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Flying Officer Major Hugh ODDIE (111481)
78 Squadron Royal Air Force Date of birth: 21st July 1914 Date of death: 26th June 1943 Killed in action aged 28 Buried at Bergen General Cemetery in Holland Plot 2 Row C Grave 5
Major Hugh Oddie was born at Croydon in Surrey on the 21st of July 1914 the son of Major Sidney Oddie, a pharmacist, and Mary Ethel (nee Moxon) Oddie, 59 Penge Road, South Norwood. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Olds House from September 1927 to July 1932. He gained his School Certificate in 1929 and was appointed as a House Captain in 1931. In 1932 he went on to Sidney Sussex College Cambridge where he achieved a BA Hons. On leaving university he worked as an assistant science master at a secondary school and lived at Marlborough Park Avenue, Chislehurst in Kent. He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on the 4th of November 1941 and was promoted to Flying Officer on the 1st of October 1942. On the night of the 25th/26th of June 1943 Bomber Command despatched 214 Lancasters, 134 Halifaxes, 73 Stirlings, 4 Wellingtons and 12 Mosquitos for a raid on the town of Gelsenkirchen which was noted for its oil refineries. This was the first raid on the town in two years. After crossing the Dutch coast the bomber stream encountered 10/10ths cloud all the way to the target which prevented the bombers making a concentrated attack and, as a result, only minor damage was achieved. Major Oddie and his crew took off from RAF Breighton in Halifax JB928 EY-S at 11.40pm on the 25th of June 1943 for the operation. During the mission their aircraft was attacked by a Messerchmitt Bf110 night fighter, piloted by Major Rolf Leuchs of 11/NJG1, and it crashed at 12.51am on the Bergenseweg, between Alkmaar and Bergen in Northern Holland. The crew were all taken prisoner with the exception of Major Oddie who was killed. Theirs was one of an eventual ten victories for Rolf Leuchs before he was killed in action on the 15th of March 1944. The crew was:- Flying Officer Major Hugh Oddie (Pilot) Flight Sergeant AD Gillespie RAAF (Flight Engineer) (Stalag Luft 6 at Heydekrug) Flight Sergeant AAJ Hutchinson (Navigator) (Stalag 357 at Kopernikus) Flying Officer Philip Daulby (Bomb Aimer) (Stalag Luft 3 Sagan) Flight Sergeant AJ Guy (Wireless Operator) was injured and later repatriated, arriving at Liverpool on the 6th of February 1945. Sergeant TL Roberts RCAF (Air Gunner) (Stalag 357 at Kopernikus) Flying Officer DW Lusty RCAF(Air Gunner) (Stalag Luft 3 Sagan) Theirs was one of thirty aircraft lost during the operation with one hundred and eighteen crew killed, fifty missing and thirty six being taken prisoner. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Uckfield, on the memorial at Sibford Gower and on the memorial at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

Olds House