The Airmen's Stories - Sgt. A C Fotheringham

Allan Cook Fotheringham was born on 14th March 1918 in Dundee. His father was an engineer. The family lived at various addresses in Dundee between the wars but also spent considerable periods in Shanghai, China.

Fotheringham was educated at Morgan Academy in Dundee, after leaving he was employed by South Anchor Jute Works.

He joined the RAFVR in June 1939 as an Airman u/t Pilot. Called to full-time service on 1st September 1939, he completed his training at 11 ERFTS Perth and graduated from 5 OTU on 3rd October 1940.

He then joined 3 Squadron at Dyce and flew his first operational sortie on 19th October from Castletown.

Fotheringham was serving with 46 Squadron at Digby in December 1940 and joined 615 Squadron at Kenley on 28th December 1940.

Fotheringham was selected for a Rhubarb sortie over Holland on 15th February 1941.

P/O Jocelyn Millard recorded:

The recently appointed squadron CO, Wing Commander Holmwood, announced in the flight hut that the squadron had been detailed to carry out two sorties of a special nature that day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with three aircraft taking part in each. He began by giving a thorough briefing on the operations. The nature of the sorties was such that 10/10ths low cloud was a necessary condition for the raids involved, to minimise the risk of enemy detection. The weather on that particular day was bad, but it was ideal for the occasion.

Each sortie was to consist of a low level approach across the Channel (not forgetting partially submerged wrecks) for low level attacks on enemy military targets in a coastal area, but Intelligence reports revealed that the ground defences along the French coast were too heavy to justify such raids. The reports also revealed that the ground defences along the coastline between Blankenberghe and Ostende were not as heavy, thus offering safer avenues of entry into occupied territory, hence the area was chosen for the attacks.

Whilst such a distant area was supposedly relatively light on ground defences, the time and fuel required to reach it allowed little of either for target searching and a return journey. With such a big disadvantage, the idea of such raids for our aircraft was nothing short of ill conceived. After the briefing came the question of pilots, who would go ?

The CO decided that the fairest way to decide was to to have a draw, and that all available pilots, including himself, would be included. There were two draws, one for each of the two sorties. The names drawn for the morning sortie were F/O DGA Stewart, Sgts. PH Waghorn and Fotheringham and, for the afternoon, were the CO, myself and third whom I cannot now remember. After the draw there was a distinct air of calm and unease as the outcome of the draw began rapidly to sink in, then gradually everyone dispersed.

I remained in the flight hut and sat by the old Tortoise stove for warmth and comfort, considering the real possibility of not having any more birthdays. Whilst lost in wondering, the CO came in and, seeing me by myself, came over and said, 'What's up Millie... scared?". I said " Yes, I am" and he replied "Bloody hell, so am I". He was an Australian and, from my experience of Australian pilots, I had somehow concieved the idea that they were anything but afraid of anyone or anything. One lives and learns. Now, realising (somewhat happily) that I was far from alone in being scared by the unknown which lay ahead, I consoled myself with the thought that "If a tough nut like him can be scared, then at least I shall have some good company on the way".

Shortly afterwards, the first three aircraft took off and headed for Manston, where they were to refuel to give the maximum flying time for the mission. As the hours passed the weather began to improve a little.

The cloud was slowly lifting and at noon small welcome breaks appeared. Although the change in weather conditions was slight, the improvement continued, so raising hopes that the afternoon raid might be cancelled.

By about one o'clock none of the aircraft had returned to base and, being well overdue, the worst was feared.

On the early afternoon news 'Lord Haw-Haw' announced that three Hurricanes had been shot down off the coast of Belgium, but there was no mention of the pilots. With the failure of three aircraft to return and 'Haw-Haw's knowledge of how many aircraft were on the raid, and their destination, it was evident that there was some truth in his announcement.

Later that day it was learned that F/O Stewart had been killed and Sgt. Fotheringham taken prisoner, but nothing was heard of Sgt. Waghorn. Unknown to us at the time, Waghorn had in fact managed to return to the English coast and eventually to base. Despite some despondency over the morning's events, the afternoon brought some cheer in that the weather had improved considerably. There was a vast amount of broken cloud, a good deal of bright sunshine but most heartening of all was the cancellation of the afternoon raid.

615 Squadron later flew a sweep but, apart from a snap shot by P/O Millard at a lone Me109, no incidents were reported.

(Courtesy of 'The Battle of Britain to the Blitz, The turning point 1941' John Foreman 1993).

Fotheringham was flying Hurricane V7651 over Vlissingen and was skimming the ground when he clipped a tree. He was claimed by Oblt. Karl-Heinz Leesmann, the Staffel Kapitan of 2./JG52.

Above image courtesy of Darren Prior & Relatives of the Few Facebook Group.

At some time he was in Stalag Luft 6 Heydekrug.

Freed in May 1945, Fotheringham was released from the RAF later in the year as a Warrant Officer.

He started work as a jute mill manager in Calcutta in 1949, eventually becoming one of the firm’s directors before retiring to Dundee in the early 80s. He died there in 1984.

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His younger brother P/O Thomas Duffus Fotheringham was serving with 34 Squadron South African Air Force at Foggia, Italy in 1944.

On the night of 12/13th October 1944 twenty Liberators, sixteen from 31 Squadron SAAF and four from 34 Squadron SAAF, were sent to drop supplies to Italian partisans in the Northern mountains. Atrocious weather caused six Liberators to crash, with the loss of all 48 crew.

Fotheringham was in Liberator VI KH239 'S' which crashed at Cantalupa. He was 23 years old.

Also lost in this aircraft were:

F/Sgt. CW Lawton
Sgt. J Bucks
Sgt. DW Bishop
Sgt. EHA Clift
Sgt. SE Lockton
Sgt. G Tennison
Sgt. DR Wellon

All are buried in Milan War cemetery.

Another brother, Robin, also served in the RAF and was training in Canada when the war ended. He made his career as a civil engineer on construction sites mainly in the Middle East before retiring to Dundee where he died in about 1978.

The majority of research and photographs courtesy of Neil Fotheringham (son).