One of Dysarts pupil’s great-grandfather provided us with his own story from World War Two, as well as photographs of himself and his comrades.

He is a local man, and his story shows us what people in our town, who could now be our grandparents, great-grandparents, neighbours or friends, may have gone through during the Second World War.

He was based in Ceylon (which is now Sri Lanka), and flew B24 Liberators over Japanese occupied Burma, Thailand and Malaya. Taking flights over 20-23 hours, they dropped guerrilla jungle fighters on special operations.

What follows is Mr. Jack Burgess’ own story of his experience on Force 136 Liberators, in his own words:

“It had never been possible to plan operations which meant the equivalent of flying from the UK across the Atlantic – and back again, until the arrival of the American built 824 Liberators, in the Far Easter theatre of World War 2.


Force 136 Liberators covered 3,600 mile trips to operate over Japanese territory. Running out of fuel this crew ‘ditched’ in the Indian Ocean but survived. Jack Burgess is sitting on the engine.