“Missing on Air Operations”
P/O Derek E. Tapson
197 Squadron
November 11, 1943 – February 10, 1945
On February 10 1945, P/O D.E Tapson (No.190180) failed to return from an attack on a German Corps Headquarters just over the River Rhine. Here is his own account of what happened.
I joined No. 197 Squadron in December 1943 who were then flying Typhoons out of Tangmere as part of 11 Group before becoming part of 146 Wing in 2nd TAF supporting the invasion ground forces through Normandy and beyond through the Low Countries. My luck ran out on 10 February 1945 when I was part of a squadron ‘show’ to eliminate a farmhouse near the German town of Kleve.
The scheduled op had already been cancelled earlier in the day but put on again in the afternoon. The target had been identified by my No.1 after the CO [S/L R. C .C. Curwen DFC] failed to find it, so we hurtled down from 10,000 feet for a low-level attack. At 2000 feet the CO aborted the strike, so we started to climb back up to our high ceiling. In doing so I got hit by a burst of flak which damaged the engine. My first thoughts were that I could make it back over the Rhine but when flames started coming into the cockpit it was time to make a hasty exit.
It wasn’t quite as quick a departure as intended requiring two supreme efforts to get over the side and in doing so I must have knocked myself out. Fortunately, I ‘came to’ on the way down managing to stream the chute just before hitting Mother Earth in my bare feet, so I must have lost my shoes on the way down. Greeted by members of the flak unit who had done the ‘dirty deed’ they treated me well even supplying a pair of clogs to send me on my way, under armed escort, to Dulag Luft Frankfurt and then on to a POW camp at Nurnberg where I met up with my CO who had suffered a similar fate [S/ L A. H. Smith DFC & Bar was shot down December 31, 1944].
Then followed the “March”, finally reaching Moosburg where we were liberated by General Patton’s army. Repatriation followed, firstly by courtesy of the USAF to Northern France and then by Lancaster back to England; where I could take stock of being one of the more fortunate ones to make it back home.
Derek Tapson was one of the longest-serving members of 197 Squadron to survive the war. He was also the last surviving veteran of 197 Squadron. When he passed away peacefully, on July 16, 2024, at the ripe old age of 102 he was the last of an exceptional group of men.
Flying Officer Derek Tapson
Born: December 23, 1921, died: July 16, 2024
Published by kind permission of Derek Tapson’s family