vic scott

I hope that I don't bore you with my memories of life with 624 squadron. As I think I told you, I was in P/O Wally Fairie's crew that flew from Hurn England to Maison Blanche Algiers on June 19 1943 landing on the 2Oth.

On the 25th we flew from Maison Blanche to Blida (all of this I am reading from my log book not from memory) where we flew our first operational flight to Corsica on July 14. I can't remember the names of any of the four crews who made the initial trip other than J.B.Austin F/Lt who was the OIC 1575 Flight.(again from my log)

Our crew was comprised of six Canadians and one Englishman,( our  flight engineer) If interested the names were PO Wally Fairie (pilot) Sergeant Bob Stirling (navigator) from Toronto; Johnny Paget (bomb aimer") also from Toronto; Len Brereton (flight engineer) from Coventry England Paul Senecal (rear gunner) from Chilliwack B.C. Bill Tinker( dispatcher-gunner) from Sidney Mines Nova Scotia and myself Vic Scott( wireless Op ) from Oshawa Ont.

The rest of the crew flew two tours ;70 sorties from Blida. me two extra - one to southern France and one to Northern Italy with Ft Sgt.Hynde on the 27th & 3Oth of December as his wireless Op. had been hit in the eye with a snowball while playing around in the Atlas ruol mountain.

At the end of our tours our skipper and our navigator were awarded the DFC and the three of us were awarded the French Croix de Guerre.

As far as stories about my time on squadron,most were not particularly interesting. One that is almost unbelievable happened on a trip to northern Italy. We were flying in three agents and at the briefing the chap from I.S.S.U.6 told us to make sure that they did not talk to each other on the way over. We were dropping them at different spots within a ten mile radius. The reason given to us was,that the first drop had been playing both sides and not being completely sure of him he had to be watched. As well the second drop was also suspect and may defect. As well as a sabotage assignment, the third person (a British army Sgt. who had lived in Italy for a number of years before the war) was to keep tabs on the other two and if there was any indication of betrayal he was to eliminate them. Needless to say it made for an interesting flight.

We naturally never did find out what happened.

I wont bore you with any more tales at this time so all the best.

Vic Scott

Vic is shown with his French Legion d'honneur which he received in 2016