Des Curtis reflects on war in advance of VE Day 75

Report and photo by Marilyn Barber

As we all prepare to commemorate VE Day 75 on 8 May, Des Curtis, a navigator on a Coastal Command fighter in WW11, has shared his memories.

Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in May 1944 and the Legion d’Honneur in 2018, Des was one of the founder members of 618 Squadron, whose primary objective was to mount a daylight low-level attack by Mosquitoes on the German battleship Tirpitz within hours of the attack on the Ruhr dams. Codenamed Operation Servant, Des subsequently wrote a book entitled ‘A Most Secret Squadron’.

Now aged 96 – but with a persona and recall of a man 20 years younger - Des used to live in Wimborne where he became involved with a number of community projects including the relocation of the Model Town and the Millennium Appeal for Wimborne Hospital. He now has a home in Westbourne.

Like so many of his generation, his entry into manhood was a steep and dangerous learning curve. He would have been called up at 18, but a year earlier, he volunteered for the RAF and trained as an observer/wireless operator, serving on Beaufighters and Mosquitoes.

Military life wasn’t alien to Des as his father was in the Guards and he was brought up in Wellington Barracks. His brother also served in the RAF and he too survived the war.

However, just before he signed up in 1941, Des was to become aware of the horrors of fighting.

“I was travelling on a train to Torquay in order to stay with my sister, when some of the survivors of Dunkirk came on board. They were absolutely shattered.”

His posting to the north of Scotland as part of Operation Servant – which was subsequently aborted – has left some chilling memories.

“It was the worst part of the war for me. We knew there was the prospect of dying, but we didn’t know how it would happen.

“There were 12 beds in our Nissan hut, and on one occasion eight had become empty. Most of us from that environment moved towards pacifism.

“VE Day should be commemorated, but not celebrated. You can’t celebrate that carnage.”

He added that he doesn’t understand why wars have continued. “Lessons haven’t been learned.” Whilst living in Wimborne, he used to go into schools to speak about the origin of the British Legion poppy.

“Children often asked me how many Germans I’d killed. I would reply that I only remembered the madness. I wanted them to understand the futility of war.”

Those of us who were born after 1945 can have no concept of what it must have been like to wake each morning with the knowledge that this could be your last day on earth. However, Des said for people living in England, those fears were allayed once the Blitz had ended in 1941, as they tried to get back to a normal life, albeit with restrictions.

Des Curtis with his medals, in front of a picture of Mosquitoes in action

Des, who was demobbed in 1946, said that during his five years in the RAF he never thought about what he would do when the war was over. He just lived from day to day.

Fifty years later, he formed a strong friendship with his adversary, a German U-boat captain he had located through a U-boat archivist. He was nervous about that first meeting. “We drove across the continent to meet him in Germany. We hugged each other and he said that he looked into my eyes and liked what he saw. “He was just doing his job during the war.” Subsequently, on a visit to England the captain asked, “Why did I have to wait so long to find a younger brother?”

After much talking they agreed that war was futile.

“We both said that our worst memories were of seeing men jumping off burning tankers.”

When the U-Boat commander read Des’s book – the profits of which go to the RAF Benevolent Fund, and the print rights to the Mosquito Museum – he said he felt there had been no triumphalism in its content.

After the war Des had a hugely successful career in the oil industry, during which he met the great and the good and travelled extensively to such countries as Japan, America, Germany, France and Russia. A father to Peter and Sheila and with grandchildren, he has had more than his share of personal heartbreak having been widowed twice; his second wife Margaret was the first woman air traffic controller.

Today, he is certainly not idle, working as a volunteer for the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance and Julia’s House.

In addition to having written A Most Secret Squadron, he has penned his autobiography ‘Around the Corner’, and is working on a couple of novels, one set in wartime, and the other a historical book. He is also an active member of Probus. He isn’t sure why he has lived so long. “There is no longevity in my family, but I think my mental attitude has helped. Having faced the grim reality of life as a young person, I don’t look back and say ‘what if’. Life is for living and I can’t plan for tomorrow.”

He had been a member of the Air Crew Association and the Mosquito Association, but sadly both organisations have folded as so many members have died.

Although 8 May 1945 marked the end of the war in Europe, the war in Asia continued until 2 September.

“This was the forgotten war, and in 1945 people had no concept of the horrors that had been perpetrated. It seemed very remote to the people of England.” And his memories of VE Day 1945? “It was a feeling of great elation as there would be no more killings.”