Wartime link with London play

Pembroke Dock has a wartime link with the acclaimed Terence Rattigan play ‘Flare Path’ which recently opened at London’s Theatre Royal, Haymarket, starring Sienna Miller.

Terence Rattigan, who had achieved considerable success in the 1930s as a dramatist, joined the RAF in 1940 and was posted to Coastal Command as a wireless operator air gunner. He became gunnery officer with No 422 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, also helping to choose the squadron’s motto - This Arm Shall Do It - on its badge.

Rattigan's RAF service opened up an entirely new area for his writing and in 1941 between flying duties he wrote ‘Flare Path’, which achieved enormous success when staged in 1942.

In late 1944 No 422 Squadron, equipped with Sunderland flying boats, transferred to Pembroke Dock, deploying over the Western Approaches protecting convoys and hunting U-boats. It continued to operate until the Second World War ended in Europe.

Sir Terence Rattigan CBE (1911-1977) was one of Britain's most popular 20th century dramatists, known for such works as The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948) and Separate Tables (1954), among many others. He was also a screenwriter, mainly of his own plays.

 

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