This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
MP backs campaign to commemorate the airmen of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
10/10/2024
Life expectancy in the unit was around two and a half months
Ahead of Remembrance Sunday next month, Banbury’s MP Sean Woodcock is backing a campaign to commemorate the brave pilots and navigators of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit during the Second World War.
Two Banbury men lost their lives serving in the unit.
The Photo Reconnaissance Unit was formed on the 24th of September 1939 and throughout the Second World War operated highly dangerous, clandestine photographic reconnaissance operations. They captured more than 26 million images of enemy operations and installations.
The unit’s aim was to provide up-to-date intelligence to strategically plan Allied actions armed with same day intelligence on enemy activity. It was instrumental in planning major operations such as D-Day and the Dambusters Raid.
Due to the clandestine nature of their operations the death rate was nearly fifty percent. Life expectancy in the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit was around two and a half months.
Local heroes of the unit include Sergeant Arthur Delehaunt, who before the war worked for an insurance company. On joining up he trained as an aerial observer and was posted to 69 Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron. On March 18, 1942, he and his crew were tasked with a reconnaissance sortie to North Africa but were intercepted by German fighters on their return to Malta. Their unarmed aircraft was shot down into the sea just 6 miles from their home. No trace of 26-year-old Arthur or the rest of his crew was ever found.
Another Banbury man, Pilot Officer Ronald Hewison, trained as a Spitfire pilot and was posted to 680 Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron operating in the Mediterranean. On September 26, 1943 he took his Spitfire for an operational sortie but crashed in Egypt – the circumstances for which are unknown. 23-year-old Ronald Hewison was buried in Heliopolis cemetery, Egypt.
There is no national memorial to the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit. The “Spitfire AA810 Project” has led the campaign to establish a memorial to the unit’s pilots and navigators.
Supporting the campaign Mr Woodcock said: “I am delighted to support the campaign to commemorate those who served in the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit.
“This includes Arthur Delehaunt and Ronald Hewison, who served under exceptionally difficult conditions, and I would urge anyone who might have any more information on them to get in touch.
“I look forward to working with the Spitfire AA810 Project to establish this memorial and to being able to pay my respects there once it is completed.”
Anyone related to, or who knew Arthur Delehaunt or Ronald Hewison, or those who know someone who served in the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit during the war are invited to contact the Spitfire AA810 Project via their website.
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam