Fate of WW2 navigator revealed in U-boat log book

Allan Fisher finally has closure on what happened to his father in 1943

The fate of a WW2 bomber navigator who was missing presumed dead has been revealed thanks to the log book of a German submarine captain.

The family of Leslie Fisher, who was a 33-year-old navigator on a Halifax bomber, was told his plane took off from an RAF base at St Eval in Cornwall in 1943 but never returned.

A family friend recently found evidence in a German submarine captain's log book that the bomber was hit by anti-aircraft guns fired from the deck of a German U-boat in the Bay of Biscay.

Mr Fisher's son, Allan, 88, has spent decades trying to find out what happened to his father. He said: "I wish my mother was still alive - she would have been delighted."

The Handley Page Halifax was first introduced in 1940

Mr Fisher, who was seven years old when his father went missing, grew up hoping for contact.

"Nobody got any messages or heard from him at all or from the plane," he said.

"So I think my mother carried on hoping perhaps he wasn’t dead.

"She didn’t actually say to us, look Dad is dead, she just said look he’s missing presumed dead."

He added: "It upset her too much to talk about Dad so we learned not to really keep pressing her."

'Try and sink them'

Thanks to the captain's log book, Mr Fisher is now able to piece together the final moments of the interaction between his father's bomber and the German U-boat.

"My dad's plane made a run through and dropped five mines to try and sink them," he said.

"They nearly hit the submarine but just missed it, causing some damage but not finishing it off."

He said the plane was last seen "flying off with smoke coming out of it".

Retired RAF chaplain Andrew Turner heard Mr Fisher's story and invited him to attend a special communion service at St Eval Church.

A wreath was laid and the names of the missing crew, whose final resting place remains unknown, were read out.

"It [the ceremony] meant a great deal to me," Mr Fisher said.

“I felt a sense of pride in the whole of that generation. I think the whole of that generation were exceptional."