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"Ben was the Brother-in-law of one of my Great Uncles. He was living and working in South Africa in the 1930s. His job was to look after the polo ponies of a South African jeweler. Ben joined the South African Air Force during WW2 and attended 43 Air School Port Alfred where he qualified as an Air Gunner on the 31st July 1943. He then flew in Liberators with the 31st Squadron S.A.A.F. Ben was shot down and killed on the night of the 14th August 1944 while taking part in the Warsaw Airlift. The plane crashed at Goledzinow near Warsaw, Poland. The Liberator was flown by Captain N. van Rensburg and all the crew died at the crash site. Four years later his family finally found out what happened to him..." [From defunct Steve Martin website]
Ben Nevis Woods, like most of the Warsaw Airlift airmen casualties, was re-buried at the Rakowicki Cemetery in Cracow – a site of the Commonwealth Military Cemetery in Poland. |
