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| Click Here For Full Artist Print Indexes | Aviation History Archive |
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Aviation Art Prints  Pilot Signatures World War Two Signatures UK and Commonwealth S  Sumpter, Len |
Len Sumpter | Len Sumpter Leonard Joseph Sumpter was born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, on 20th September 1911, the son of Joseph and Mary Ann Sumpter. He had already served two stints in the Grenadier Guards before transferring to the RAF in 1941. He had joined the army as a boy soldier in 1928 and left again in 1931. He rejoined his old regiment at the outbreak of war but then in 1941 he persuaded his superiors to let him transfer to the RAF. After training in England and Canada, he was posted to No.57 Squadron at Scampton in September 1942 and flew as the bomb aimer on thirteen operations with Flt Lt G.W. Curry. Curry was then grounded with ear trouble, and his crew were told they had to break up. However, he and his colleague, flight engineer Bob Henderson, heard a rumour that a new squadron was being formed elsewhere at Scampton, and went looking for David Shannon, who was apparently on the lookout for a bomb aimer and an engineer. They both impressed the young pilot, and joined his crew. After the Dams Raid, for which he received the DFM for his accurate attack on the Eder Dam, Sumpter continued flying in Shannon's crew, as No.617 Squadron undertook a series of operations. He was commissioned in June 1943. In 1944 Mosquitoes were introduced into No.617 Squadron to mark targets, and Sumpter became Shannon's observer. He received the DFC in June 1944. Shannon was finally taken off operations, but Sumpter reverted to Lancasters for a short time as part of Flt Lt I.M. Marshall's crew. By the end of the war he had flown a total of thirty-five operations. He flew on No.617 Squadron's last wartime operation, an attack on Berchtesgarten on 25th April 1943. He was demobilised from the RAF after the war, but rejoined in 1946 in the Physical Fitness branch, and served until 1950. Len Sumpter died on 30th November 1993 in Luton. |
| Len Sumpter - Signed Aviation Art Prints, Paintings and Drawings |
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