http://www.meltontimes.co.uk/community/ ... -1-4887884A FORMER Second World War airman, who survived 45 missions with his Lancaster crew, has died peacefully in his beloved home town of Melton aged 88.
At the age of just 19, Dick Goodburn was a Lancaster rear gunner in an Australian squadron, flying out of RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.
At a time when one in two Bomber Command air crew were being killed, and the average life of a Lancaster being just eight missions, Dick, or ‘Ginge’ as he was known in the RAF, flew on 45 missions without a break before his crew was stood down.
Dick spent his childhood over Goodburn’s, the fruiterer, in Nottingham Street. One of his first ventures was to build a raft, the ‘Scullypop’, and float it off to adventures new down the River Eye. His mother, upon discovering this, ordered Dick’s elder brothers to destroy it. This early adventurous start was to set the standard for the rest of his life.
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