Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum'

Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum'
[ Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum' ]

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Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV

Posted by Norman Dunn on 16/5/2025, 12:59 pm

Hebburn man Ernie Holmes was born in Cuthbert St, 1921,next to the Drill Hall at the junction of Ellison St & attended the Quay Board School a few mins walk from home..
When he became a young man he joined the RAF to train as a RAF Bomber pilot for WW2.
This clip is well worth watching if you havent seen it. What a HERO .
Click the LINK & have the sound on

Link: LINK

Re: Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV

Posted by George on 16/5/2025, 2:17 pm, in reply to "Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV"

Thanks Norman. Ernie was indeed a hero from Hebburn. Doing what we all know was a terrifying job. We were fortunate to have men like him. Hebburn can boast of other heros such as Gordon Johnston of the Royal Navy. Gordon was working in electronic communications at Reyrolles when he was whisked away to be trained as telegrapher. He served fighting the U boats in horrendous conditions protecting the North Atlantic conveys to Russia. There were other heros from the town of that I am certain. Indeed, this website held good records videos and other details before the keeper went awry and defaulted on Norman and us all. Thanks Norman and well done for remembering Ernie and giving us all a chance to count our blessings.

Re: Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV

Posted by Norman Dunn on 16/5/2025, 2:49 pm, in reply to "Re: Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV"

Thanks George.
Thanks for telling us of another hero, Royal Navy man Gordon Johnson.
I have the full story wrote down about Ernie Holmes's war .
I have another about Hebburn's Dominic Bruce who escaped German POW camps quite regularly including Colditz.
And a third one about Howard Langlands a RAF Navigator in WW2 & his plane was shot down over Belgium after bombing Cologne. Sadly none of the crew survived. I learned this when a Belgian researcher asked on Mike Ellison's old msg board asked if anyone knew a Howard Langlands who's Bomber landed on his village.
Three RAF Hero's we know of, but as we know there will be many more.
I met Hebburn's an old man called Tommy Kidger (ex Reyrolle's) who was in Bomber Command & was fascinated hearing some of his experiences.One was to bomb Peenemunde where V1 & V2 Rockets were being produced.Another was to fly over the Alps & bomb an engine manufacturing plant in Italy.
Amazing true stories from when I was a twinkle in mams eye or possibly in a cot

.
These stories should be published .

Re: Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV

Posted by John Mills on 17/5/2025, 12:31 am, in reply to "Re: Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV"

Many years ago I remember my mother talking about a friend from Hebburn called Alfie Dodds. He served, and possibly died, during WW2 and apparently had awards for heroism but she could not give any more details.
Does the name ring any bells with anyone on the board?

Re: Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV

Posted by Mac Hardy on 17/5/2025, 1:23 pm, in reply to "Re: Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV"

Fantastic stories about truly brave men, hopefully never forgotten.

Re: Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV

Posted by Malcolm on 17/5/2025, 2:02 pm, in reply to "Re: Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV"

Hi John.
A quick check of the CWGC site gives this:

Serjeant Alfred Edwin Hewtson Dodds
Service No 2077566
Royal Engineers
233 Field Coy
KIA 7th March 1943 aged 24 in Tunisia
Son of Hubert CC & Edith Dodds of Hebburn, Co Durham.

Unfortunately, you would need to go to other sources, if you wanted to find info about his awards.

Re: More for John Mills

Posted by Malcolm on 17/5/2025, 2:12 pm, in reply to "Re: Newer visitors may not have seen this Hebburn hero clip on TV"

Following my previous message, Alfie was born in 1918, the eldest of 4 children:
Thomas in 1920
James F in 1924
Margaret D in 1925

Maybe someone knows of these people?

Re: More for John Mills

Posted by John Mills on 19/5/2025, 1:38 am, in reply to "Re: More for John Mills"

Malcolm, many thanks for your interest and information.
My Mother lived in Hebburn and was born in 1919 so fits the profile you supplied.
The only additional information I have found is that he died in Tripoli, Libya. Tripoli is very close to the Tunisian border which would support your info.
Once again, many thanks,
John.

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[ Norman Dunn's 'Hebburn and our Neighbours Forum' ]

Rules! No bad language or derogatory remarks or we will delete. Anyone sharing our content on Face Book must credit 'Hebburn and our Neighbours'.