WW2. John Alexander Swift (Pim)

The following pictures are from John Alexander Swift's private collection and other sources. Pim, as he was known, was born in 1921 to Alec and Mabel. Pictures show Pim as a youngster in Hathern eventually joining his father Alec in the Home Guard in 1941 and shortly therafter joining the RAF Voluntary Reserve (RAFVR) and training as a pilot in Canada and the UK before starting live operations in the Middle East which sadly ended with is death on November 5th 1943.

Suitable trainer for pilots migrating to larger transport aircraft

On Friday Nov 5th 227 Squadron was involved in an operation north of Rhodes. Following an encounter with German ME109s five of the planes were lost, including that manned by John Alexander Swift and his long-time colleague George Frederick Austin. Here you can see the loss report and follow up sortie. Pim is one of those remembered on the Loughborough Roll of Honour.

A lot of the above information is from Pim's Flight Logbook. You can see here the Endorsements which were inserted in the front of the book and the complete log of all training and operational flights.

Here you can see more infromation about the Beam Landing System which Phil learnt at Dishforth to aid landing in poor visibility.

Over 50 years later, in response to an aticle in the Loughborough Echo, Pim's brother Tony submitted this resume of Pim's military career outlining in particular the dificulties faced by the Beaufighters when faced with the technicalty superior German ME109 Messerschmitt fighter.

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WW2. John Alexander Swift (Pim)