Terry was buried by the villagers of Landin next to their church in the grave of the unknown warrior. His Rolex watch was retrieved by the Red Cross and sent back to England. His son wears it daily. Terry’s navigator, George Cash, survived and joined the Caterpillar Club by parachuting safely to earth, spending the last months of the war in a German prison camp. Terry’s perilous assignments with 1409 Met Flight were rewarded with a DFC in October 1943 and a bar to the DFC in February 1944. The citation for the first award stated ‘this officer has displayed great skill and devotion to duty. As pilot, he has undertaken a large number of sorties, many of them involving a penetration far into enemy territory. Nevertheless, Flying Officer Dodwell has completed his missions with great skill and has achieved important successes thereby rendering most valuable service’. Terry was the pilot or first pilot in all of his 90 operational flights. These began with 25 operations with 110 Squadron in Bristol Blenheims. Terry’s second operational tour started with 109 Squadron flying Mosquito IVs with photographic missions across Europe. After this was consolidated into 1409 Met Flight in April 1943 the first variant of the Mosquito was developed for photo reconnaissance, namely the PR Mark IX. Terry completed a total of 54 operations with 109 Squadron and 1409 Met Flight. The final 19 of his operational flights (including the flight from which he did not return) were made when he was flying the new Bomber Mark XVI, which was converted to carry a 4,000 lb ‘cookie’. |
1409 Met Flight had been formed in April 1943, based in Oakington, and Terry joined the flight in the following month. Air Vice Marshall Bennett (founder of the Pathfinders) explained in Pathfinder that the flight consisted of a small handful of crews, flying Mosquitos, who were particularly trained in weather recognition so as to make reliable reports when they returned. In Bennett’s words: "When a flight was called for, the code name ‘Pampa’ was used, and normally came from C-in-C Bomber Command. 1409 Flight flew by day or night as and when required. Their penetrations into Germany were quite deep, even in broad daylight in clear weather. Naturally they flew high and fast, but the danger was extreme, and it was a most nerve-racking job for the crews concerned. They had no guns of any sort". |