Mauritz Bernard Berndsson is listed as a former pupil at South Shields Technical School for Boys under “Lives Remembered”. He was one of the successful South Tyneside ARC rowing crew in 1937 and 1938. He is listed as being in the Royal Air Force (RAF) Volunteer Reserve No. 102 Squadron and on 21 November 1941 Sergeant Berndsson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM).
The Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the Royal Air Force and other British Armed Forces, below commissioned rank, for “exceptional valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against the enemy.
By 1944 Berndsson had transferred to 35 Squadron and the Squadron’s Operations Record Book shows that he was the Captain of a 35 Squadron aircraft on 34 operational bombing raids between 9th April 1944 and 18th August 1944.
On 16 February 1945 Berndsson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) was the third-level military decoration awarded to officers in the Royal Air Force for “an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against the enemy”.
The Supplement to the London Gazette records that on the 27th January 1955, Flight Lieutenant M.B. Berndsson D.F.C., D.F.M., relinquished his RAF commission. He died in 2006.
Source:
Tim Fay
Photo:
British Newspaper Archives
Further information from Andrew Burrage below:
Whilst training as a bomber pilot he flew with (the then) Pilot Officer Leonard Cheshire as 2nd pilot on an air test training flight in a Whitley5 on 25th Jan 1941.
As a sergeant pilot Mauritz was involved in 30 operational flights between Feb 1941 and Sept 1941 on targets that included: Brest, Kiel, Dusseldorf, Bordeaux, Berlin, Wilhelmshaven, Dieppe, Cologne, Dortmund, Schwerte, Bremen, Duisberg, Osnabruck, Frankfurt, Hanover, Essen (some of these more than once).
The most notable of these were shown below:
LOG BOOK ENTRY
June 12 1941
A/C Whitley 5 Ops – Schwerte
Target located by pinpoint. Bombed at 9000ft: Hit by heavy flak. Rear Gunner wounded in back by shrapnel. Elevator controls shot away – stalled and regained control by tail trim tabs. Made crash landing at base. Rear gunner again injured.
NOTE FROM AOC 4 Group regarding above incident
From:- Air Officer Commanding, No. 4 Group.
To:- Officer Commanding, No. 102 Squadron
Date:- 21st. June. 1941.
Ref:- 57/60/Air.
1. With reference to your report 882/P.1. dated 16th. June, 1941, I should like you to inform Sergeant Berndsson how much I admire the excellent show that he put up.
2. He displayed airmanship of the highest order and/if the crew had good luck when they finally came to rest on the aerodrome, it was fully deserved.
A Coningham, Air Vice-Marshal, Air Officer Commanding, No. 4 Group, ROYAL AIR FORCE
LOG BOOK ENTRY
June 30th 1941
A/C Whitley 5 Ops – Duisberg
Target obscured by ground haze. Bombed on ETA. Attacked by ME109 while held in searchlights (not fired at). Machine gunned s-lights on way back.
LOG BOOK ENTRY
July 4th 1941
A/C Whitley 5 Ops – Brest
Battle Cruisers Gneisenau & Scharnhorst. Visibility excellent but target obscured by smokescreen. Bombed from pinpoint.
LOG BOOK ENTRY
Sept 2nd 1941
A/C Whitley 5 Ops – Frankfurt
Pinpoint on Rhine on track in. Target identified by river in moonlight. Camera U/S. Landed Linton, homing on Lorenz, thick mist in Yorks.
LOG BOOK ENTRY
Sept 7th 1941
A/C Whitley 5 Ops – Berlin
Excellent visibility, bombed nr Tempelhof. Opposition intense. Several fires burning. Clamped by searchlights at Lubeck on way out. Forced down to 4000ft. 30th OP.
On the above date Mauritz completed his 30th operational mission and was as per normal procedures transferred to No19 OTU (Operational Training Unit) at Kinloss.
In 1942 Mauritz was awarded the DFM medal at Buckingham Palace by King George the 6th.
After a period of time at the OTU where he spent time training others to be efficient bomber pilots there remains a bit of a mystery about what he was involved in next. My discussions with him about this period reveal that he was not too sure what it was all about himself!!
On 14th June 1943 he flew from Port Lyautey in Cornwall to Ras El Ma (Morocco/Algeria).
His logbook entries shows that he flew to and fro to El Aouina and La Marsa in Tunisia and during the period up to 19th August flew several different types of aircraft including the Whitley 5, Cessna Crane, Hurricane and Argus II.
It seems from what he told me that he was going to be involved in the allied landings in Sicily in July 43. As before he himself was not too clear about details (presumably because at the time (June43) they were still top secret)
It seems that as part of the invasion force some Whitley aircraft were to crash land on a runway in Sicily (don’t know which one) and act as radio beacons for the invading forces, including paratroops. Fortunately this idea was not proceeded with apparently. His logbook discloses flights from Maison Blanche to Malta and then to Lentini West (Sicily) on 19th August 1943 after the allied landings.
He flew back to the UK via Gibralter on October 29th 1943.
During this period it seems that he received promotion to Flight Lieutenant but I cannot find a date for this.
Then it appears from his log book that he commenced training with the Pathfinder Force and flying training on Lancasters on 1st March 1944
On 25th March 1944 he was formally transferred to 35 (PFF) Squadron at Graveley.
Whilst still training he had been on ops to Lille, Aachen, Karlsruhe (bombed Mannheim) and Essen during April 1944
This latter op had a sad ending.
After the raid on Essen, Mauritz and his crew flying in their Lancaster (ND734) landed safely back at Graveley and whilst still on the runway a Mosquito aircraft crashed into the back of them, killing Mauritz’s mid upper gunner, rear gunner and injuring the Mosquito crew. Mauritz told me he held no blame to the other crew as his belief was that their aircraft had been badly shot up and they may have had no brakes and thus could not stop in time.
On 6th of July 1944 Mauritz was officially awarded his Path Finder Force Badge. This award letter confirms that he was by this time a Flight Lieutenant and is signed by Air Vice Marshal Donald Bennett. Later on whilst with the squadron he was made a Squadron Leader that is confirmed in the presentation letter with his DFC.
Whilst with 35 PFF Squadron he took part in other ops on Duisberg, Dortmund, Aachen, Bourg Leopold, Mardick, Calais, all in May 1944.
Longues,Foret de Cerise, Rennes, Evrecy, Fouillard, Renescure, Oisment,Villneuve st Georges, L’hey, Nucurt, Gasennes, Tours, St Filiberte Ferme, Wiserne, Kiel, Stuttgart (3ops), Forey de Nieppe, Stettin, Connantre in June/July 1944
Notable amongst the above raids were attacks on a Panzer Division (14/6), petrol dump (15/6), Flying bomb sites (4 dates) and an attack on the V2 cupola at Wiserne which was knocked off its foundations in a precision attack.
During his time with the PFF Mauritz was mainly employed as a target illuminator because of his accurate flying skills but also carried incendiary and cookie (4000lb) bombs which he dropped as well.
Mauritz completed his tour on 26th Nov 1944 and then transferred to Transport Command for the rest of the war.
Source: Andrew Burrage
Photos: Andrew Burrage