http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/ob ... -1-2773180Born: 15 June, 1923, in Newcastle upon Tyne. Died: 13 January, 2013, in Kingussie, Inverness–shire, aged 89
DUNCAN Miller – who died in St Vincent’s Hospital, Kingussie, last month – was a retired lawyer who survived being shot down over Berlin in 1943.
Although born a Geordie, he was Scottish through and through and the family returned to Edinburgh when he was three, where he later attended Daniel Stewart’s College. There he found a life-long passion for rugby, playing for the school’s 1st XV – as well as the cricket 1st XI – although his playing days were ended by his wartime injuries.
On leaving school in 1940, he joined the RAF and despite failing to qualify as a pilot – landing a training aircraft on the roof of a shed did not help – he did succeed in qualifying as aircrew. He first had a spell with Coastal Command based in Cornwall, where he met a member of the WRNS, or Wrens, Doris Groves, later to become his wife.
After moving to Bomber Command as a bomb aimer, he served in both 77 Squadron and 35 Squadron – the latter a Pathfinder squadron – and flew on around 21 operations to the Ruhr and Hamburg, before being shot down in the first attack of what became known as the Battle of Berlin on 23 August, 1943.
Although some of the crew were killed, Duncan was blown out of the plane and landed, unconscious, in a field. He was taken prisoner, suffering severe leg injuries and a damaged shoulder, which were treated in a prisoner-of-war hospital. He was then taken, in March 1944, across Germany and Poland, via Poznan, Torun and Kaliningrad, to Stalag Luft 6 in Lithuania.
Tom