9:11pm Sunday 7th February 2010
By Fiona Pendlebury
TWO former RAF men discovered that they were on the same wartime mission after one of them penned a book.
Veteran Ted Nelson, 86, of Corfe Mullen, recently launched A Survivor’s Tale, a book about his wartime experiences.
In one chapter Ted, of Broadmoor Road, Corfe Mullen, describes being present on the destroyer HMS Keppel as it escorted the Queen Mary out to sea.
Ted, a former flight lieutenant, was on HMS Keppel as the liaison between the RAF and the Navy.
As local historian Sue Newman read the chapter to her father Joe Hurst, 88, he recognised the event and realised that he was flying a Hudson aircraft on an anti U-boat sweep overhead at the time.
Ted has been visiting former squadron leader Joe at his Christchurch care home for the last couple of years but until that moment neither had realised they were both there on May 23, 1942.
Both were part of Coastal Command and at the time Joe was a wireless operations rear gunner.
A check of the men’s wartime log books confirmed that they were right.
Although Joe has dementia, he has a crystal clear recollection of his war days and can tap out anything in Morse Code, said Sue.
Ted said: “It’s an amazing, million-to-one coincidence. He was flying in aerial escort to the Queen Mary at exactly the same time I was escorting the Queen Mary.
“Usually the only time you bump into other RAF people is at squad reunions. We didn’t meet when we were in the air force at all.”
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