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Squadron Leader F V P Van Rolleghem | ||||
Florent Victor Paul Van Rolleghem was born on the 11th November 1912 at Termonde, Belgium. In 1927 he joined the Belgian army as a cadet and 3 years later attended the Royal Military Academy. In 1932 he was promoted to Second Lieutenant. Van Rolleghem had always had a burning desire to fly and applied for aircrew training. At this time the Belgian Air Force was part of the army. He trained first as a gunner, then later wireless operator, navigator and finally pilot. He graduated from pilot training school in 1935. In 1937 he was promoted to lieutenant and then captain in 1939. At this time he was adjutant to a Belgian Air Force regiment. When the Germans invaded Belgium in May 1940 Van Rolleghem was forced to leave his homeland for France and reached Toulouse later that month. When France surrendered he returned home to Belgium and lived in Brussels working for the Belgian resistance movement. He had a strong wish to continue the fight against the Germans and decided to try and escape to Britain through France. At the start of 1941 he journeyed across France where he was assisted by a French escape organisation in the final part of his evasion and crossed the Pyrenees into Spain. Van Rolleghem was interned by the Spanish and held in various prisons and camps for 3 months from which he finally escaped and eventually made his way to Lisbon in Portugal. From there he managed to get a ship to Britain. On his arrival in Britain he was imprisoned for a month whilst the authorities checked that he was not a spy. Although he could speak very little English at that time he was accepted for the RAF and went to No 1 Elementary Flying Training School in July 1942. He was then sent to No 5 Advanced Pilot Training Unit at Ternhill. At the end of the course he asked for a posting to Bomber Command. In his diary he writes " I am a little old for fighters ( he was 30 years of age at this time). I prefer to be a good bus driver than a bad fighter pilot." The term "bus driver" refers to a bomber pilot. On the 28th September 1942 he was posted to Ossington 14 (P) AFU and trained on the twin engined Airspeed Oxford. On the 14th November 1942 he was posted to 81 Operational Training Unit at Whitchurch where his first crew was formed. This consisted of 4 Englishmen, 1 Canadian and a Scot. He was promoted to Flying Officer on the 9th December 1942.
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Van Rolleghem with 3 of the crew from his second and third tours pictured in 1944 with 5 of their ground crew. | ||
