McNamara’s next 13 ops were in tactical support of the 8^th and 1^st Armies’ battles in Tunisia and to disrupt the Afrika Korps’ evacuation to Sicily.  

The first two ops involved bombing behind the German lines shortly before Rommel’s final counter-attack on the 8^th Army, at Medenine on 6 March.

McNamara was promoted back to F/O before his next operation.  It was flown on the night of Monty’s Operation Pugilist, which would break through the Mareth Line, capture Gabes and advance north to Sfax by early April.

 McNamara’s next op was again behind the German lines North of Gabes, where that day – 6 April –  the 8^th Army had broken the Mareth Line at the battle of Wadi Akarit.

McNamara was now promoted captain of aircraft and was given his own crew, who remained with him through most of the rest of his tour.  They were:

Later in the tour (from early August), Sgt Rothwell was replaced by a number of different gunners, including:

The crew was completed by a co-pilot often flying his first operations, who then moved on to captain his own crew.  These included:

McNamara’s next four ops preceded the 8^th Army’s advance north and involved bombing roads, railways and airfields being used by the retreating Afrika Korps.

His next three ops were in tactical support of the capture of Tunis by the 1^st Army strengthened with units from the 8^th Army, which had halted around Enfidaville.

McNamara’s final op was to disrupt the German evacuation from North Africa at Cap Bon.

Until now McNamara’s operations had been flown in various Wellington IIIs.  The next operation  (and a few others in the rest of his tour) were flown in Wellington Xs, which had Rolls Royce Merlin engines.  The next  5 operations were in support of the invasion of Sicily and island of Pantelleria.

70 Squadron now moved to Kairouan Temmar in NE Tunisia.

The strategically insignificant island of Pantelleria was captured on 11 June with the Allied loss of 15 bombers and 57 fighters to little purpose.

McNamara’s next operation – which went awry – may have been part of a plan to mislead the Germans about Allied intentions.   In fact, they landed in Sicily four days later.

The rest of McNamara’s ops with 70 Squadron were against Italian targets in preparation for the landings at Salerno and Taranto, the campaign in Italy and hastening the Italian surrender.

At the end of his first tour McNamara was awarded the DFC, promoted to Flight Lieutenant and posted to HQ 231 Wing, which consisted of three Wellington squadrons (37, 40 and 70).  During McNamara’s year there they began to convert to Liberators.  The Wing was part of 205 Group, which was commanded by Air Cdre John H T Simpson DSO.

 DFC Citation:

This Officer has carried out a most successful tour of operations, comprising 37 night sorties amounting to 228 hours and 35 minutes flying, during which time he has shown the most praiseworthy dash and determination, pressing home his attacks no matter what opposition was encountered from enemy defences. He has been detailed to attack a variety of targets, ranging from M.T. and troop concentrations to heavily defended strategic targets on the mainland of Italy and Sicily. The excellent photographs he has taken are ample proof of the care he has taken to locate and accurately bomb the target.

On one occasion, when attacking the docks and marshalling yards at Messina, regardless of the fact that he was continually being picked out by a cone of many searchlights and subjected to concentrated anti-aircraft fire, he continued and held his bombing run so that his Bomb Aimer was able to release a stick of bombs which fell across the marshalling yards and caused a very violent explosion, which in itself must have caused considerable damage in the target area.

On 14-15 July 1943, during an attack on Capodichino aerodrome in the face of concentrated anti-aircraft fire and searchlights, his bombing caused a number of fires and explosions, which from their descriptions must certainly have been dispersed enemy aircraft.

During an attack on enemy troops landing on the beaches at Sapri, he came down to 300 feet to investigate the coast and his Rear-Gunner fired over 3000 rounds at buildings which may have been harbouring enemy troops recently evacuated from Sicily.

From the very beginning of his tour he has set a very high operational standard, attacking every target in a most determined and courageous spirit. This outstanding spirit of aggression, coupled with his undoubted ability as a Captain, has been a source of inspiration to every member of his Flight and I have no hesitation in recommending that Flying Officer McNamara’s determination, courage and devotion to duty be recognised by the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross.

London Gazette, 30.11.1943

In September 1944 F/Lt McNamara joined 178 Squadron (in 240 Wing in 205 Group) at Amendola in the Foggia Basin.  178 Squadron was commanded by W/C J C Millar and flew Liberators.  At this stage most of its operations were directed at disrupting railway and road communications in Northern Italy and Yugoslavia, and dropping supplies to partisans in Yugoslavia (now Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzevona).   All but two of McNamara’s 29 operations were in these categories, the exceptions being in Northern Hungary when he attacked Szombathely aerodrome on 20 Oct 44 and delivered ammunition to Harsani on 20 December.  

In July 1948 McNamara was granted a permanent commission in the rank of Flight Lieutenant and promoted Squadron Leader on 1 January 1949.

He served in the Far East in the mid-1950s during the 12-year Malaya emergency and retired in the rank of Wing Commander on 18 November 1957.

 Christopher Jary 

Further Biographical Details

My father came from an Irish Catholic family of which he was the youngest of five children.  He was born in Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary, on the 4th of January 1918. 

His father, Francis, was a sergeant of the RIC who found it prudent to move his family to England in 1922.   By the time my father was in his early teens, two of his older brothers were working and were able to send money regularly back to the family.   This "extra" money enabled my father to be the first in the family to enjoy a decent education.   He was sent to St. Edmund's College at Ware in Hertfordshire where for a time he considered entering the seminary to become a priest.  When the war broke out, he enlisted in the RAF and trained to become a pilot. The first part of his training took place in England (possibly at White Waltham) and for completion, he was sent to North Battleford in Saskatchewan.

I was born in May 1946 and some of my earliest memories are from 1948/9 when we were sent to Scotland.   My father at that time (Squadron Leader) became the commander of the St. Andrews University Air Squadron.   He instructed undergrads to fly first Harvards, and then Chipmunks from the RAF station at Leuchars.   After that, in 1952 he was promoted to the rank of Acting Wing Commander and was posted to Djakarta in Indonesia where he became the Air Attaché to the British Embassy.

We sailed from Liverpool on the 24th of December 1952 on the MV Laertes and arrived in Djakarta some five weeks later.   He served in Indonesia for approximately two years and in 1955 after a short spell at the Air Ministry, he was posted to RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland as Wing Commander of the admin. section.  In late 1957, he took the opportunity to retire.

Although he was awarded the Malaya medal, he did not actually serve in Malaya and it is my guess that this is because there was no such thing as an Indonesia medal.

I believe that at the time, the British only had an "unofficial military presence" in Indonesia although, there were attachés there from all three branches of the service.

His duties however, did take him up to Changi and Seletar from time to time, mostly for aircraft maintenance and to fly the ambassador around.

Rory McNamara

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