Hello, and welcome to this site dedicated to my late Grandfather John J. Caulton.

My grandfather was a New Zealander and flew Spitfires in the Second World War with a RAF squadron. He was no ace, but never the less he served his country with over 200 missions and came away with some amazing memories that he was happy to share.

He passed away in 2015, just a few weeks from his 95th birthday.

In making this website I uncovered many stories of his friends that were equally amazing. Some lived and many were unfortunately killed. In some cases there seems to be no trace or information on them. Through ongoing research and the tracking down of relatives, this website also serves as tribute to them and their service to us all.

Please see the below description of the pages on this website.

“Short Story” page
This is a short article that was written from an interview with my grandfather. It details the day he was shot down over Holland. After crash landing and being captured he met the German pilot, a famous night-fighter Major Hans Joachim Jabs and crew, before being sent to a POW camp for the remainder of the war.

 

“Full Story”
This full story is in four parts, Pre-War, War Years 1, War Years 2 and Post War.

Pre-War, covers my Grandfathers life growing up, training in New Zealand and England, right up until he joined his first operational combat squadron.

War Years 1, covers my Grandfathers combat time up until 29th April 1944, the day he was shot down.

War Years 2, details him being shot down and then held as a P.O.W in the infamous Stalag Luft  3.

Post War, covers rejoining the RAF for a further year after the war and my Grandfather meeting of various friends later in life along with meeting the German Ace who had shot him down during the war.

All has been dictated from audio interviews I recorded of my Grandfather, as he never had a diary. Also log book entries and Squadron Operational Reports help expand on some details. While not in an actual story format it’s really just a record of happenings and my Grandfather’s opinions which I thought were too valuable to be forgotten or left unheard.

Within this are many photos he collected during his time and also some home footage that he recorded before and after the war on his own 8mm movie camera, these are being shown here for the first time.

 

“How To Research” page
This is a guide I made to help anyone searching for information on a pilot who flew with the RAF or Commonwealth Airforce’s during the Second World War.

 

“Contact” us page
If you have any comments or more info on persons mentioned in any of these stories or photo’s, please let me know! I am keen to preserve any history of my grandfathers or the people and friends he had during this time, any additional photos or information is welcome.

 

Thank you for visiting, and I hope you enjoy the content on this site.