The Photo on the Wall: the search for a missing WWII Airman
Author:
Wendy St George
Publisher:
River Press
ISBN:
9780994123497
Date Published:
20 April 2022
Pages:
304
Format:
Paperback
RRP:
$49.95
Like many of her generation, Wendy St George grew up with an awareness that her Taranaki family had lost someone in World War Two. Her uncle Ted Saywell was never talked about but his photo was on the wall and she began to get curious about the RNZAF bomber pilot who never came home.
Internet searches led to email exchanges with people on the other side of the world as she tried to find out where Ted and his crew had died and where they were buried. She tracked down the lone survivor, RAF flight sergeant Ron Wisson, who had ended the war in a German POW camp, and their online relationship grew as they followed leads, sourced maps and records and shared the ups and downs of their search for answers.
Their emails, and those of others involved in the hunt for the missing Handley Page Halifax MkII bomber shot down in the Aachen raid over Germany on 14 July 1943, form much of the narrative in this book.
The author’s cheerful ‘Hello Ron’, the gradual sharing of personal stories, the battle to get documents released, the involvement of a group of Dutch ‘planehunters’ and their final dramatic discoveries in a field in Leuth, make for fascinating reading.
About the Author
Wendy St George has worked as a graphic designer, photographer and scanning electron microscope technician. Now, with her partner Stephen Woollett, she owns and operates a boarding kennel in the South Island of New Zealand. This book is a tribute not only to her late uncle but also to those who helped her search for certainty about his death.
