Veteran’s war stories

A World War Two veteran, who was an original air cadet in 1939, visited the 252 Squadron of the Bridlington Air Cadets at their base on Swindon Street recently. Ninety-three year-old Stuart Boynton joined the RAF as a navigator during World War Two. He flew in aircraft such as the Hanson, and the more well known Halifax, Wellington and Lancaster bombers. Over the war years he was promoted through the ranks to Flight Sergeant. Cadets were captivated as Stuart told of his regular bombing missions over Germany. In total he took part in twelve dangerous missions. Later in the war he took part in the two leaflet drops over the occupied areas of Holland. The leaflets informed the Dutch that a rescue mission was on its way. Towards the end of the war Mr Boynton was shot down over the German city of Essen, was captured and then interred as a prisoner of war in a camp in occupied Poland. What was to happen over the coming weeks and months would go down in World War Two history as the Germans forced the prisoners of war on a forced march from Poland to Berlin, which subsequently became known as The Long March. Mr Boynton recalled how he survived starvation by eating sugar beet from farmers fields, and anything else he could scrounge or steal. Mr Boynton said he was very impressed by the cadets, and hoped to come back to visit in the future and to inspect the ranks again, and regale the youngsters of further war stories. Pictured are cadets from 252 Squadron, based at Swindon Street in Bridlington, with Warrant Officer Bob Hill.