John Hardie
Hi Steve,
thanks for your reply,
His nick name was "Andy" when he was in the airforce, after an actor at the time Andy Hardie (or Hardy) not sure of the spelling. He was also known as "Kiss me" not that I would have dared!
If I get a chance I will look up in his log book and find the crew names also.
After the war he returned to Australia for a short time, then returned to the UK as he had tried uni and I think it was a bit to different to what he had been doing for the past 3 or 4 years! He through a family contact got a job with a shipping company in London. He joined 601 auxillary airforce squadron and was flying Spitfires, then onto Vampires and Meteors.
If you look on the web site for the 601 recreation and look in Tom Molsons photo's, in the squadron shots he is the one in the Australian uniform and it is noticably darker than the English ones.
As he said his uniform was perfectly servicable and he couldn't afford a new one anyway!
He became great friends with Hugh Dundas (Cocky) and many others as well, and was there from 1947 till 1953 when he then returned to Australia.
I look forward to hearing from you again,
Cheers,
John.