I READ with interest Peter Barron’s article in Monday’s Northern Echo with regard to the heroism of Pilot Officer William McMullen.

As a young RAF airman I served at Royal Air Force Middleton St George from 1960 to 1963.

The was the period of 92 Squadron, later The Blue Diamonds, and 33 Squadron.

I later returned as a civvy to work on the light aircraft that operated there.

In 2013, I started to take The Northern Echo regularly and became interested in the McMullen story, to the extent that when I found out that the only recognition he had received for his heroism was a lump of rock in a field where he had crashed my comment to my son was: “Typical lack of respect for a selfless man. I am surprised the Air Ministry did not put it down to pilot error.”

I continued to save the odd reference to him in newspaper cuttings and then decided to write to Jenny Chapman MP in February 2014 to see if she could stir things up a bit to get more recognition for P/O McMullen.

She replied to my letter and in short order said she would see what she could do. She put the case to Lord Astor of Hever DL for help and we waited.

The result was that no records were available, having being destroyed years ago and it was a training mission so no medals were awarded. Later I read in another article about the crash that the aircraft had been attacked by the enemy and hit by enemy fire.

As the Lancaster guns were loaded, I am sure the airgunner would have had a go at shooting the enemy. To my mind, the minute the first bullet fired means they were no longer a training flight; it was a matter of survival.

His crew survived and he made sure a large section of Darlington survived.

I would have loved to have been able to read the personal logbooks of the crew members and the official report about that night.

I wish you success in winning recognition for P/O McMullen with the Canadian authorities. I think they will be more than amenable to do something than our lot.

Mr ME Harris, Darlington