In Memory Flight Officer Sgt John McLaren - Air Gunner, 223 (Bomber Support) Squadron - "The Last Musketeer"
Sergeants Les Matthews, Peter Witts, John McLaren
It was with some sadness that I learnt from Janine that John McLaren had died in March earlier this year. My mind went back immediately to conversations I used to have with Les Matthews and Peter Witts. Well aware of my efforts, together with those of Rod Vowler, to trace former members of 223 Sqn, Les and Peter were always keen to know if there was any news of their wartime pal, John Mclaren a fellow Air Gunner. Although other Air Gunners were traced there was no sign of John. To me they became the ‘Three Musketeers’.
The three met at 10 Air Gunnery School at RAF Walney Island, Barrow in Furness at the beginning of July 1944 when they joined 96 Course. The course of 60 airmen was drawn from a band of very disappointed young men who had been training to be pilots under the Pilot, Navigator, Bomb Aimer (PNB) scheme. Unfortunately for them, at this stage of the war, there was a surplus of pilots and they had been forced to re-muster to a different aircrew specialisation or a ground trade. Their disappointment was heightened because many of them had achieved solo standard.
Les, Peter and John were soon acquainted and were fortunate in staying together when they were included in the batch of 38 Air Gunners posted to 223 Sqn at RAF Oulton in early September 1944. They were to remain together with their allocation to Flt Lt Stan Woodward’s crew. They were very proud of their new Skipper, a greatly respected aircraft Captain on the Sqn. Stan had already been awarded a DFM for an earlier tour in Coastal Command, and would receive the DSO for his Tour with 223. In the crew, Peter manned the front turret, John was in a waist position, with Les literally bringing up the rear in the tail turret.
The trio were to fly 11 ops together before deletion of the front turret on 223’s Liberators resulted in Peter being posted across the airfield to 214 Sqn. Les and John, however, continued an ever present presence in the crew and went on to complete a very impressive 40 ops by the end of their Tour.
Like so many wartime friendships Les, Peter and John went their separate ways at the end of the war. Les and Peter eventually regained contact but, as the years went by, no sign of the elusive John. In May 2004 we lost Les. It was therefore ironic that just a few years later I had a very excited call from Peter to say that he had established contact with John McLaren. Janine had received a membership enquiry from John and it was established that he knew Peter Witts. The missing 3rd Musketeer had been found, albeit too late for Les. The supreme irony was that John was living in Cornwall, very close to Peter’s home in the same county. Sadly, I never met John and many Association members will not be aware of him. We had always hoped that John would be able to join us for a Reunion but it was not to be. We always marvelled at Peter’s ability to make such a journey each year, but it was just too far for John. We lost Peter in 2011, but how fortunate that the pair were able to get together even for just a few years.
Richard Forder
Association Committee
Specialist 223 Squadron
This article is from the Summer 2013 issue of Confound and Destroy
