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It is with sadness that the Association has learned of the passing, in April 2021, of Arthur Woolf aged 99 years old, who served with 630 Squadron as a Wireless Operator.
Arthur ‘Red’ Woolf and his crew were shot down by a German night fighter on the night of 24/25 July 1944 while flying in Lancaster PA992 (LE -Y) on a bombing raid against Stuttgart. While the Mid-Upper and Rear Gunners were killed in the crash, the other 5 crew members survived.
Badly injured, Arthur was initially cared for by a French family but was eventually tracked down by German soldiers investigating the crash. Arthur was transferred to a hospital in northern France being used as a POW hospital by the Germans. He was to stay there for the next 4 months until advancing American forces led to his release.
Transferred back to England, Arthur was moved to an RAF Hospital in the West Country and then to the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, where treatment continued for burns and injuries to his left leg which left him with a permanent limp. It was at East Grinstead that Arthur received treatment from Archibald McIndoe, the pioneering New Zealand plastic surgeon. As a result of his treatment Arthur became a member of the so-called Guinea Pig Club.
You can listen to Arthur’s recollections of his time with 630 Squadron through the International Bomber Command Centre’s digital archive here
A private funeral service was held earlier this month in Sutton Coldfield with representation from Arthur’s local RAFA Branch.
RIP ‘Red’
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