Incredible second World War 2 veteran takes to the skies..aged 102 | UK | News | EUROtoday

The sky was the restrict for fearless Second World War heroine Queenie Hall who loved the flight of her life on the age of 102.

The indomitable veteran, higher generally known as Robbie, was handled to a “bucket list” expertise in a glider as a thanks for her service.

The white knuckle thrill was notably poignant because it befell at Cambridge Glider Centre which flies from what was RAF Gransden Lodge, a Bomber Command station through the struggle, on the eighty fifth anniversary of her becoming a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force aged 17.

Queenie, from Stowmarket, Suffolk, lied about her age and was a plotter primarily based with the elite power.

She was engaged to Flight Sergeant Frank Vincent who was killed when he and his Lancaster Bomber crew perished throughout a raid over Germany on August 25, 1944. He was simply 21.

After her flight she stated: “I thoroughly ​enjoyed it. I don’t think age is important. Why say I am nearly 103 so why do it? Why not? Of course I can do it.

“I took control and went up and down – I don’t think I went sideways – but I was thrilled to bits.”

In September Queenie made her first pilgrimage to her sweetheart’s last resting place at Rheinberg War Cemetery 81 years after his demise.

There she left a wood poppy inscribed with a hand-written message that learn: “To my darling Frank. Loved forever. Forgotten never. Queenie xx.”

Frank – a bomb aimer serving with 75 (NZ) Squadron primarily based at RAF Mepal, Cambridgeshire, was killed together with six mates when their airplane got here down over Nunkirchen.

At the time Queenie was stationed at a prime secret radar station close to Felixstowe.

Of their fleeting wartime romance she recalled: “He was a very decent man with a big heart. We were both 21. How young we were. What did we know? We had not lived.”

Her flight was made potential by the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans which arranges free journeys for individuals who served in all conflicts. It acquired the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2021.

Queenie vividly remembers Victory in Europe Day on May 8, 1945, however her reminiscences of the spontaneous celebrations that erupted on the information of the German give up have at all times been tinged with unhappiness and remorse.

She stated: “When Frank was posted as missing I was living with his parents. And of course it wasn’t a happy homecoming.

“They despatched me dwelling that day as a result of clearly I used to be upset and it was tough residing in the identical home.

“If you stop to think about it, which I’ve done in later years, he was shot down. Did his plane burst into flames?  Did he get burnt alive in the plane as it came down? Did he get killed on impact? Did it burst into flames on impact? What did they find of him?

“We have been each 21. How younger we have been. What did we all know? We hadn’t lived. Liberation for me was tinged with the actual fact my boyfriend was killed.”

Frank was killed alongside  pilot Flying Officer James Allan Fleming, Flight Engineer Sgt Kenneth Erik Croxon, navigator Flying Officer James Atkinson Dale, wi-fi operator and Air Gunner Sgt Eric Garforth, and Air Gunners Sgt Edwin Slater, and Sgt. Alan Raymond Bryce Stewart.

Last yr Queenie took to the sky alongside wartime pal Dorothea Barron, 101, for an unforgettable Spitfire flight from Biggin Hill in Kent some 84 years after the Battle of Britain raged overhead.