We remember Alfred PENDARIÈS from 346 Guyenne Squadron who passed away in April 2020.
Born on 18th April 1924 in Rullac-St-Cyr, Aveyron, France, Alfred PENDARIÈS joined the forces on his 18th birthday and left for Casablanca. In 1944, he decided to join the R.A.F.
After qualifying as an air gunner in Morpeth on 2nd June 1944, he arrived at RAF Elvington on 24th February 1945. He took part in his first mission as a mid-upper gunner on 1st March 1945, as part of 346 Guyenne Squadron, under the command of Lieutenant NEUFINCK. With his crew, they would complete 10 war missions over Hamburg, Essen, Dortmund, Wupperthal, Witten, Recklinghausen, Dülmen, Heligoland island, Wangerooge island.
Two of the operations carried out on Recklinghausen and Heligoland, would earn the crew two citations.
His daughter, Sandrine, remembers her father talking with passion, throughout his life, about the Halifax and his time in Elvington during the war, his friends and the famous British spirit he admired so much.
“My father told me repeatedly that the best memory in his life was his time spent in Elvington.
He felt both melancholy and longing for “his” plane, the Halifax, and carried in his heart, until his last breath, the pride of having belonged to the Groupes Lourds and of having fought in the name of peace and freedom”. Sandrine Pendariès
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