Albert Lyle Pollock

This story and photo is shared by the Trust with kind permission from Pete Colley, Curator, Wickenby Museum. Additional information from the WWII Records and Service Files of War Dead, Libraries and Archives, Canada

Remembering Albert Lyle Pollock, Sgt, air gunner, aged 21, Royal Canadian Air Force, son of Andrew Theodore Pollock and Rose Annie Pollock of McConnell, Manitoba, Canada. He was born on the 3rd March 1923 in McConnell and had five brothers and one sister. He went to McConnell Primary School and then Stonewall Collegiate Institute from 1929 to 1941. He worked as a Labourer for his father, who was a farmer, between 1940 and 1942. In his free time he enjoyed playing hockey and occasionally played baseball, soccer, rugby and water sports.

Two of his brothers were already serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force and he enlisted on the 18th May 1942. His initial training was in Canada where he started out as a pilot but his training was discontinued in May 1943 and he was recommended for further training as an Air Gunner. A charge sheet in his service record suggests this was a huge disappointment to him as he went AWOL for five days and was charged with evading a draft. He was sentenced to 14 days detention and forfeited six days pay. He resumed his training and he embarked from Halifax for the UK on the 1st November 1943, arriving on the 9th November 1943. He arrived at 3PRC on 10th November, then 81 OTU on 12th December, and 30 OTU on the 31st December, where he was assigned to his crew, and 11 Base 31 March 1944, before finally being posted to 12 Squadron on 8th June 1944.

He was killed on his 2nd mission attacking Saintes. They took off  at 22.20 hrs on the night of 23rd June but as they approached the target area a night fighter, piloted by Ofw. Hermann Stahler, raked their Lancaster with canon fire, sending it crashing into the sea off St Nazaire. They were posted as failed to return, nothing heard of since take off.

The commanding officer of the Squadron wrote to his father on the day he was posted missing: "Although a comparatively new member of my Squadron, Sergeant Pollock was very well liked by us all, and I had every confidence in his courage and ability. All Officers and Men of the Squadron wish me to convey to you their sincerest sympathies in your great anxiety."

He was initially reported missing after air operaions but then for official purposes he was presumed dead. In February 1952 that his father received a letter from the RCAF Casualties Officer to say, "It is with reluctance that after so long an interval, I must refer to the loss of your husband, Flying Officer Frank Armstong Jeffrey, but due to the lack of any information concerning him since he was reported missing, it must be regretfully accepted and officially recorded that he does not have a "known" grave."

Albert Pollock is commemorated on the Royal Air Force Memorial to the Missing at Runnymede.