Transcript of the speech given by Peter Forrester, nephew of Flying Officer SM Forrester:

Ambassador Minahan, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen - good afternoon, my name is Peter Forrester; I am the nephew of Sidney Forrester the 2nd pilot on EE138.

I would like to thankyou all for your attendance here today to commemorate the crew of EE138 and the unveiling of the new magnificent plaques.

We are gathered here today because 65 years and 12 hours ago at approximately 2:30 in the morning of the 4th September 1943 an air battle took place between the Lancaster crew of EE138 and the Crew of a Luftwaffe Junkers night fighter  ----   in the skies above us.

But on this occasion I would like to take this opportunity to talk about a time in the life of Sidney Forrester, just a few days before the loss of EE138.

I am able to share this with you, because of a meeting I had with a 460 Squadron Pilot, who was also a close friend of Sidney Forrester. This mans name is Clarrie Gardner; Clarrie celebrated his 94th Birthday last Month. When I first spoke with Clarrie a few years ago, he spoke about his time in the RAAF from the beginning when he and my Uncle Sidney started their training together, at a place called Victor Harbour in South Australia. He spoke about how they travelled to England together 1n1942, he spoke about the pair of them being close friends. He spoke to me about fate and he spoke about the strange element of luck, something that could either attach itself to air crews or desert them.

Clarrie has always said to me their time together was wonderful, but he further added the one thing that finally separated them was luck. He told me about Sidney Forrester’s first couple of days with the 460 Squadron at Binbrook Lincolnshire before that fateful Berlin Operation, and how he recalls with vivid memory a meeting on the 1st of September 1943. He told me about his own experience of luck on that Berlin Operation on the 3rd of September 1943, which saw Clarrie being awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross.

Clarrie in a letter has asked me to share this with you here today.

Dear Peter,

First of all, congratulations on what you’ve already achieved & all strength to the aims for the future! I have no doubt they’ll eventuate.

Now for my recollection of the September 1943 episode, when Sid & I reported for duty at 460 Squadron, Binbrook, in Lincolnshire, England.

We were “Sprog” flying Officers having only the previous week completed our conversion course to Lancasters.

We’d been allocated our rooms in the Officers Mess at Binbrook and on entering the ante-room were approached by a senior Officer who introduced himself as Squadron Leader Kelaher, then what took place, which I will always vividly remember is as follows;-

“Welcome to 460 and good luck to you both – which flight have you been allotted to Gardner?”  I said “the Adjutant told me to report to “B” Flight Sir”
He jokingly replied – “Bad luck Gardner, were having a good run in “C” Flight at present, - you’ll becoming to “C” Flight then Forrester – If we are on ops tomorrow or the day after, I’ll take your crew and you can fly “Second Dickie” for experience “
We then sat and discussed with other pilots some of the recent operations and events at the squadron.

That’s how fate manages our future - had Sid and I been allocated to Flights in the other order, obviously our futures would have been otherwise.
Well Peter, you’ve been able to un-earth much more of their fate than I ever knew because to the end of the war, our only advice from the Red Cross, was that, resulting from the crash landing, the entire crew were assumed to be K.I.A.

I’ll be very keen to hear all about the details of the commemoration service. Have a great trip. Warmest regards.

Sincerely Yours

Clarrie Gardner

On the evening of the 3rd of September 1943 Clarrie took off from Binbrook for Berlin18 minutes before Sid and his crew and he never saw his friend again.

Clarrie said “What happened to him that night and had his luck ran out he would have never returned “
His own luck on the Berlin Operation that night was extraordinary as I will illustrate by way of an excerpt from his Recommendation for Honours.

F/Lt. Gardner is a young Australian Pilot who has successfully completed 31 Sorties over enemy territory on his first tour. This was evidenced in the attack on Berlin on the night of September 3rd 1943, His aircraft collided with another Lancaster while taking evasive action to a German Night Fighter and although still a long way from the target, and with his aircraft severely damaged, he, displaying great purpose continued to Berlin and bombed, before returning to his squadron base at Binbrook.

Thankyou all, Mange Tak.

Back row second from left - Clarrie Gardner and his Crew (Reg Page - Engineer; Ian Nettle - Bomb Aimer; Os Patterson - Navigator; M Harris - Wireless Operator; Don Gardner - Mid Upper Gunner; Rocky Rothwell - Tail Gunner) in front of 460 Squadron Lancaster DV173 AR-J