PYM, William Harold
NAME PYM William Harold
RANK Warrant Officer 2nd / Air Gunner 99568 RAF Bomber Command - Group 1 SQUADRON RAF No. No. 166
“tenacity”
RAF Kirmington airfield in Lincolnshire
Squadron Markings AS Y Born November 21, 1921 - Exeter - Townships of Stephen / Usborne - County of Huron Residence Wingham - Ontario Died July 4, 1943 21 years 7 months Cemetery Heverlee War Cemetery - Leuven - Belgium
4 B C
Parents Mr. Harold and Laura Pym - Wingham
William was born in Exeter on November 21, 1921. The family would have attended St Andrews Presbyterian Church While he was growing up he had the measles, mumps and chickenpox. He liked horseback riding, swimming and skiing. His hobby was training horses. He took his public schooling from 1927-35 at St Mary's Public School and he took his high schooling in Listowel and Wingham from 1935-39. He began taking a sheet metal course in 1941 out of Hamilton but prior to his enlistment he worked for Harry Fryfogle who was an undertaker at 296 Josephine Street.
Canada
William traveled to London to enlist into the Royal Canadian Air Force on April 14, 1941. At the time he stood 5' 10" and he weighed 124 pounds. He had a fair complexion with blue eyes and fair hair. For the first three months he was at the London Recruitment Centre with the rank of Aircraftsman 2. On July 8 he was assigned to No. 1 Manning Depot in Toronto - Ontario and he was here until September 27. His first posting was to No. 4 Wireless School on September 28 in Guelph - Ontario. He earned the rank of Leading Aircraftsman. He remained here for four months and on January 28, 1942 he was posted to Composite Training School in Trenton - Ontario where he remained until mid March. He earned the rank of Air Gunner here. On March 15 his next posting took him to No. 4 Bombing and Gunnery School in Fingal - Ontario and here he had an average of 50% in Gunnery Training and was 18 in a class of 33. His Air Training he was 18 in a class of 33 and had an 63.5% average. He earned the rank of Sergeant here and received his Air Gunner Badge. On April 15 he was posted to the Atlantic coast to No. 1 "Y" Depot in Halifax - Nova Scotia.
Overseas On April 29 he volunteered for the RAF Training Pool and the same day embarked from Canada for overseas. He disembarked in the United Kingdom on May 12 and the next day reported to RAF No. 3 Personnel Reception Centre in Bournemouth - Dorset. His first posting overseas was to RAF No. 7 Air Gunner School - RAF Stormy Down - Pyle - Bridgend - Wales on July 22. On August 18 his next posting took him to RAF No. 28 Operation Training Unit where his average was 70%. This unit was based at RAF Wymeswold - Leicestershire. After his time here it was on to RAF No. 142 Squadron based at RAF Waltham - Lincolnshire & RAF Kirmington - Lincolnshire. The squadron at this time flew Wellington Mk III and this was a night bomber squadron.
In the Field
In the first month of 1943 on January 27 he arrived at RAF No. 166 Squadron based at Kirmington - Lincolnshire and was the day it was reformed. He earned the rank of Flight Sergeant and then Warrant Officer 2. He was here at this location until May 21 when he went to RAF Elsham Wolds - Lincolnshire and on June 19 he returned to RAF Kirmington. On the night of July 3/4 the Luftwaffe introduced a new tactic to counter the very effective bombing campaign taking place. Now the German night fighter forces began using a structured continuous line of "boxes", equipped with radar, and each being able to control the night fighters assigned to the box. As a RAF bomber flew into the box it would be detected and a night fighter would then be assigned to the bomber and see it on its own radar, or see it visually and at this point the night fighter would attack. The RAF bomber streams would then try to overwhelm the German "line defence" by providing an overwhelming number of targets over a short period of time for the ground controllers to attack all of them. Countering this moving from one place to another German fighter tactics were being developed One of these tactics was called "Wild Boar" and using bomber pilots who had been trained in night flight and navigation and flying single engine aircraft as the Messerschmitt bf 109 or the Focke wulfe 109 aircraft. Visual and navigation beacons were established on the ground to assist the ground controllers in guiding their fighters into the bomber stream. Once in the "box" the night fighters would orbit around a specific radio beacon, with those on the ground would scrutinize the attacking bomber stream and then provide updated information to the "Wild Boar" night fighters in a running narration to direct them to their targeted city. the Flak defences surrounding a city then had to restrict the height for their shells to explode and above the "Wild Boar" the night fighters attacked the bombers outlined by fires and searchlights. This was first used on the night of July 3/4 over Cologne with good success with 12 bombers shot down.
Warrant Officer Pym who was the tail gunner and beginning is 18th mission and his crew were in Wellington HF 595 AS Y and were lost over Belgium during a night mission against Cologne in Germany. It is believed this aircraft was lost due to enemy action. Cologne was the objective for this mission because it had a very important rail center the Germans needed to move their troops and supplies through. As the bomber stream got closer to the target German night fighters began to operate. As the raid was in progress the bomber stream was higher than the shells of the enemy flak guns were set to explode and the bombers took some time to realize this, but in the meantime the night fighters attacked the bombers from above and many bombers were shot down.
There were 653 aircraft involved in this mission and much of the industry was located on the east bank of
the Rhine. That was the aiming point and the result were 20 industrial buildings being destroyed. Wellington HF 595 was shot down over Belgium and crashed at Neerhespen - Belgium at 0:48 am on July 4 with no member of the crew surviving. They were originally buried in the Allied cemetery of the German Air Base at Brustem - Belgium about 8 1/2 miles from the crash site. Brusten was the base for Luftwaffe II/NGJ1. The pilot of the aircraft that shot down Wellington HF 595 was Hauptmann (Flight Lieutenant) Siegfried Wandam from 1/NGJ5 who took off from his base at Sint Truiden - Limburg - .Belgium and he was flying a Messerschmitt bf 110 G4. This pilot would be killed later in the morning at his home base at Sint Truiden and during the war had shot down 13 British Bomber Command bombers.
During the month of July 1945 his mother Mrs. Laura Pym received the Memorial Cross and then in August 1946 the family received the medals awarded to William which included the 1939-45 Star, the Aircrew Europe Star, the Defence and War Medals along with the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with clasp.
William is honoured and remembered on the Wingham Cenotaph and on the St Marys Cenotaph and on the Memorial Plaque of St Andres Presbyterian Church and on the Memorial Plaques of the Listowel and Wingham High Schools. He is honoured and remembered in Ottawa in the Books of Remembrance located in the Canadian Parliament and on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial. He is honoured and remembered on the bronze memorial plaque at the Seaforth - Ontario Town Hall. He is honoured and remembered on the RCAF Bomber Command Memorial. In addition he is honoured and remembered on the RAF Squadron web site at www.raf166squadron.com and look for final resting place, at the RAF 166 Sqadron Memorial Garden - Kirmington - Lincolnshireand at the RAF 166 Squadron Air Crew Memorial Window located in Kirmington at the Church of St Helens.
