Albert Thomas Vigor
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Albert Vigor served with the RAAF in England
Albert Thomas Vigor was born at Malanda, Atherton Tablelands, on 13 April 1919.
He served in a RAAF bomber squadron in Scotland after training at Mount Gambier.
One newspaper wrote of a “CAIRNS R.A.A.F. NAVIGATORS EXPERIENCE” as follows.
A navigator from Cairns took part with other ship-busters of both Australian and New Zealand Squadrons of R.A.F. Coastal Command against a German convoy off Heligoland against recently, says a London mail service.
For the loss of four Beaufighters, two torpedo hits were scored on a merchant vessel and another large vessel was possibly hit with a torpedo. A heavily-armed escort vessel blew up after being repeatedly hit with rockets, and four mine-sweeper s were left on fire with one of them sinking. “We had been flying through a sea mist when the torpedo chaps, who were below us, sighted the convoy of five merchant vessels with 10 escorting flak ships,” said Wrt. Officer A.T. Vigor, whose sister is a nurse at the General Hospital, Cairns. “A s my pilot broke off the attack I saw one vessel blow up and there was a giant mushroom of greyish smoke and water about 150 feet high, which slowly subsided, Them I could see the vessel on fire. Quite a number of the escorting flak ships were also ablaze. They put up a heavy barrage and some were still firing as we made for home’ “. He returned home with the air force in 1946.
He served in a RAAF bomber squadron in Scotland after training at Mount Gambier.
One newspaper wrote of a “CAIRNS R.A.A.F. NAVIGATORS EXPERIENCE” as follows.
A navigator from Cairns took part with other ship-busters of both Australian and New Zealand Squadrons of R.A.F. Coastal Command against a German convoy off Heligoland against recently, says a London mail service.
For the loss of four Beaufighters, two torpedo hits were scored on a merchant vessel and another large vessel was possibly hit with a torpedo. A heavily-armed escort vessel blew up after being repeatedly hit with rockets, and four mine-sweeper s were left on fire with one of them sinking. “We had been flying through a sea mist when the torpedo chaps, who were below us, sighted the convoy of five merchant vessels with 10 escorting flak ships,” said Wrt. Officer A.T. Vigor, whose sister is a nurse at the General Hospital, Cairns. “A s my pilot broke off the attack I saw one vessel blow up and there was a giant mushroom of greyish smoke and water about 150 feet high, which slowly subsided, Them I could see the vessel on fire. Quite a number of the escorting flak ships were also ablaze. They put up a heavy barrage and some were still firing as we made for home’ “. He returned home with the air force in 1946.