life of a decent man who rose to be a bank manager, had children and retired to concentrate on his fishing.

His wartime exploits were unknown to his family. It was on the death of his wife who survived Clive by some years that they found an attaché case containing his medals and the wartime flight logs of him as an RAF flight engineer.

After training on Sterling bombers, he was transferred to fly in one of the 100 B17 aircraft that the RAF flew. These aircraft had many mechanical problems and were notoriously inaccurate bombers so were converted for special missions including marine patrols and discharge of anti-radar ‘window’ in support of bombing raids over industrial Germany. There was a B17 had only one pilot and we were given an account of the pilot having a visual crisis, apparently a danger in these aircraft, and having to make an emergency landing at Shawbury. Their presence was not welcome because the base was not equipped to deal with American engines and electrics nor the liberal amount of oil and debris blown around on their departure next day. During a raid over Mannheim on Christmas Eve 1944 Clive’s aircraft suffered three engines and the landing gear being hit, for getting the plane home the pilot won the DFC and Clive, sitting in the copilot’s seat got nothing.

By May 1945 Clive had completed two RAF tours at a time when the survival rate for B17s was 25% per tour. Of all the B17s seconded to the RAF 80% were lost. Clive’s aircraft HB780 survived the war and was scrapped in February 1947. Clive died in his bed aged 79 mourned as an unassuming Retired Bank Manager. 

Report by Tony Martyr