F/Sgt
Eric Frederick Minshall Braddock RAFVR was the only son of Henry and Elsie
Braddock (nee Jones). His parents had divorced and Eric’s father, a light bulb
producer and electrician, lived in Norwood, London and his mother, Elsie in
Chadderton, Oldham, Lancashire.
Eric
volunteered for the air force, applying for his commission in early 1944 but his
commission
came through
while out on his last and final mission and he took off as a F/Sgt and was
killed as a P/O. Eric was a young man who was full of life and energy and his
mother, Elsie, a staff Sgt in a NAAFI, was devastated when he was killed. She
always found his birthday each year particularly hard to bear and died in 1987
aged 85.Eric was engaged and after he was killed, his fiancée returned the ring
to Elsie but sadly it was to be stolen in a house burglary. In 1956/7 the
British Legion took Elsie, her niece and other families over to visit the graves
of the crew in the Buren General Cemetery.
 |
|
Eric and his crew. |
In the
aftermath of the crash of Eric's Halifax,
a member of the Dutch underground movement buried the crew. In the same cemetery
rested the bodies of some German casualties, which after the war had finished
were re interred back in Germany. Eric’s mother and niece made a trip to Eric’s
grave in Buren in 1956/7.This was organised by the British Legion for relations
of the crew. When Elsie (Eric’s mother) enquired as to the whereabouts of the
German graves, she was told that she was mistaken and that they didn’t exist.
However when she explained that she had a photo of the graves, she was told that
the Germans bodies had been re patriated.
F/Sgt Braddock and his crew rest in the Buren General cemetery.
