Sgt. Alan Gilbert Boughtwood
RAF Volunteer Reserve
Service Number:1376768
Sgt. Alan Gilbert Boughtwood of 9 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve was killed on 30th September 1942, aged 29.
He is buried at Pozan Old Garrison Cemetery, Poland. His gravestone bears the inscription “Bravest are those who have the clearest vision of what lies before them.”
He was the son of Thomas George Boughtwood and Gertrude Cox of Billericay. He was born in October 1912 in Rochford.
On the night of 30th September 1942 Alan was the Bomb Aimer on Lancaster W4237 which took off from RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire on a mine laying mission in the ‘Willows’ area of the Baltic. This was the first operational flight for Lancaster W4237. The ‘Willows’ was the codename for an area of the Baltic north of the German island of Rügen and north of Peennemünde. The aircraft crashed near Stettin in Poland, some way from the Baltic and south west of the tasked mine laying (or gardening as the crews would have called it) area. It is believed it was shot down by a Luftwaffe night fighter pilot Hans Schmid as this is the only claim in the area that night; he claims he shot down a Beaufighter although there were none lost that night.
Subsequent to the initial publication of this article the following extract from the IX Squadron Operations Record Book was sent to me by Keith Harvey who obtained it from retired Sqd Ldr Dicky James the squadron historian.
Apparently the error with Sgt. Boughtwood’s initials on the aircraft log is not unusual. I am told that this often happened, a result of lazy or tired typing of the Operations Record Book. In this case a number of the crew have their initials typed wrong.
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Thank you for all your hard work researching the stories behind the names on the war memorial. As a member of the IX Squadron Association I was particularly interested in the story of Alan Boughtwood. My father was a IX squadron Lancaster navigator in 44/45 and I grew up with my parents in Mill Road. He was an active member of the squadron association but I don’t believe he knew of the inscription as I am sure he would have mentioned it and paid tribute.
I forwarded the link to the squadron historian, retired Sqd Ldr Dicky James, who I know and he has kindly added some further information from the Operations Record Book along with your summary so that it is included in the squadron’s records. Interestingly it looks as though he was known by a different name as his service record shows L Boughtwood.
Anyway, thanks again for highlighting these service records.
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