Sergeant
Frederick
(Frank)
Tees
Born in Chichester, Sussex, England
Ancestors 
Son of Henry Tees
and Lizzie Gertrude (Ayling) Tees
[sibling(s) unknown]
[spouse(s) unknown]
[children unknown]
Died
at age 59
in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England
Profile last modified
| Created 6 Oct 2017
This page has been accessed 406 times.
Biography
Frank Tees is Notable.
Frederick Tees was born in Chichester, Sussex on 16 June 1922, son of Henry Tees and his wife, Elizabeth Gertrude Ayling. [1][2]
Frank joined the Royal Air Force and was one of the airmen selected to join the top-secret 617 Squadron flying out of RAF Scampton, which had been specially formed on 21 March 1943 for a secret mission under Wing Commander Guy Gibson. There followed rigorous low level night flying exercises while they practiced highly accurate dropping of Barnes Wallis' novel bouncing bomb flying Lancasters. [3]
It was only at the pre-flight briefing that the crews learned they were to attack the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams in Germany in an effort to cripple the Ruhr industrial area. There are pictures of all the crews at Dambuster Heroes. Frank was assigned to fly as front gunner with Bill Ottley flying ED910/G call sign AJ-C. The other members of the crew were Ronald Marsden, Jack Barrett, Jack Guterman, Thomas Johnson, and F. Tees. However he and Harry Strange changed places and Frank flew as rear gunner. [4]
They were assigned to the third wave as back up, taking off a couple of hours after the first wave. Approaching Hamm they were engaged by gun fire. The starboard inner engine was quickly hit and burst into flame and the hydraulic system was knocked out. The aircraft plunged to the ground and, apart from Fred, who was thrown clear, they were all killed. [5] Badly burned Frank was captured and remained a prisoner until the end of the war. [6]
He died at Letchworth in Hertfordshire on 15 March 1982. [7] [8]
Sources
- ↑ Wikipedia: Frederick Tees
- ↑ England and Wales birth index (Registered Chichester 1922 Frederick Tees)
- ↑ Wikipedia: Operation Chastise
- ↑ 617 Squadron crew list
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20211225025622/http://www.dambusters.org.uk/the-dam-raids/the-raid-third-wave/
- ↑ Wikipedia: Frederick Tees
- ↑ National Probate Calendar
- ↑ (https://www.freebmd.org.uk) GRO index Q2 1982 Hitchin vol 10 page 496, date of birth given as 16 June 1922
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