Geriavator's posts about 101's special duties has prompted me to want to post about the career of the last wartime commanding officer of No.138 (Special Duty) Squadron, whom it was my privilege to know for the last twenty or so years of his life. The life of Wg Cdr T C Murray DSO, DFC* was documented, by Mark Hillier, in
Suitcases, Vultures and Spies. Mark has kindly given me permission to quote from the book, which is in large part based on face-to-face interviews with
Tucker (as I knew him) and other veterans.
First some background on Thomas Charles Murray. Born in 1918, he began his RAF career in 1937 as a member of B squadron no. 37-1 Entry at Cranwell graduating (or as he put in 'scraping' out due to injuries sustained as the passenger in a car crash ) in December 1938 at the end of the two year course, this was followed by a six week navigation course of which he said :
'Our recently won commissions had, I think, gone to our heads for I remember that we considered this training was no longer really necessary, that this navigation business was 'odd stuff' and not properly the job of pilots anyway!'
To misuse a cricketing metaphor,
Thos Murray was one of the few who carried their bats through WW2 flying 'heavies'. Initially posted to 106 Squadron to fly Battles but by the outbreak of war the squadron had converted to the HP Hampden and assigned a training role. Within a short time, he was posted to 49 Squadron; where on 21 December 1939 he flew his first operational sortie as second pilot/navigator of Hampden P1177 flying to the Stavanger area unsuccessfully searching for the
Deutschland which had been reported in the area and on which they were supposed to drop 500 pounders. His final op, on the 20 April 1945 - the 16th of his third tour, was a daylight raid on fuel storage in Regensberg flying PP675 one of 100 Lancasters involved. Sadly, less than three weeks before VE Day PA285 of 622 Squadron was lost, presumably to the heavy flak, 7 of her 8 crew were killed.
To take a step back,
Thos Murray was the son of an officer who proceeded from the RNVR, through the Royal Marines, to the new Royal Air Force. His father had been involved in the establishment of the secretarial branch and by 1937 had risen to the rank of Group Captain. At the age of 11, when his father was serving at RAF Halton,
Thos took his first flight in an Avro 504K. With the connivence of the flying staff and following a medical he began having flying lessons in an AW Atlas. In the final days of his career he flew Canberra T4s and B2s, doing so right up to hs retirement in April 1959. His final flight was on his 95th birthday:
After a gap of nearly 30 years, he … took to the skies once more in a Cessna 172 from Goodwood Airfield in West Sussex. Thos was at home at the controls and landed the aircraft back on runway 24 perfectly. He commented that ‘flying is like riding a bike, you don’t forget it’.
More to follow including a link to the author’s website and an invitation to download an unproofread version of the book in exchange for a donation to RAFA or the RAFBF.