In this famous photograph, taken as Gibson’s crew was about to take off on the Dams Raid on 16 May 1943, John Pulford is second from the left. [Pic: IWM CH18005]
Sgt John Pulford
Flight engineer
Lancaster serial number: ED932/G
Call sign: AJ-G
First wave: First aircraft to attack Möhne Dam. Mine exploded short of the dam.
Only one of Guy Gibson’s previous crew from 106 Squadron came with him when he set up the new 617 Squadron in March 1943. This was wireless operator Robert Hutchison. Hutchison is thought to have recommended navigator Harlo Taerum, who in turn recommended bomb aimer Fred (Spam) Spafford. These three, along with rear gunner Richard Trevor Roper, were all in 50 Squadron when the call came.
John Pulford was born and brought up in Hull, and joined the RAF at the outbreak of war as ground crew. Like many other ground crew, he volunteered for retraining as a flight engineer in 1942, when the senior authorities in Bomber Command decided to create this new category for heavy bomber aircrew, rather than use a qualified second pilot.
By December 1942, Pulford had joined 97 Squadron, based at Coningsby. He flew on 13 operations with Sqn Ldr E F Nind between December 1942 and March 1943. On 4 April, he was posted to Scampton, and assigned to Gibson’s crew.
Despite the fact that they sat side by side throughout their Dams Raid training and on the operation itself, Gibson seems never to have noticed much about Pulford. In Enemy Coast Ahead he describes him as a Londoner, obviously unable to spot his Yorkshire accent. But he relied on the Hull man to operate the throttles as they hurtled towards the Möhne Dam at 240 mph, calling out the famous words ‘Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit.’
All of Gibson’s crew were decorated for their collective actions on the Dams Raid, and John Pulford received the DFM. He did not however attend the original investiture at Buckingham Palace on 22 June 1943, collecting his medal later in the year.
When Gibson left 617 Squadron in August 1943, most of his crew including Pulford were initially allocated to the new CO, George Holden, although he wasn’t with them the night they were shot down, on 16 September.
By December, he was in another crew, piloted by Bill Suggitt, and completed several more operations. In February 1944, Suggitt’s crew successfully bombed the Antheor viaduct in southern France. They landed successfully at Ford airfield in Sussex, which they had used as a staging post, but in the short hop home from Ford to Woodhall Spa, they crashed into a hill on the Sussex Downs, near the village of Upwaltham. In 2009, a memorial to two crews who died in the area during the war was opened in the local church.
John Pulford is buried in Hull.
More about Pulford online:
Hull Daily Mail article
Daily Telegraph article about final flight
Commonwealth War Graves Commission listing
Decoration awarded for Operation Chastise: DFM
KIA 13 February 1944
Rank and decorations as of 16 May 1943.
Sources:
Richard Morris, Guy Gibson, Penguin 1995
John Sweetman, The Dambusters Raid, Cassell 2002
The information above has been taken from the books listed and a number of online sources. Apologies for any errors or omissions. Please add any corrections or links to further material in the comments section below.
