One of the eight airmen from Filey to die in the Second World War George had grown up locally until being called up.  He trained in the Royal Air Force as a Sergeant specialising in the general flight maintenance of bomber aircraft, and hence was given the position of Flight Engineer aboard his crew’s aircraft when he joined 582 Squadron in 1942.

          Unlike most of the Second World War casualties George was actually decorated; he had received the Distinguished Flying Medal in May 1943 and it may well have been this that gave him his promotion to Flying Officer.  Within his squadron there were many other decorated pilots as 582 Squadron had an outstanding reputation and were also under the command of a Victoria Cross holder (the highest possible military accolade that can be given to a serviceman), Major Edward Swales, who had also won the Distinguished Flying Cross.  The partial reason for this is that it was a ‘pathfinder’ squadron, meaning that its crews were normally at the very front of missions to guide the rest of the aircraft, normally numbering in their hundreds, to the target.  This meant that all its crews had to be of the highest calibre and also be very experienced in their jobs; pathfinder crews also carried two navigators to be doubly sure.  582 Squadron was formed form the most experienced aircrew of No. 7 and 156 Squadrons and started life on 1^st April 1944.  It was based at Little Staughton, Huntingdonshire.

          At the time of George’s death in the early morning of the 29^th August his crew were flying their Lancaster bomber back from a raid on Konigsberg, an important German industrial centre into the heart of the Third Reich.  They had originally left base at 9.10pm, several hours earlier.  An estimated 590 British aircraft were taking part in this raid and it was up to George’s crew to guide them to the target, which they had successfully done.  They had crossed into Denmark, which was one of the shortest and safest routes home when they crashed just outside a small village known as Norre Vorupuor killing all eight members of the crew.

          The crew’s remains were gathered and placed in a collective grave in the small village churchyard. Along with George Bradley they consisted of:

Squadron Leader Allan Leonard Farrington – Pilot

(aged 29 from Sydney, Australia)

Pilot Officer Henry Silverwood – Wireless Operator /Air Gunner

(aged 24 from Shipley, Yorkshire and recipient of the DFM)

Flight Lieutenant Alfred Carinan Strout – Navigator

(from Canada)

Flying Officer Charles Fullerton Stewart – Air Gunner

(aged 22 from Clogher, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland and recipient of the DFM)

Flying Officer Lorne Vincent Tyndale – Second Navigator

(also Canadian)

Flight Sergeant Douglas Edward John Stevens – Air Gunner

(aged 20 from Yardley, Birmingham)