Born on 4 March 1923, he lived at 12 Hempfield Road in Littleport, Cambridgeshire with his parents George and Hannah and sister Kathleen. Upon leaving the local grammar school he worked as a clerk at the nearby railway station and then joined the Royal Navy. 2/7

Fred had passed the competitive examination of the Y programme, an emergency scheme for training Royal Naval reserve officer volunteers, allowing boys of the age of 16 or 17 to choose to join the Navy when they were eventually called up. After flying training, he earned his wings

On the 15 August 1945 he took off from the aircraft carrier with six other 24 Wing Seafires to cover Fairey Fireflies and Grumman Avengers attacking Japanese airfields in the Tokyo Bay sector. With poor weather conditions, finding targets was difficult and they were bounced by

Fred had bailed out and landed uninjured in the village of Higashi-mura and handed himself over to an air raid warden. He was then eventually passed on to the 426th Inf Rgt whose commander, Colonel Tamura Teiichi, telephoned the HQ of the 147th Division to find out what he was

Emporer Hirohito's voice was seldom heard in public. In his broadcast he stated "We have ordered Our Government to communicate to the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, China and the Soviet Union that Our Empire accepts the provisions of their Joint Declaration.

Despite the Emporer's broadcast, Major Hirano Noboru, the divisional chief of staff gave the order to dispose of the prisoner and Fred was taken to hastily prepared grave in the mountains at 9pm, then shot and stabbed with a sword. Later, Col Tamura, worried that the body might

@Vanguard_WW2 It happened long ago but my blood boils on reading how this brave young man died. Why wasn't Noboru put on trial too? He issued the order that led to Fred Hockle dying.

@katydid2fury He received a lengthy prison sentence, but was saved from the noose due to having been honest about the events and not lying to cover himself as the others had.

@Vanguard_WW2 What an awful ending for this brave man 🙏 I’m so glad the Americans meted out justice

@Vanguard_WW2 The sad part is, if I’m not mistaken, less Japanese war criminals were executed after the war and yet their war crimes were as bad as Nazi war crimes.

@Vanguard_WW2 I’ve an uncle who died 6 wks before the end of the war. The family were notified AFTER VE Day so had thought it was over and he was safe. Bad enough to lose them but it’s especially grievous wound when you think it’s over and, as is the case for Fred, when it was driven by hate.

@Vanguard_WW2 RIP Fred

@Vanguard_WW2 🫡😔