Bedlington-1941

[Joe Rooney]

An obituary in the Calgary Herald newspaper contains an interesting tie to the WW11 history of Bedlington.

It is the obituary of 93 year old former Wing Commander Carl ("Moose") Fumerton. RCAF.

He was born in Fort Coulonge, Quebec in 1913 and died on July 10,2006.

After leaving school in 1931, he worked in the arctic, as a gold miner, and later became a bush pilot, flying all across the Canadian north and west.

In 1939 he joined the RCAF and was posted to the UK to fly Lysanders in 112 squadron Army cooperation, but converted to Hurricanes with 32 Squadron, and later 1 Squadron RCAF in time for the Battle of Britain.

!n 1941 he trained with 406 nightfighter squadron at Acklington, Northumberland. 406 squadron was the first Canadian nightfighter squadron, and was sent to Acklington to train because they were so new, and Acklington was considered a quiet sector.

On September 1941, WC Fumerton was flying a Beaufighter on a training patrol over Blyth, when he was advised of the proximity of a Junkers 88 heading for Bedlington. he promptly found it, attacked, and shot down the first RCAF kill of the war. It was also one of the first nightfighter kills over Britain. A week later he detected , and damaged a Heinkel HE111 over West Hartlepool.

Shortly afterward s, he was posted to 89 Squadron in the Middle East, where within two weeks he shot down three more HE111's.

In June 1942, he lead a force of four nightfighters to Malta, where high flying JU88's were bombing above the ceiling of the ground AA defences. In four weeks the nightfighters had destroryed the German nightbombing capability, Fumerton taking five of the Ju88's and one of the JU87's.

In August 1942, the nightfighters switched from air defence over Malta to intruder attacks on German aicraft

as they took off from bases in Sicily.

Fumerton later switched to Mosqitos, and now commanding 406 Squadron RCAF, attacks over the continent in preparation for D-day. ending the war as a Wing Commander with a DFC and Bar, and then an AFC.

He shot down his 14th and last JU88 over the channel on June 14th 1944.

After the war he became a very successful industrial real estate broker in Toronto, retiring some twenty years before his death.

As a kid in Bedlington, I remember the JU88 being shot down, and landing on the Bedlington Brickworks. It was surrounded by police, and RAF people from Acklington. But being curious kids, we managed to get close enough to see it anyway.

For us , it was part of the fun of the war. Our parent's did not think so, but most kids did consider the war to be our local entertainment. Great times. And until this weekend, I didn't even know the name of the man who provided us with all of that entertainment!

Joe

[Hamburger Pimp]

Nice shooting, Moose. The only language Fritz understands is a belly full of hot lead.

Tally ho.

[BedlingtonLass]

i wasnt even a twinkle in my mothers eye, actually my mother wasnt even a twinkle in her mothers eye

[Vic Patterson]

Thanks for passing that on Joe, I often heard the stories of these raids from my parents, bombs on Blyth railway station etc, I was born at the end of that war ('44) and I never realized how close I was to it all. BTW who is going to win the Labour day game? Vic

[Joe Rooney]

i wasnt even a twinkle in my mothers eye, actually my mother wasnt even a twinkle in her mothers eye

The team that wants it badly enough!

Regards, Joe

[Pencil_Neck]

Nice shooting, Moose. The only language Fritz understands is a belly full of hot lead.

Tally ho.

Cracking shot auld boy

[Denzel]

And he was back in time for bacon and eggs.

[jorga]

An obituary in the Calgary Herald newspaper contains an interesting tie to the WW11 history of Bedlington.

It is the obituary of 93 year old former Wing Commander Carl ("Moose") Fumerton. RCAF.

He was born in Fort Coulonge, Quebec in 1913 and died on July 10,2006.

After leaving school in 1931, he worked in the arctic, as a gold miner, and later became a bush pilot, flying all across the Canadian north and west.

In 1939 he joined the RCAF and was posted to the UK to fly Lysanders in 112 squadron Army cooperation, but converted to Hurricanes with 32 Squadron, and later 1 Squadron RCAF in time for the Battle of Britain.

!n 1941 he trained with 406 nightfighter squadron at Acklington, Northumberland. 406 squadron was the first Canadian nightfighter squadron, and was sent to Acklington to train because they were so new, and Acklington was considered a quiet sector.

On September 1941, WC Fumerton was flying a Beaufighter on a training patrol over Blyth, when he was advised of the proximity of a Junkers 88 heading for Bedlington. he promptly found it, attacked, and shot down the first RCAF kill of the war. It was also one of the first nightfighter kills over Britain. A week later he detected , and damaged a Heinkel HE111 over West Hartlepool.

Shortly afterward s, he was posted to 89 Squadron in the Middle East, where within two weeks he shot down three more HE111's.

In June 1942, he lead a force of four nightfighters to Malta, where high flying JU88's were bombing above the ceiling of the ground AA defences. In four weeks the nightfighters had destroryed the German nightbombing capability, Fumerton taking five of the Ju88's and one of the JU87's.

In August 1942, the nightfighters switched from air defence over Malta to intruder attacks on German aicraft

as they took off from bases in Sicily.

Fumerton later switched to Mosqitos, and now commanding 406 Squadron RCAF, attacks over the continent in preparation for D-day. ending the war as a Wing Commander with a DFC and Bar, and then an AFC.

He shot down his 14th and last JU88 over the channel on June 14th 1944.

After the war he became a very successful industrial real estate broker in Toronto, retiring some twenty years before his death.

As a kid in Bedlington, I remember the JU88 being shot down, and landing on the Bedlington Brickworks. It was surrounded by police, and RAF people from Acklington. But being curious kids, we managed to get close enough to see it anyway.

For us , it was part of the fun of the war. Our parent's did not think so, but most kids did consider the war to be our local entertainment. Great times. And until this weekend, I didn't even know the name of the man who provided us with all of that entertainment!

Joe