BRAGG, F/O Joseph Parsons (J16937) - Mention in Despatches - No.7 Squadron - Award effective 24 December 1946 as per London Gazette of that date and AFRO 17/47 dated 10 January 1947. Born 4 September 1920. Home in St.John\'s Newfoundland; enlisted Montreal, 7 January 1941 and posted to No.1 Manning Depot. To No.1A Manning Depot, 21 January 1941. To No.1 Equipment Depot, 31 January 1941. To No.1 WS, 27 April 1941; promoted LAC, 29 May 1941; graduated 14 September 1941 and posted next day to No.4 BGS; graduated and promoted Sergeant, 13 October 1941. To Embarkation Depot, date uncertain; to RAF overseas, 2 November 1941. Commissioned 16 January 1943. Reported missing, prisoner of war, 3 February 1943, prisoner of war ( No.7 Squadron, Stirling R9264). Promoted Flying Officer, 16 July 1943. Promoted Flight Lieutenant, 16 January 1945. Reported safe, 9 May 1945. Repatriated 7 July 1945. Retired 19 November 1945. Died 11 June 1947. The website \"Lost Bombers\" provides the following details of his last flight. Stirling R9264 of No.7 Squadron (MG-L) was to bomb Cologne. Airborne at 1926 hours, 2 February 1943 from Oakington. Shot down at 2205 hours, 2 March 1943 by a night-fighter (Oblt Reinhold Knacke, 1./NJG1) and crashed at Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht (Zuid Holland), 13 km SE of Rotterdam, where those killed are buried in the city\'s Crooswijk General Cemetery. Publication of the awards to Flight Sergeant Brooker and Flight Sergeant Dempster took place 9 February 1943 and 17 April 1945 respectively. S/L Smith\'s DFC was gazetted 9 February 1943, while his MiD had appeared 1 January 1942. Oblt Knacke was killed later that night. From the wreckage of the Stirling was captured the first H2S unit to fall into enemy hands. An account of how S/L Smith had tried to save his aircraft was communicated from his PoW camp by Sgt Newman. Full crew was S/L W.A.Smith , killed in action, Flight Sergeant R.N.B.Brooker, DFM, killed in action, F/L B.Martin DFC (RNZAF), killed in action, Flight Sergeant W.J.Dempster, DFM (RCAF), killed in action, Flight Sergeant F.Quigley (RCAF), killed in action, Flight Sergeant J.Bragg (RCAF), POW, Sergeant R.G.Newman, POW. Directorate of History and Heritage file 181.001 D.24 has report of interrogation of F/L J.P. Bragg on 18 May 1945 re the loss of Stirling R9264, 2 February 1943. We took off from Oakington about 8.00 p.m., 1 February 1943. Not much to relate on the way in - very quiet. As we neared target area navigator informed pilot that we were 20 minutes late due, he said, to trouble he was having with H2S. Experienced some flak target but it was inaccurate. We put our markers down and photographed, and then set course home. It was a very dark night and we could not see very far. Just over Dordrecht we were hit in the port inner engine, which broke out in flames right away. I reported to the pilot that engine was on fire and he said, ?I got it?; assuming that he could control it, I remained in position. Perhaps 30 seconds later I noticed a glow below me and after a little trouble I got out of turret. Intercom had failed and aircraft started to dive. I could not reach front of aircraft due to fire and as aircraft dived I crawled through to rear escape hatch. When I opened hatch flames were licking past this also. I baled out and landed in Dordrecht, Holland. Aircraft passed over my head, when I left, but I didn?t see it crash. I think that we received two attacks and that the people up front were wounded or killed in the second attack. I hurt right leg as landing. Directorate of History and Heritage file 181.009 D.624 has the following narrative which appears to incorrectly state the date of his final mission but otherwise describes his experiences after being shot down, I left base about 1900 hours on 1 February 1943 for a raid on Cologne. I was flying as mid-upper gunner and the port inner engine was hit and fired by night fighter attack on the way home. The aircraft started to burn and the intercom was dead so I baled out. I landed near Utrecht and buried my parachute and harness and started walking southwest. After an hour or so I stopped at a farmhouse for help but they refused. I was near a railway line which I followed to a station hoping to catch a train for Paris. There were two old gentlemen in the station who at first said they would help me but changed their minds and called the police. My leg was hurt and I couldn?t walk very well so I burned my escape equipment and waited for the police. They took me to jail, I think in Utrecht, where I remained for four or five hours, then they drove me to an army barracks where I was interrogated. The next day I was taken by car to Amsterdam where I remained for two or three days in solitary confinement in a Luftwaffe jail. Then I was taken by train to Dulag Luft, Frankfurt. On the station platform at Amsterdam I saw the rear gunner of my crew, Sergeant Newman, RAF, with his legs in splint but was not allowed to talk with him. At Dulag Luft I was given seven or eight days solitary confinement with daily interrogations and then sent by train to Stalag 8B at Lamsdorf where I arrived on 10 February. In April I exchanged identity with Private Henry Roberts of the British Army and went out on a working party to Stramberg near Sternburg in Czechoslovakia. I was working in a cement plant where an underground organization was in operation but shortly after my arrival it was exposed, allegedly by a British Army Private named Oscar who acted as out interpreter. About the end of May, seven of us broke a hole through the wall and went under the wire. I paired off with a Flight Sergeant Morrison, RCAF, and we travelled southward with the intention of trying to reach Sarajevo. We boarded a freight train near Walmesertsch but about 20 miles further, we were discovered and captured by an army patrol. They took us to a military jail at Olmutz and held for seven days before being returned to Stalag 8B. A New Zealand pilot named Flight Sergeant Galbrith Hyde and myself made plans to escape by air, so in August we went out on a work party to Gleiwzwitz. My identity was Private MacGregor, New Zealand Expeditionary Force. At Glewzwitz we made an attempt to escape in a Ju.34 with a Flight Sergeant MacLeod, RCAF [James Ronald McLeod, DCM, whose accout says it was a Junkers 52] and Able Seaman O?Shaunessy, Royal Navy. We were discovered before we could take off and returned to Stalag 8B. Our identity was discovered and we were court martialled in January 1944, and given two years in military prison. However, we were returned to Stalag 8B; the camp authorities had been informed of my commission and I was transferred to Oflag 8F near Zwittau. After my court martial I was returned to Oflag 8F where I remained until April [1944] when the whole camp was moved because of a big escape project led by Colonel Stirling of the British Army. I was moved to Stalag 8C by mistake and then on to Stalag Luft III at Sagan. In August I was informed that I was to be sent on my prison term which had been shortened to six months. I left that day, August 14th, 1944, for military prison at Graudenze. The only other British officer there was a British marine, Lieutenant D. Hunter, who related the story of the murder of Pilot Officer Anthony Thompson, RAF, by Feldwebel Erster Richtar and Major Kluger, the commanding officer of the prison. About a month later a British merchant marine named Fry was brought to the prison under sentence of death for inciting mutiny in a ship at Hamburg. I think he escaped at Stargard when we were being moved to Bremen in February 1945. In October 1944 a Flight Sergeant Panniers, RAF, arrived in the prison for stealing clothing while evading. He had stomach ulcers but they put him in a basement below ground level and refused him medical attention. In November the International Red Cross visited the prison and I told them abiut Panniers and they managed to get him moved We left Graudenze in February 1945, because of the Russian advance and after about ten days march my leg gave out and I was sent to hoospital at the Hammerstein prison camp, After about three weeks I was sent by freight train to Sand Borstel near Bremen. A week later I was moved on to Marlag Melag Nord where I remained until the British approach in April. Then we were marched eastward and arrived in Lubeck about the first of May. The British army liberated me on 8 May and flew me back to England.