The following was submitted by David Carter, the son in law of George.

"My late father in law, George Callegari, (born in the UK of naturalised Italian parents) was a member of 59 squadron (WOP/ air gunner) and his last flight with F/L Rhodes was on the 20th Feb 1944. George then received news that his brother in law Guerrino Piazza ( an Italian interned on the Isle of Man, home on leave), had been killed in an air raid on London ( a land mine fell on the house at 4 Poets Road Islington, see Commonwealth War Graves Site). George was given compassionate leave to attend the funeral at Islington cemetery, and whilst on leave his crew did not return from a mission. I assume that F/O Gamble took his place on that ill fated mission, something George felt keenly for the rest of his life.

On his return, George was allocated to a crew led by a Canadian F/O Doug Willows. George always spoke highly of Doug and I have a copy of a 'crew newsletter' in January 1948 sent by Doug to the other members updating them of events. If it's of interest, I can scan it in and send it you. Other crew members are Cliff Emerson, Syd Ricketts, 'Digger Watts', Gordon Rubenok, 'Topper' Brown, & Felix Swierzynaski.

I'm surprised to see from George's log book, that the crew always called their aircraft the 'Layden Maiden'...

The Layden Maiden Gazette
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Attached is a scan of a photo of George in uniform towards the end of his service.

George's log book mentions an attack on a U boat on 20/7/44 during which he fired 800 rounds of .303. He told me that they were in such a 'panic' during the first attack run that the depth charges weren't armed properly, and failed to release, he also said that his gun camera had pictures of his bullets hitting the water around the conning tower, but I never saw these. I have a transcript of the squadrons log book for that day, which gives more detail, but is inconclusive of the outcome. This seems to be the only time that his guns were fired 'in anger', but that doesn't detract from the danger of being aircrew.

He also left a picture of a B24 approaching Ballykelly, with mount Binevagh(?) in the background, I'm told that the aircraft is actually one of 120 squadron, rather than 59. However, one of his tales was that he was coffin bearer for three crew whose aircraft crashed into the mountain on approach (possibly this fortress crew). Certainly the Commonwealth War Graves site lists a number of burials around Ballykelly airfield.

After the war, George worked at London zoo as catering manager before following his father's footsteps, opening cafe / restaurants, but after these failed he worked for Queens Park Rangers football club as a 'fund raiser', before going into the amusement machine business ( a licence to print money with the advent of space invaders!). He retired in 1988, and died on 30/12/1998 from lymphoma, leaving a widow, Joyce and two children.