The Airmen's Stories - F/O B A Rogers

Bruce Arthur Rogers was born in the 4th quarter of 1917 in Bootle, Lancashire, the son of Percy Charles Rogers and Olivia Jane Rogers (nee Home).

He was educated at Brentwood School and St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he read Modern Languages.

Rogers was a member of the University Air Squadron and was commissioned in the RAFVR in February 1938. Called to full-time service in October 1939, Rogers relinquished his RAFVR commission and was granted a Permanent Commission in the RAF on 7th October 1939 as a university entrant.

He commenced training shortly afterwards. He married Dora Maller in Windsor on 11th May 1940 (below).

Above image courtesy of DAKWelsh.

Called to full-time service in October 1939, Rogers completed his training and joined 85 Squadron at Castle Camps on 15th September 1940. He moved to 242 Squadron at Coltishall on the 28th.

On a squadron escort for Blenheims (Circus 14) detailed to bomb the Chocques chemical works at Bethune on 17th June 1941, Rogers was shot down in Hurricane IIA Z2888 and killed.

He was 23 and is buried in Ambleteuse Communal Cemetery, France.

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It is worth recording the life of his widow Dora as it is an example of the prewar movement of people and the consequences thereof.

Dora Maller was born on 27th April 1914 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Perhaps as a result of the Russian Revolution, the family decamped to Paris in 1919.

Dora's mother, Ekatarina, was on a visit to Berlin when she contracted influenza and died there on 25th December 1921 aged 33.

Dora entered the Lycée Victor Duruy in Paris in 1925 and also spent time at the Cliff School, Eastbourne, England the following year.

She later completed a 3-month secretarial course at the Sorbonne in Paris.

In 1932 her father sold their Paris apartment and they moved to London, settling in Hyde Park Square.

Her brother Gabriel was killed in a car accident in 1935.

In 1937 Dora attended St. Hilda's College in Oxford possibly for teacher training but in any event she settled in Oxford, working as a secretary.

After her marriage and the death of Bruce she returned to Oxford with their daughter Catherine and was employed as a teacher.

Her father Yascha Alexander passed away on 26th September 1950 in London, aged 61.

She retired in 1978.

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In March 2001 workmen laying a gas main in Ambleteuse found aircraft wreckage and human remains. It seems that in 1941 the Germans buried only a few fragments from the crash along with Rogers' dog tags and the main wreckage was left undisturbed.

His remains were reburied with a suitable ceremony and Dora was invited to attend (below).

Dora Rogers died in August 2010 aged 96.