A CAMPAIGN to honour the daring pilots and navigators involved in clandestine photo-gathering intelligence operations during the Second World War is being backed by a Welsh MP.
Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP Liz Saville Roberts is supporting a bid to create an official memorial in London to honour those who served in the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit.
Among them, was an Edward Gordon Bacon, who it is understood grew up in Bangor Street, Y Felinheli, near Caernarfon.
The Spitfire AA810 campaign describes how the PRU operated on highly dangerous missions.
According to its website, the “sole purpose” of the PRU was to provide the most up to date, critical, intelligence to the Admiralty.
Alongside information gathered by the Special Operation executives on the ground and Bletchley Park code breakers over the airwaves, the PRU captured over 26 million images of enemy operations and installations over six years of war.
Without this “vital information” it is thought that the outcome of the war could have taken a very different turn.
PRU images were used in the planning of major operations such as the Dambusters Raid and D-Day.
It is known that the PRU operatives had one of the lowest survival rates of the war.
Due to the highly secretive nature of their operations, they flew solo, unarmed, and unarmoured.
The death rate was nearly fifty percent and life expectancy for those who served in the PRU was around two and a half months.
Edward Bacon, also known as Ted, had joined the PRU during the war and was a pilot officer.
He had a wife named Sue, and died in 1986.
Beyond that, little is known about him, but the MP is encouraging anyone who remembers Edward or Ted, to get in touch with the Spitfire AA810 project.
Launched in 2018, the project is dedicated to the memory of all the PRU men and is campaigning for a permanent memorial to recognise their sacrifice.
Speaking in the House of Commons, the Plaid Cymru MP said: “I’m proud to support a campaign for an official memorial to remember and honour the pilots of the RAF’s Photographic Reconnaissance Unit, being organised as we speak by the Spitfire AA810 Project.
“The PRU flew highly-dangerous missions to take intelligence photos.
“Their stripped-down planes were unarmed to carry as much fuel as possible.
“For this reason, they included conscientious objectors among their crews.
“The death rate was horrific, with almost 48% losing their lives.
“One PRU survivor was Edward Bacon of Felinheli, near Caernarfon. The project is keen to reach out to families to collect their stories, so that their loved ones will once again be more than just a name carved on a war memorial.
“And talking of memorials, the project is also campaigning for a UK memorial here in Westminster.
“When this comes to fruition, wreckage from a PRU aircraft will be its centrepiece.
“This poignant reminder of courage and horrendous risks faced by PRU airmen was collected just last month from a Mosquito aircraft which crashed on the Aran Fawddwy mountain in Meirionnydd 80 years ago.
“The pilot Flight Officer Marek Ostaja-Slonski of the Polish Air Force and navigator Flight Lieutenant Paul Richs were killed at the site on a cross-country exercise.”
She added she was “honoured” to support the Spitfire AA810 campaign to commemorate the men and women who served in the PRU and the “invaluable” role they played in dictating the course of the Second World War.
She said: “Those serving carried out some of the most daring intelligence-gathering operations of the war, suffering horrendous losses.
“Yet, there remains no national memorial to honour the sacrifice of the circa eight hundred pilots and navigators from the UK who flew these critical intelligence missions.”
She added: “I am particularly interested in tracing the history of Edward Gordon Bacon from Y Felinheli, who was one of the pilots who served under these exceptionally challenging conditions.
“He survived the war and passed away in 1986.
“Given the increasing support behind a national memorial it would be fitting to properly acknowledge Edward Bacon’s contribution and provide his home community of Y Felinheli with an opportunity to learn more about his selfless role and largely unknown contribution to the allied success.
“I look forward to working closely with the project to bring about further pressure on the government to establish a memorial.”
Project lead at Spitfire AA8810 Tony Hoskins, said: “For some 80 years the work of those who flew unarmed and defenceless aircraft further, higher, and faster than those that had pioneered aviation before them has been largely unrecognised.
“For a role that is still of vital military importance today, we have these young airmen and the female intelligence officers who interpreted their photographs to thank for the freedoms we enjoy.
“Their sacrifice was significant, and their contribution is long overdue recognition.
“With our proposed monument being more than just names on a wall, we thank Liz for her support in collating the stories of these young men and women, including Pilot Officer Edward Bacon, from Y Felinheli, without whose efforts western history may have taken a greatly different path.”
