Flying Officer Thomas Drayton [Tammy] SIMPSON
Flying Officer Thomas Drayton (Tammy) SIMPSON DFM, DFC
Thomas Drayton Simpson was born in Hobart, Tasmania on 23 November 1917, the middle of the three children of Thomas Simpson and his wife. His father was a lawyer, and Simpson himself began legal training before enlisting in the RAAF in 1940. After graduating as a Wireless Air Gunner, course 8 No. 1 Wireless Air Gunners School Ballarat, Thomas was posted to the UK serving in 97 and RAAF 455 Squadrons. He quickly teamed up with Australian pilot Mick Martin. It was Martin that gave him the nickname ‘Tammy’.
In April 1942, Martin and his crew transferred to 50 Squadron, which meant Simpson was back on heavy bombers. Their first sortie, in a Manchester, was to Cologne on 30 May 1942, the first Thousand Bomber raid, when they became the first ever all-Australian crew to fly a Manchester operationally. (The crew comprised Plt Offs Martin, Leggo and Burton, Sgts Smith, Paton, Simpson and Foxlee.) By the end of June, they were flying Lancasters. In early April 1943, he joined up with Mick Martin, Jack Leggo and Toby Foxlee again, in the new 617 Squadron, as a Rear Gunner practising for the Dams Raid. He received the DFM for his role on the raid.
First wave. Third aircraft to attack Möhne Dam. Mine veered left after dropping and exploded at side of dam.
After the raid, Simpson carried on flying with Mick Martin on his subsequent 617 Squadron operations, 14 in all. He had applied for pilot training in the autumn of 1943, but in the end, he was posted to an Operational Training Unit for the remainder of the war. Promoted to Flying Officer 1945.
He returned to Tasmania after discharge from the RAAF and resumed his law studies. He was called to the Bar in 1949 and worked as a lawyer thereafter. He married Esme Reid after the war, and they had four children.
Simpson died in Hobart on 2 April 1998.
Simpson was a guest of honour at the Australian premiere of The Dam Busters in 1955 and returned to Britain several times for 617 Squadron reunions.
Acknowledgement: Author Charles Foster
Further information about Thomas Simpson and the other 132 men who flew on the Dams Raid can be found in his book The Complete Dambusters, published by History Press in 2018.
