617 Sqd Kembs Barrage Raid 7 October 1944

Frank Tilley – 617 Squadron Frank was a friend and work colleague of AEG member John Harper.  Grateful thanks are due to John for sending us this obituary which was written by Dr Robert Owen, Official Historian of No. 617 Squadron Association.  Any augmentation is in italics and the photographs have been tracked down from the internet and ‘Beyond the Dams to the Tirpitz‘ by Alan W Cooper. Frank Tilley was born in Hackney, London, on Boxing Day 1922, the youngest of 8 children.  After education at the Grocer’s Grammar School, Hackney and Hackney Technical College, he joined Dessouter Brothers, in Hendon, manufacturers of artificial limbs.  The work did not exactly fire Frank’s enthusiasm. The call for men to join the forces at the outbreak of war seemed to offer an escape route, but it was not to be. Much to Frank’s dismay he discovered that he was in a “reserved” occupation.  However, he eventually discovered a loophole – th...

From 1944 on the Heimat Blak Batteries  LwH Einheiten 37/VII and 35/VII (Alsace ) were increasingly deployed in areas that were far from the home of the Luftwaffe flak helpers. For example, students from Baden and Württemberg were initially stationed in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, then one after another at short intervals near Karlsruhe, in the Palatinate, at the Swiss border at the Maerkt Barrage (Kembs) and finally at Pforzheim. The used on site anti-aircraft battery 37 / VII was a so-called home flack battery , which had its command post in Istein Baden near Rheinweiler. This battery was mainly operated by students from the years 1926-28 from the grammar schools and high schools of Müllheim, Lörrach and Weil Am Rhein, Schopfheim and Villingen. Divided into 3 trains (Zuege) as Luftwaffenhelfer.   Hitler visiting Istein /Baden in 1939 or later home base of Heimat Flak Reg. The 4th train, which was used between the Old Rhine and ...