SGT “IAN” TAYLOR

RCAF  J/108843

His full name was George Robert Ian Taylor but he was always known to family and friends as Ian.  By the time he joined the RCAF he was a well-travelled young man. He was born on News Year Eve 1918, in Kingston, Jamaica, to Marguerite and William Robert, who worked for the Cuban Sugar Corporation, allowing him Cuban nationality. He survived typhoid at the age of eight.  After having moved to the USA he went on to be educated in Atlanta, Georgia.  He was living in Alabama when he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) on 17 June 1941. He trained in Canada before arriving in England in May 1942 and had completed his training with 23 Operational Training Unit (OTU) by July 1942.

Two months later, in September 1942, he was posted to 420 Squadron before being moved to 405 (Vancouver) Squadron, where he was lost just three weeks later, aged just 23 years old, on 29 November 1942.

405 (Vancouver) Squadron was in the process of moving from RAF Topcliff for detachment at Beaulie (Hampshire), when Halifax DT576 was lost. Possibly overloaded with equipment including bicycles and eight extra passengers, they took off at 10.05, possibly realising something was wrong, the pilot turned the aircraft back towards to the airfield. The aircraft was seen to roll onto its back at 300ft before stalling due to low altitude and crashed, killing all 15 on board.

It was one of the worst non-operational accidents of the war.  Sergeant ‘Ian’ Taylor was buried in Dishforth Cemetery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire – Grave #43.

Crew/Passengers of HALIFAX DT576:

GROUND CREW                Cpl Joseph Victor Beaudry                              R/74134                IBCC Panel 129

AIR BOMBER                      PO Allen Catto Bradley                                    J/18602                 IBCC Panel 134

OBSERVER                           PO Samuel Stewart Clark                               J/19450                 IBCC Panel 145

WIRELESS OP                     FL Benjamin Hugo Enns                                J/10008                IBCC Panel 161

PILOT                                    WO1 Stephen Frederic Gannon                     R/56406                IBCC Panel 168

AIR GUNNER                      SGT  Orlando Delmar Hamel                         R/117309               IBCC Panel 175

GROUND STAFF                SGT Francis Hooton                                         1381953                 IBCC Panel 184

FLIGHT ENGINEER          SGT Joseph Jones                                             R/62366               IBCC Panel 191

AIR GUNNER                      FS William Michael Kostenuk                        R/121565              IBCC Panel 195

FLIGHT ENGINEER          SGT Earl Lewis McGillivray                            R/61819                IBCC Panel 208

AIR GUNNER                      FS Ralph Elliott Milliken                                 R/128672             IBCC Panel 212

WIRELESS OP                     FS William Stanley Milne                                R/107580             IBCC Panel 213

PILOT                                    FS Norman Wilbur Ross                                  R/99245                IBCC Panel 235

AIR GUNNER                      FS Melvin James Stanley                                 R/67711                IBCC Panel 246

NAVIGATOR                       SGT George ‘Ian’ Taylor                                    R/108843             IBCC Panel 251

FS Norman Ross was born in Moncton, New Brunswick. Before signing up he had been a scoutmaster and a bank clerk. He enlisted on 15 May 1941 and was awarded his pilot’s badge on 27 February 1942, arriving in the UK a month later to complete his training at 23 OTU and 405 Conversion flight before being posted to 405 Squadron on 14 October 1942.

FS Ralph Milliken was born on 21 December 1919 in Vancouver, British-Columbia and had worked as a boat builder before the war.  He enlisted on 29 August 1941 and was awarded his Air Gunners badge 15 February 1942. He was posted immediately to the UK and completed his training with & AGS and 23 OTU before posting with 405 Squadron on the same day as Norman Ross.

PO Allen Bradley was born on Christmas Day 1912 in Saskatchewan and lived close to Last Mountain Lake. He married Galdys Gwilliam in July 1940 and was working as the Principal of Duval Consolidated  School when in enlisted with the RCAF in Regina in July 1941. He trained in Canada as an observer, which he completed in February 1942. His training in the UK was with 9 (O)AFU and 23 OTU but switched to an air bomber with 420 Squadron in September 1942. His conversion training for the Halifax at 405 Conversion Unit and then 1659 Heavy Conversion Unit and was post to 405 Squadron on 8 November 1942.

Sergeant Earl McGillivary was born 12 October 1918 in Saskatchewan and grew up on a farm, but wanted to attend aeronautical school which he succeeded in 1937 in Moose Jaw. He enlisted with the RCAF in July 1940 for ground duties as an engine mechanic. He arrived in the UK February 1942 and was posted to 416 Squadron, which flew fighters. Bomber Command needed more Flight Engineers, so Earl retained at No.4 Technical School and was awarded his badge 23 September 1942 and after completing his training was posted to 405 Squadron on 8 November 1942.

Sergeant Orlando Hamel was born on 17 November 1915 in Sault Ste, Ontario. He married Kathleen Kearns in 1937 and worked in a gold mind and then in a nickel mine before enlisting with the RCAF in August 1941. He was awarded his air gunner’s badge 31 July 1942 and was in the UK soon after where he trained with 7 AGS, 405 GF and 1659 HCU and along with the rest of the crew was posted to 405 Squadron on 8 November 1942.

Born on Mid Summers Day 1921, FS Melville Stanley enlisted straight out of school on 16 September 1940. He trained in Canada and was awarded his air gunners badge on 24 November 1941. In the UK, he finished his training before being posted to 420 Squadron and later to 405 Squadron Conversion Flight on 13 October 1942 before joining the squadron on 8 November 1942.

FL Benjamin Enns was born 8 May 1916 in Manitoba but attended school in Texas and Kansas before returning to Canada after his father’s death. He enlisted with the RCAF in March 1941, receiving his air gunners badge February 1942 and leaving for the UK. Where in May 1942 he trained at  No. 1 Signal School and 23 OTU before posting to 405 Squadron Conversion and being posted to the squadron on 14 October 1942. During his training he had married ACW Helen Hunter. She was a Scottish native and he is buried in Airth, Scotland upon her wishes.

How the RAF Mountain Rescue Service began

By Sergeant J. R. Lees 1927 – 2002 (N.C.O. i/c Mountain Rescue Team, RAF Valley)

Sergeant Johnnie Lees GM, who was well-known in civilian climbing circles in this country, was a member of the R.A.F Mountaineering Association’s Expedition to the Himalayas in the summer of 1955.  Here he gives a brief outline of the development of the RAF’s mountain rescue teams, with special reference to those in North Wales written circa 1956 – Johnnie passed away in 2002

Early in the last war Royal Air Force stations near mountainous areas made their own arrangements for the organization of search parties and used whatever equipment was available.  In North Wales there was one of these parties at RAF Llandwrog and it was here in 1942, that the Senior Medical Officer (SMO), Flight Lieutenant FW Graham, started training volunteers, drawn mainly from the station sick quarters.  Later several vehicles, usually Jeeps and Humbers, were made available for mountain rescue.

A Llandwrog diary, now at Valley, reads:  “This log of the Mountain Rescue Service (MRS) vehicles was opened on July 6, 1943, on which date they were first used together fully equipped to attend an aircraft crash.”  On that date a search exercise had begun at 04.45 hours on The Rivals (Yr Eifil, North Wales).  Three hours later a message was received through the Humber Wireless and the walkie-talkies that an aircraft had crashed at Llangerniew; the mountain rescue team went there at top speed, but all the aircraft’s crew were dead.

Within a fortnight, however, the Llandwrog team had brought its first survivor in:  he was an Oxford pilot who had belly-landed his aircraft at Tal y Cafn and he was picked up, shaken, from the nearby police station.  A month later, after a four-and-a-half hour search, a crashed crew of five was found, relatively uninjured, 3,000 feet up on Foel Fras, in the Carneddau Mountains; they were evacuated safely.  Before the end of 1943, by which time 33 survivors had been rescued from 22 crashes, the medical staff at the Headquarters of No. 25 Group and Flying Training Command had taken some interest and promised an increase in establishment of an N.C.O. nursing orderly and N.C.O. driver.  At three other stations in the Command “rescue units” were formed and special equipment began to appear.  Early in 1944 responsibility for the organization of the mountain rescue service was placed at Air Ministry level (Now MoD), where it rests today with the Director of Operations (M and Nav.) [Meteorology & Navigation?]

It also began to be appreciated in 1943 that proper nailed boots were required, that neither Wellington Boots nor standard RAF boots were of any use, and that a local shepherd’s advice on the direction of base from the top of Mynydd Perfedd, at night in a wet gale, could not be relied upon, whereas the compass could.

Snowstorm search

At midday on December 1, 1943, news was received at Llandwrog that an Anson had crashed on the Carneddau the previous evening and that two of the crew of four had walked to Bethesda police station.  Apart from facial injuries they were unhurt, but could give no helpful information about the position of the crash.  In snowstorms and poor visibility an extensive area was searched.  Then, at 11.00 hours the following day, a third survivor arrived at Bethesda and, on interrogation, it seemed that Foel Grach was the most likely area of the crash.  The search was continued and the fourth man was found, with a fractured foot, at 16.30 hours on December 2, sleeping, wrapped in parachutes, in the rear of the fuselage.  On being offered rum by the M.O., he refused, saying that he “never touched the stuff”!

Early in 1944 a party of officers from Montrose visited the mountain rescue unit at Llandwrog to gather information to help start a similar unit in Scotland.  And about this time a comparative trial between General Service (GS) stretchers and sledge stretchers, designed by Mr D. G. Duff, M.C., F.R.C.S., was made near Llyn Ogwen by medical representatives from Air Ministry, Flying Training Command, and members of the Llandwrog rescue team.  The following April the team began a fortnight’s course of intensive training under a senior N.C.O. instructor from the 52^nd Mountain Division.  The course included navigation and elementary rock climbing, using ropes.

An unusual rescue – in a thunderstorm – was made one night in June, 1944, when a Llandwrog aircraft overshot and crashed in the sea a mile offshore.  A dinghy was commandeered from an aircraft near the beach and the Medical Officer, (Flight Lieutenant Scudamore), the mountain rescue driver, and two other volunteers paddled in the direction of the crash.  They met the five uninjured crew, already in a dinghy, and towed them back to the, by then, well lit shore, before the Air/Sea Rescue boat arrived from Fort Belan.

The girl who disappeared

Later that month came the first call out for a civilian in distress in the mountains.  It was a girl and she was stranded on the cliffs of Cader Idris; local civilian climbers and police had been unable to rescue her.  After some rock climbing Flight Lieutenant J. Lloyd and Corporal G. McTigue (later awarded a B.E.M. for his mountain rescue services) gained the ledge where she was reported to be trapped, only to find that she had gone;  having been there for three hours, she had managed to extricate herself unaided.

The recovery of four bodies from the wreckage of an American C-47 transport aircraft found in November, 1944, over a week after it had crashed on Craig Dulyn, provided, the Llandwrog diary records, “the nearest approach to rock climbing of any crash so far … all wearing nailed boots … not a nice place for wellingtons and rubber soled boots”.

Flight Lieutenant Scudamore and the mountain rescue centre were, in June, 1945, posted to Llanbedr on the closing of R.A.F. Llandwrog.  (In September, 1949, the North Wales team moved to Valley where it is based today.)  With the war ended there was a rapid decline in the number of aircraft crashes in the mountains and, throughout 1946, the only break from weekly training exercises was in September, when a prisoner-of-war from Dolgelley, climbing on Cader Idris with a friend, fell and was killed.  After an all-night search his body was recovered.

During the next three years the mountain rescue organization was extended.  By 1949 there were nine teams covering Great Britain and Northern Ireland, each with a permanent staff of N.C.O. i/c, two drivers, a wireless operator and up to 30 part-time volunteers.  And to each team a three ton load carrier was available – permanently loaded – in addition to two Humbers (signals and ambulance) and a Jeep or two.  Mountain rescue sections had also become separate sections, with their own equipment, including a great deal for the part-time team members.

Wednesday afternoon exercises and evening lectures were instigated “to hasten the welding of a fully trained Mountain Rescue Team” Yet, it is probable that, at this stage, the mountaineering ability of the teams, never particularly high, had reached a new low.

Walkie-talkies and sleeping bags

As the teams gained in experience, new equipment was approved for their use – Commando jackets instead of gas capes, sleeping bags in lieu of blankets, type 46 walkie-talkies in place of the old 38s.  But there was, as yet, no liaison between the few really skilled mountaineers in the Royal Air Force and the mountain rescue teams.  As a result, the latter suffered and remained walkers who avoided steep places and who, through lack of mountaineering knowledge, found any slopes under snow dangerous.

A more enlightened attitude which brought about closer liaison with the mountaineers available in the R.A.F., through the Royal Air Force Mountaineering Association (RAFMA), resulted from several incidents.  One was in the north of Scotland, where lack of experience in climbing in bad snow conditions defeated a team attempting to reach a crashed Lancaster on Beinn Eighe (3,309 feet).  In an effort to prevent a repetition of this sort of thing the technical standard of training was raised with the introduction of biannual training courses – summer rock climbing and winter snow and ice climbing – with RAF Mountaineering Association instructors who taught one or two members of each team how to instruct in these aspects of mountaincraft.  Some of the mountain rescue team officers and N.C.O.s attended these courses so that some degree of standardization in training resulted in better co-operation between teams.

Training rescue leaders

The post of Inspector of Mountain Rescue was established at Air Ministry, part-time, and Group Captain R. E. G. Brittain, who had some mountaineering experience, mainly in Asia, was appointed.  He recommended the training of more expert S.N.C.Os i/c teams, to replace some of those who were filling the post of “sergeants of any trade”, and the P.T. branch was asked to provide volunteers.  I had been a Physical Training Instructor (PTI) myself, and the first course began at Valley, under my instruction, in November 1952.  By the time the training finished at Kinloss, with the winter course in February 1953, only three PTI pupils were left, out of the eight who started.  Several more courses followed in 1954 and 1955, but then, as now, few P.T.Is can be found with the necessary interest and qualifications, so that the mountain rescue training situation is still not ideal.

Meanwhile, the assistant honorary secretary of the RAFMA, Mr M. Holton, was attached to Air Ministry A. D. Rescue (Air Ministry Assistant Director Rescue) to write a training manual for mountain rescue teams, which finally appeared as A.M.P. 299 in May, 1953.  Thus ropes, ice axes, karabiners, and tricouni nails became familiar official terms and not just the mysterious names that the pioneer teams had heard other climbers talking knowledgeably about.

Because the civilian climbing fraternity has increased a hundredfold since the war and the number of aircraft mountain crashes has decreased, the position today is that teams are rarely called to an aircraft crash but are often asked for assistance at the scene of mountaineering accidents;  this participation in civilian rescues has been approved by Air Ministry as good training.

Civilians expect too much

The higher technical standards introduced through training courses after the war and the competence of some of our Service climbers, especially Flight Lieutenants J. S. Berkeley and M. Mason and Flying Officer D. D. Stewart, who were already well known in civilian circles, led to a greater recognition of the teams by civilian mountaineers.  Now the pendulum has gone a little too far and the younger generation of climbers often expects the still mainly part-time R.A.F. teams to be composed of ace climbers who are expert at whisking civilians, dead or injured, off inaccessible crags and faces while they sit back, watch – and sometimes criticize!

Group Captain Brittain’s successor, Squadron Leader D. Dattner, did a lot towards arresting these wrong ideas when, as Office i/c M.R.T, Kinloss, he addressed members of the Scottish Mountaineering Club at its annual meeting and dinner.  More recently still Squadron Leader A. R. Gordon-Cumming, the present Inspector of Mountain rescue, has written an article on R.A.F mountain rescue teams in the quarterly journal of the British Mountaineering Council, Mountaineering, which would well bear reproduction in some of the other journals likely to be read by those who climb for a hobby.

The equipment still improves: once, three primus stoves, and a blanket each;  now, petrol stoves with ovens, £16 (£338 in todays money) parkas, and sleeping bags.  Thus the total value of personal equipment on loan to each volunteer is in the region of £60 (£1270 in todays money).  The men who deserved this, the men who started it all in Llandwrog in 1943, must think the present day teams less hardy.  Austrian ice axes and karabiners, nylon ropes, and Thomas sledge stretchers are all provided, and tests for an even better boot are still continuing.

Certainly, nowadays, aircrew who crash in mountainous country, either in Great Britain or in Cyprus, no matter what the time of year, may have every confidence in the mountain rescue teams ready to go to their aid.

The Blitz

“It was Hitler’s belief that the war from the air would terrorise London into defeat. He was wrong. The city’s inhabitants on the contrary; took a perverse and particular pleasure from being the frontline of the war: ‘We can take it’ became the catchphrase of the blitz.”

Jon. E. Lewis: London – The Autobiography

7 September 1940 was a warm late summer’s afternoon that saw the end of the wartime life that people had become accustomed to.

At 4pm, German bombers flying in a formation that was 20 miles wide, crossed the English Channel. Their approach was plotted by Fighter Command at Bentley Priory and the fighters were scrambled to meet the enemy. It was the middle of the Battle of Britain, but this time the Luftwaffe turned away from the airfields and headed towards to London. It was to become the first night of the Blitz.

After months of watching dogfights over their city, Londoners came out onto the streets at the sound of the engines of the approaching aircraft. Many watched in disbelief and listened as the first air raid siren sounded. There had been warnings before, but this time the bombers had appeared.

348 German bombers came in the first wave following the River Thames towards the ‘U-shaped’ bend that marked their target.  The docks were London’s economic lifeblood and were surrounded by the heavily populated East End. People watched as the bombs fell on the docks and the surrounding industries. Soon the sky turned orange and began to fill with thick black smoke blotting out the day.

Soon the docks were alight with 200 acres of timber burning out of control at Surrey Docks. 1000 pumps were brought in from as far away as Birmingham, Bristol and Brighton. Sadly 20 firefighters, known as ‘Heroes with grimy faces’ were killed in the firestorm that erupted.

Just after 6pm, the all-clear was sounded and people emerged from the shelters to a scene of destruction with fires still raging. But it was the lull before the storm, as the sirens sounded again two hours later, and the second wave of bombers approached led on by the fires from the first attack

300 bombers dropped high explosives and incendiary devices onto the already devastated East End and docks. During this time, Fighter Command shot down 60 German aircraft with the loss of 30 fighters and 15 pilots.  Many of them had flown multiple operations on this day and were exhausted by the size of the attacks.  The Luftwaffe was able to bomb with a sense of freedom.

To people in the shelters, hiding under the bridges, down the underground or in an Anderson shelter in their back garden the night must have seemed terrifying and never-ending. London had seemed safe until this night.

1000 people were sheltering in Columbia Road, Bethnal Green, east London when a bomb went straight down the air shaft and exploded killing 40 people. The Keeton Road School in Bermondsey was struck killing 38 people – half of whom were children. Whole families were lost.

Buildings collapsed. Windows shattered, exploding as the skyline lit up as bright as the sunrise that was still hours away. The noise was deafening. Dust filled people’s eyes and nose making sight hard and breathing difficult. The terror of the Blitz had begun.

By 4.30am the all-clear finally sounded and there was a silence as the population began to emerge from their hiding places shocked to find their city devastated and knowing that this night wouldn’t be the last.

430 people had been killed, and nine fires were still burning. The sky glowed in the aftermath visible up to ten miles away.

The bombing of London was a massive turning point in the war. The Luftwaffe and the German leaders wanted to bomb Britain into submission.

“From the flames rose a defiance and determination not to bow before the enemy – which helped Britain win the war.”

In turning their aircraft away from the fighters and their airfields, Germany gave Britain the space, time and opportunity to rebuild the RAF, and thus began to turn the tables.

By the end of September, 5300 tonnes of high explosives had been dropped and a third of the capital lay in ruins.

The Blitz saw London bombed every night and day (except one) for eleven weeks. Other cities felt the force of the Luftwaffe bombers including Coventry. On the 14 November 1940, it saw the biggest raid resulting in 4330 houses being destroyed, 200 fires and 554 people being killed.

The last night of the Blitz was 10-11 May 1941, but it was also the worse. The whole of London was in the German bombers sights as they used the river and the full moon to find their targets including the House of Commons and Westminster Abbey both of which were badly damaged. It was one of the most destructive raids but still the city was still standing and defiant.

The raid lasted seven hours from 10pm through to the all-clear at 5.50am. The raid was the last major raid of the Blitz and saw the highest number of casualties with 1436 Londoners killed.

For now, the worst of the raids were over as Germany turned its forces east towards Russia and the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. Few who were there and survived would forget the 244 days and nights that saw their city defy the odds and rise again.

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F/O Tom Downing RAFVR  

Operation: Milan

Date: 15/16th August 1943 (Sunday/Monday)

Unit: No. 61 Squadron

Type: Lancaster III

Serial: W5002

Code: QR-L

Base: RAF Syerston

Location: Rugles, France

The Crew of W5002 QR-L:

Pilot: Sgt. P. Victor Matthews 658607 RAFVR Evaded (see note 1)  Victor Matthews passed away 22^nd March2017 

Fl/Eng: Sgt. Kenneth Thomas Brentnall 1477508 RAFVR Age 21. Killed

Nav: F/O. Tom Downing 131604 RAFVR Age 21. Missing – believed killed

Air/Bmr: P/O. Conrad Larnach 149693 RAFVR Age 22. Killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. Gordon Arthur Angwin 1386110 RAFVR Age 21. Missing – believed killed

Air/Gnr: Fl/Sgt. John Edward Walden AUS/425386 RAAF Age 27. Killed

Air/Gnr: Sgt. James John Griffin 1153700 RAFVR Age 23. Killed

The Crew from left to  right:  Sgt. John Waldren, Sgt. Gordon Angwin, Sgt Vic Matthews, Sgt. James Griffin, Sgt. Conrad Larnach and Sgt. Kenneth Brentnall

Introduction

This is a record of the loss in action of my late uncle, Flying Officer Tom Downing, RAFVR. The actual circumstances of his loss were always something of a mystery and a source of great wonderment for me as I grew up in post-war Hull. Although I was born eight months after he was reported missing, some of my earliest memories are of a loving family desperate to believe he might somehow return one day, there being not the slightest trace of his passing. I have shared in these thoughts and feelings, with an enigmatic affinity that has remained with me over the years, though this has faded with time. As there were no remains or identification ever found for Tom Downing or Sgt. Gordon Angwin, they are simply commemorated on the Royal Air Force Memorial, Runnymede. I was taken on a to visit to the new Memorial by my maternal Grandparents when I was eight years old, and this certainly has had a profound and lasting effect on me.

My father Herbert served as a Corporal with the RAF Police during the war. After the pilot’s safe return to the UK in November 1943, my father had somehow managed to contact him. They had a brief meeting, but the pilot was unable to provide any further information at the time, other than that which he had officially reported. He told of how he had been rendered unconscious on baling-out of the burning aircraft, and had no knowledge of his crew’s fate.My Grandmother Eliza, was heartbroken. She never seemed to recover from the loss of their youngest son, and she died in 1949. From as young as I can remember, until about ten years old, I spent almost every weekend with my Grandparents. I slept in Tom’s old room, with many little reminders of him; photographs and books, even one or two of his old toys remained in the cupboard over the stairs. I treasured these, especially a delicate silk-covered model aircraft, which I was allowed to handle, with the greatest care.

In 1986, I wrote to the RAF, Air Historical Branch 5, at the Ministry of Defence, to inquire if there were any RAF records, which might provide some information as to what had happened more than forty years earlier. I received a very polite reply confirming the identities of the aircrew, the location of the crash site and the aircraft number, W5002, coded QR-L with 61 Squadron, RAF. Further enquiries resulted in correspondence with RAF Air Historical Branch 3, which erroneously listed Tom as the Bomb Aimer. (This was later corrected). They confirmed the location of the graves of the four crew buried at Rugles, France. I was advised to contact RAF Personnel Management Centre at Gloucester for any further information and for a copy of Tom’s Service Record.

Whilst awaiting a reply from Gloucester, my Mother-in-law told me of a letter published in the Hull Daily Mail dated 27 September 1990, from a Monsieur Albert Lecocq of Rugles, France, and she sent me a cutting. The compilation of these records and communications are a direct result of that chance letter reaching me, 200miles away, in Berwick upon Tweed. In April 1991, I had the privilege to meet Victor Matthews, the pilot. He and his wife Rosemary visited us in Berwick, following further correspondence with Albert Lecocq. Later that year, my wife Pat and I accompanied them to Rugles, for a formal reception by the civic authority with other relatives of the crew, and to place an engraved plaque at the crew graves. It was a very poignant and moving time for all concerned. We were presented, in Tom’s name, with a posthumous Médaille de la Ville de Rugles and an illuminated Certification. I felt privileged to have had the chance to visit the site of the crash, and to talk with the local people, who had not only witnessed the events of August 1943, but had survived to tell others.

      At the crash site Raymond Lavier talks with Vic Matthews (right) and Albert Lecocq 1991.

Recently, my researches concluded with the confirmation of the loss of Lancaster W5002 (QR-L) as being credited to Leutnant Detlef Grössfuss DKG, (see note 3), of Luftwaffe 2/JG2 Richthofen Geschwader. He was later wounded in action, on 5th July 1944, but survived the war, as Oberleutnant, leading 9/JG2. He is credited with 30 victories, and was awarded the DKG (German Cross, in Gold), the Ehrenpokal Goblet and Iron Cross First Class. Originally, my intention was simply to arrange this information into an appropriate format, which could be retained within the family. I now feel satisfied that I have been able to eliminate any doubts concerning my Uncle Tom’s loss, and I have prepared the following narrative, drawing directly on the official records and my experiences in France. The records and transcripts are appended.

F/O Tom Downing RAFVR:

Tom was born in Hull, East Yorkshire, on 19th October 1921, the youngest son of Herbert and Eliza Downing, and younger brother to my father, Herbert. There had been three earlier children, but they had all died in infancy. He was always known as Tommy, and was educated at Malet Lambert High School, having attained a scholarship there, and entered the Police Service as a cadet in 1940.

After attending No.5 Aircrew Selection Board, he was recommended for training as Observer/Pilot and he joined the Royal Air Force on 20th July 1941, aged 18. Tommy reported to No.1 Aircrew Reception Centre on 27th October for initial kitting, preliminary drill instruction and his introduction to service life. Posting to No.1 ITW (Initial Training Wing) followed on 29th November, for basic flying theory, service protocol, etc.

Promoted to LAC on 23rd January 1942, he continued to No.1 (EAOS) (Elementary Air Observer School) on 14th February. On 17th May he embarked for Canada, to join No.32 Advanced Navigation School at RAF Charlottetown, where he qualified as an Observer/Navigator. (Until 1942, observer training, comprised of the four disciplines of navigation, wireless, gunnery and bomb aiming. After 1942, training was confined to the individual ‘trades’.) This advanced course earned him the qualification of the coveted “Flying O” brevet, and an appointment to a commission in the rank of Flying Officer, effective from 24th September 1942, as a Navigator. Then it was on to No.33 Advanced Navigation School, followed by parachute training, finally returning to No.4 Air Observer School before embarking for the UK to arrive at No.19 Operational Training Unit, RAF Kinloss. Posting to No.1661 HCU (Lancaster Heavy Conversion Unit) at RAF Winthorpe, Lincolnshire (A satellite of RAF Swinderby) followed on 12th May 1943. It was at this stage of training that the process of ‘crewing-up’ would start. A given number of individual trades would be assembled in a hanger to voluntarily form up into a specific number of crews. On completion of this course, Tom was posted to No.61 Squadron at RAF Syerston, Nottinghamshire, to commence operational flying on 24th June 1943. It was the culmination of almost two years intensive training.

The records show the other members of the crew, (all NCO’s), were also posted in to 61Squadron on 24th June 1943 from 1661 HCU, and presumably the seven had formed up as a crew there, prior to their first operational posting. Sgt Matthews first flew as U/T pilot (under training) with Plt.Off. W.C. Parsons as Captain (pilot in command) to Gelsenkirchen on 25/26 June. On 28/29 June he had his own command for a raid on Cologne, with his new crew and Sgt.Dudley as navigator. On 1/2 July, the same crew flew a minelaying operation, but with F/O. H.L. Hewitt as navigator. Two nights later, on 3/4 July, a further raid on Cologne, but again with a different navigator, Sgt. S.G. Palk. (see note 2) After a short break of four days, on 8/9 July an operation (unspecified) with yet another navigator, Sgt.J.K.Forrest. The next night, 9/10 July, saw a return to Gelsenkirchen, again with yet another navigator, Sgt. L.R. Lovett.

For the first time operationally, on 2/3 August, the ‘full crew’ of Sgt Matthews (captain and pilot), Sgt. Brentnall (flight engineer), Sgt. Larnach (bomb aimer), Sgt. Angwin (WT/ air gunner), Sgt. Waldren (air gunner), Sgt. Griffin (air gunner) and Tom as navigator, flew on an operation to Mannheim in Lancaster W5002 (Q-RL). The next night (10/11 August) they again flew together, in the same aircraft, raiding Nurnberg. A one-day break, then on 12/13 August, (again in what they then considered to be ‘their’ aircraft, now named ‘London Pride’), for the long haul of eight and a half hours to Milan and back. The reason for Tom not being with other members of the crew for their first five trips together is not known.

On the night of 15/16 August, the crew were briefed for a repeat raid on Milan, flying exactly the same route, Syerston – Selsey Bill – Cabourg – Lac du Bourget – Milan. The bomb load comprised of 1 x 4000lb ‘Cookie’, 3 x 150 x 4lb Incendiary bombs and 2 x 16 x 30lb incendiaries. The Lancaster BIII took off from Syerston at about 2230 hours in good weather and a full moon. Course was set at 2300 hours and the Pilot climbed on track to the English coast. The French coast was crossed at 16,500 ft., at Caen, dead on track and time. Just after crossing the coast the Rear Gunner reported an unidentified aircraft on the starboard quarter. The Pilot executed a steep diving turn to starboard and the aircraft passed to port and was identified as a Beaufighter. During this incident Monica, set to give warning at 600 yards, functioned perfectly. The pips increasing in speed as the fighter approached and decreasing in speed as she overtook. The Rear Gunner remarked on the excellence of the device.Sgt. Matthews turned back on to course and two or three minutes later, without any warning from Monica or either Gunner, the Lancaster was attacked by a fighter with cannon and machine gun fire. The attack appeared to come from astern and red flashes, which may have been tracer, filled the cockpit. There was a tearing sound in the fuselage, the whole aircraft vibrated violently and Sgt. Matthews could hear shells impacting and exploding behind him. He immediately executed a very steep diving turn to starboard. Three or four seconds later a wall of red flame shot up from the vicinity of the forward escape hatch and enveloped the Pilot and the Flight Engineer who was sitting beside him. Sgt. Matthews pulled down his goggles and then tried to regain control, but the cockpit was now filled with thick white smoke, which blotted out everything and he was quite unable to see his instruments.

The Lancaster now appeared to turn on its back as Sgt. Matthews has a strong recollection of being thrown against his safety harness. He had heard nothing from any other member of the crew and knowing that he had little hope of regaining control he gave the order to bale out. Flames were still coming up into the cockpit and realising that he had little chance of reaching the hatch, Sgt. Matthews, who was wearing a seat type parachute, opened the cabin window on the port side. At that moment, the aircraft turned over on its back. He undid his safety harness and believes that he was immediately thrown against the roof, and the aircraft was in an inverted spin. One arm, however, was through the open window and he managed to grasp the frame and got his head through. He then placed his foot against the arm of the Pilot’s seat and grasping the window frame on both sides with his hands managed to force himself through. As soon as he fell free he pulled the ripcord and when his parachute opened he lost his left boot. He has a vague memory of floating down through cloud and seeing the incendiary load burning on the ground, but no sign of the Lancaster. He then lost consciousness and only recovered when he hit the ground. He was lying in a field some 3km west of Rugles, about 25 miles S.W. of Evreux. The Lancaster was by then burning furiously about 400 yards away. Sgt. Matthews had been wearing two pairs of gloves and the outer of these was completely burned. So were his helmet and oxygen mask, which he had not removed, and he had considerable burns on his face.

The next day Sgt. Matthews was told the Germans had said they had found five bodies in the wreckage. A few days later he was told the bomb aimer had been found by the Germans, some distance away, with his parachute open but very seriously wounded. They had shot him, placed the body in the wreckage and announced that six bodies had been found. Local people who had been the first on the scene of the crash, and two carpenters who were later to make up the coffins, reported human remains being found in the field nearby. Being unrecognisable as anything other than fragments, they had buried them, out of respect (and to prevent them being found by dogs and birds). There had also been other remains found within the aircraft fuselage. Four of the crew were given a formal military funeral and buried at the Communal Cemetery of Rugles, but local people were forbidden by the Germans to attend. Amazingly, the following day the graves were completely covered in flowers, left by the locals, who had clearly braved the curfew to pay their respects overnight.

M Robert de Villain, who was only in his teens at the time, related to me how he had watched a German Luftwaffe officer at the crash site in the early morning, over the next few days, standing quietly to attention before saluting and then moving away. Sgt. Matthews reported, on his safe return to the UK, of how he recovered himself, bundled-up his parachute and walked to a nearby wood. He pushed the parachute under some bracken and covered it with his Mae West and twigs. His face was badly burned and he said he felt like giving himself up, to get medical attention. On hearing some shouting nearby, which sounded like German, he decided then that he would not surrender without a struggle. He had lost one boot and walked to the best of his ability away from the voices, keeping in the shadow of hedges. Within half an hour he saw some farm buildings and, on closer inspection, discovered a haystack under a barn roof, which seemed to offer the possibility of a hide-out. This was the farm of Château La Chaise, at St. Antonin.

He hid here throughout the day of 16th August. Having observed the people in the farm and decided that they would probably be friendly (he could hear the BBC news in French), he finally decided to make his identity known. He was given food and shelter and allowed to remain overnight. On the 18th August one of the farmer’s sons, Andre Aubrie, brought a woman to see him, who was from some nearby village or farm. She brought a dictionary and appeared prepared to help him. She gave him one or two suggestions about the best route to follow through France to get away through Spain.

On the morning of Friday 20th August, a man appeared who seemed to have been informed that Sgt. Matthews was there, and from this point on, he was helped on his way by the French Resistance. He returned to the UK early in November 1943.

Also lost during the same operation from 61 Squadron:

Lancaster III DV186 Flown by 21-year-old, P/O. Ronald Steer 147998 RAFVR from Keynsham, Somerset, England – killed with all 7 crew.

Lancaster III ED722 Flown by 21-year-old, P/O. James Henry Miller 155221 RAFVR from Tottenham, Middlesex, England killed with 4 other crew, 2 taken PoW with one other evading capture.

Notes

 (1) Arrived back in UK at RAF Tangmere on a Lysander – Operation ‘Oriel’. 12th November 1943. Lysander flown by Fl/Lt. R.W.J. Hooper DFC. The ‘Oriel’ operation was to land three Lysanders – dropping off ‘ agents’ and picking up evaders. Due to very muddy conditions only one Lysander was able to make the landing – dropping off two agents – eventually the skilled pilot managed to take off with two French Officers and Sgt. Mathews on board – landing back in the UK in the early hours. During the evasion Sgt Mathews had in fact been helped by M. Fiquet who had taken him to Paris on the 20th August where he had to remain in several ‘safe houses’.

(2) P/O. Stanley George Palk 155927 RAFVR from Merton, Surrey, England was posted as ‘missing’ on the 18th August 1943 – Lancaster I ED661 lost on an operation to Peenemünde with all eight crew.

(3) This was the 3rd claim by Lt. Detlev Grossfuss of 2./JG2 – 3 on this operation alone – Lancaster DV186 also from 61 Squadron and Lancaster ED498 from 207 Squadron. It is understood that he shot W5002 down whilst at 4,000 mtrs at 23:20 hrs. He survived the war despite being shot down by USAAF P-47’s on the 5th July 1944 at St. Andre. He is credited with 7 Night kills with a further 13 during day operations.

Burial Details

Sgt. Kenneth Thomas Brentnall. Rugles Communal Cemetery. Grave 2. Son of Cyril F. B. Brentnall and Ethel M. Brentnall, of Rangemore, Staffordshire, England.

F/O Tom Downing. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 124. Born on the 19th October 1921 at Hull, the son of Herbert and Eliza Downing, of 5 Whitby Avenue, Whitby Street, Hull, England.

P/O. Conrad Larnach. Rugles Communal Cemetery. Grave 3. Son of Conrad and Elizabeth Ann Larnach, of Willington, Co. Durham, England.

Sgt. Gordon Arthur Angwin. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 140. Son of Ernest and Maude Blanche Angwin, of Westminster, London, England.

Fl/Sgt. John Edward Walden. Rugles Communal Cemetery. Grave 4. Born on the 22nd August 1915 at Burketown, Queensland, Australia, the son of Robert John and Kathaleen Annie Walden, of ‘Derveen’, Woombye, Queensland, Australia. Prior to service worked as a Cane Farmer. Enlisted in Brisbane.

Sgt. James John Griffin. Rugles Communal Cemetery. Grave 1. Son of Llewellyn and Florence Annie Griffin, of Bath, Somerset, England.

The Graves, Rugles 1943

 The Graves, Rugles 1991

Fragments recovered from the crash site

Originally researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew by Brian Downing and submitted to Aircrew Remembered in August 2016.  (http://www.aircrewremembered.com/matthews-victor.html)

Acknowledgements: Sources used  in compiling this report  include: Bill Chorley – ‘Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions’, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie – ‘Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2’, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt – ‘Bomber Command War Diaries’, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker – Kracker Luftwaffe Archives and Fred Paradie – Paradie Archive (both on this site), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński – ‘Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945’, Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek – ‘Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii’, Norman L.R. Franks ‘Fighter Command Losses’, Aircrew Remembered databases and  archives.

We are grateful for the support and encouragement of UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3, RAF Records, and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world. Also, a great many thanks to Gary Kostka, and  to Denis Matthews, brother of the pilot, both of whom submitted further information and photographs to Aircrew Remembered in May 2017.

 Tom’s name is on panel 30 and is also remembered on a stone in the Ribbon of Remembrance

To see the details of other losses that night see the IBCC Losses Database here

RAF Valley Mountain Rescue – Flt Sgt Johnnie Lees GC BEM and Cpl Stanley (Vic) Bray

During the 1950s the RAF Valley Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) covered North Wales, particularly Snowdonia. The team’s prime function was to carry out search and rescue missions looking for missing RAF aircraft from all Commands in this area. The team was lead by FS Johnnie Lees and his number two was Cpl Vic Bray, both highly accomplished in their art of search and rescue spending most of their spare time training with the team in the Welsh mountains and from time to time searching for lost aircraft, missing walkers, and generally helping climbers in distress.

Today mountain rescue teams are assisted by helicopters, often able to strap an injured climber to a stretcher and being whisked into the sky and away to hospital; it was not like that in the 50s. Helicopters did exist but they were still fairly new and not used in the mountains.

If the team was detailed to find a missing person they walked. If they needed a stretcher high up on a hillside, they carried it up and down again with the casualty.

If they had to search for a missing aircraft that might have crashed in the mountains they walked, sometimes for days, equally likely, if it had plunged into the sea, they walked the coastline, not stopping until the search was called off. The team was usually not called until late in the day, often after night had fallen by the time their expertise was needed.

This was the case in December 1957 when the team was called to a young man who was stuck on the near vertical rock face alongside Aber Falls, a very spectacular waterfall in the area, and in full spate at the time. The police and the fire brigade had already tried to rescue him.

Vic Bray was the one who climbed down the wet rock under extremely difficult conditions at night with only the occasional light from a flare. Vic managed to reach the casualty and attached him to his own rope, then, with tremendous physical effort he managed to swing them both away from the waterfall and brought the man down safely to the waiting stretcher.

He was awarded a Bronze Medal for his bravery by the Royal Humane Society.

In January 1958 the team was called again late at night, Major Hugh Robertson had fallen whilst ice climbing in Snowdonia and was delirious with a fractured skull. When the callout came Johnnie Lees took Vic Bray and three others with him as a fast, advance party to assess the situation.

Both Johnnie and Vic knew the particular climb well. It is a 900-foot rugged buttress of rock covered in ice and set in a huge amphitheatre; before they set off they knew that they would need plenty of rope so each of the 5 carried 2 x 120 foot ropes. The rest of the team followed on with other equipment.

The quickest route to the scene was to walk right up and over the mountain to the top of the buttress and climb down until they reached the injured man.

Johnnie’s immediate decision was that the casualty would die before they could get a stretcher to him, so making a rope version of a European device known as a Tragsitz (A harness that allows you to carry another person – the team did not have one of these) he instructed them to strap the casualty to his back, attach ropes to both of them and to lower them from there to the foot of the cliff.

The distance down was a guess of about 200 feet so it would need at least 2 ropes tied together. Lees used his hands and feet on the rock where possible, but his main job was to protect the casualty from further damage against the rock face. Vic Bray was the anchor at the top of the mountain controlling and supporting Johnnies weight, communications were difficult in the cold dark night and anxiety of the knots in the ropes lashed together possibly snagging in the rocks was running high. They got down safely. The rest of the team was waiting with a stretcher and exhausted they carried the casualty for 2 miles over boggy difficult terrain to meet the ambulance. Robertson recovered in hospital and later bought the Team a Tragsitz as a mark of gratitude for saving his life. Johnnie Less was awarded the George Cross for his role in this rescue, demonstrating his mastery in mountain craft and the great faith he placed in the hands of his teammate, Vic Bray. This is the only medal of this highest honour awarded for a mountain rescue. Neither Johnnie Lees nor Vic Bray spoke in length of these events, save only to correct someone if they had the facts wrong. They always saw these rescues as Team efforts.

Johnnie Lees was an RAF Physical Training Instructor; a qualified mountain guide by 1955 and became one of the very few to receive the guiding qualification in winter mountaineering.

He took part in television’s first climbing outside broadcast with the route chosen of the “suicide wall” in Cwm Idwal – then, arguably, the most difficult rock route in North Wales. The leader was Joe Brown, and the Everest climber George Band was intended to second him. In the event, despite wearing rock-shoes, Band had to retreat, and Lees, in boots intended for nothing more technical than mountain-walking, eased his way up the tiny holds of the vertical face, in front of the cameras, with great skill.

Lees left the RAF as a Flight Sergeant in 1961 and was awarded the British Empire Medal. After working for Outward Bound, and mountain-guiding in the Lake District, he became a Warden Service Officer, and later Ranger Training Officer, for the Peak District national park. He retired in 1985.

Vic Bray was an RAF Airframe Engineer having joined up in 1947 and completed a 3-year apprenticeship at RAF Halton. After his time in the RAF including the RAF Valley MRT he went on to become a climbing cameraman involved in climbs such as the Twin Towers of Paine in Patagonia with Don Whillans and Chris Bonington. After his climbing days were over he worked in the aviation industry including as part of a small team building replica aircraft such as a WW1 Fokker Triplane in the famous Red Baron markings. He also built the wood structure of an Issacs 7/10 scale Firy biplane in his garage at home in Weymouth; this airframe was sold and later completed, made airworthy and flew in the UK.

The picture shows Johnnie Lees (left) and  Vic Bray at the RAF Valley MRT Reunion 1993

New volunteer, Sam McMillan, is Vic Bray’s step son and has ordered a stone on the Ribbon of Remembrance to honour both gentlemen.  If you would like to honour someone with a stone please find out more here

ANDRÉE DE JONGH

“My name is Andrée … but I would like you to call me by my codename, which is Dédée – which means ‘Little Mother’. From here on I will be your little mother, and you will be my little children. It will be my job to get my children to Spain and Freedom.”

Born in 1916 in Schaerbeck, in German-occupied Belgium Andrée Eugénie Adrienne De Jongh, would become to be known as “Dédée.”Brought up during World War I, she knew of occupation and conflict, and learnt the story of British nurse Edith Cavell who was executed by the Germans for spying. Cavells’ sacrifice became the beacon for Dédée’s resistance service.

10 May 1940 saw Germany invade Belgium again, 26 years after they had invaded in World War I.  This time Dédée was a young woman working as a commercial artist, and soon volunteered to train as nurse, like her heroine Edit Cavell

Small, petite and feminine, Dédée looked much younger than her years, making it easier for her to slip unnoticed past the German occupiers. She began working for the resistance as a courier, and was given the name “Postman”, and then joined the Cométe Line helping downed aircrew evade the Germans. As a courier, she helped them through occupied Belgium and France and over the Pyrenees into neutral Spain, where a local courier would take them to Gibraltar and home to the UK.

The Cométe Line had over its years, 2000 volunteers, of whom 700 were arrested and 290 executed. The journey was 1200 miles long and dangerous for all involved, but the aircrews put their lives in the hands of this young girl sent to get them home. Their disbelief at whom they relied, was summed up by one airman: “Our lives are going to depend on a schoolgirl,” but trust her they did.

She taught them to walk behind her and apart from each other, to not smile or speak to anyone, to hide behind a newspaper while travelling or to messily eat an orange on a trip; nobody liked a messy eater.

Between August 1941 and December 1942, Dédée escorted 118 people, including 80 airmen to freedom through German patrols, past collaborators and over mountain passes.   On 15 January 1943, on her 33rd trip, Dédée was escorting three airmen when she was betrayed to the Germans. Arrested, the Gestapo interrogated her over 20 times, and yet she never broke. Their disbelief that she ran the Cométe Line was mainly because she was ‘a little girl.’  Sadly, her father who was arrested with her was not so lucky and was executed as the leader of the escape line.

Dédée managed to survive her captivity at Ravensbruck Camp and was released in 1945.

Her lifelong duty to help people saw her work at leper colonies in the Congo and Ethiopia for over 28 years, before returning to home to Belgium, where she became a Countess.

Dédée died 30 October 2007, aged 90, and during her lifetime had been awarded:

The George Medal     1946

Medal of Freedom     USA

Legion d’ Honneur      France

Order of Leopold        Belgium

Croix De Guerre          Belgium

Not bad for a ‘schoolgirl.’

Andrée De Jongh is featured in the first-floor gallery of the IBCC’s exhibition.  To book your tickets click here

Operation Dodge saw the repatriation of Allied troops from the Mediterranean arena, as well as the transportation of staff.  Many flew via Italy, on a trip a six-hour flight to bring them home.

103 Squadron participated in Operation Dodge from the embarkation centre at Bari Airfield, southern Italy. The Lancaster could carry up to 20 passengers, but on this trip there were six crew and 19 nursing staff.

On the 4th October 1945, the weather was poor with low cloud hampering flying conditions.  They took off from RAF Glatton, Cambridgeshire just after midnight to collect their passengers. Folding canvas seats were hung the full length on the fuselage, but there was no heating or parachutes, and with no oxygen supply for the passengers the aircraft had to fly at 2000ft.

It is believed that the aircraft may have been struck by lightning or suffered engine failure, as a large bright flash was seen at 4.40am as it was heading towards Corsica. Nothing was heard from them, and despite extensive searches no wreckage or bodies were found.

The disappearance of Lancaster PA278 from 103 Squadron on 4 October 1945 saw the biggest single loss of female service personnel in World War II.

CREW OF LANCASTER PA278 PM-F (FREDDIE):

PILOT                                    FL Geoffrey Taylor                                           189687                                   Panel 251

FLIGHT ENG                        Sgt Richard Steel                                              1818104                                Panel 247

NAVIGATOR                       FS Jack Reardon                                                1626816                                Panel 230

WIRELESS OP                     FS Norman Robbins                                         1894110                                Panel 233

AIR GUNNER                      Sgt William Kennedy                                      2208930                                Panel 193

AIR GUNNER                      FL John (Johnnie) Whymark DSO DFC       53481                                    Panel 264

PASSENGERS  Auxiliary Territorial Service unless stated otherwise..

L/CPL                                     Williamina Allan                                                W/23244                           Panel 122

PRIVATE                               Phyllis Bacon                                                      W/77415                             Panel 125

CPL                                         Heather Cosens                                                W/184715                             Panel 148

PRIVATE                               Stefania Courtman                                          W/Pal/203386                    Panel 149

PRIVATE                               Barbara Cullen  MiD                                        W/252761                            Panel 151

NURSING SISTER              Jane Curran                                                        236425                                Panel 151

(Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing)

PRIVATE                               Anges Edwards                                                 W/258692                           Panel 159

PRIVATE                               Rhoda Fraser                                                      W/155281                           Panel 166

PRIVATE                               Bessie Goodman                                              W/143732                             Panel 171

CPL                                         Jill Goring                                                            W/237256                          Panel 171

PRIVATE                               Joan Larkin                                                          W/154454                         Panel 196

PRIVATE                               Alice Lillyman                                                     W/74459                            Panel 199

L/CPL                                     Shelia MacLeod                                                W/170036                            Panel 203

L/CPL                                     May Mann                                                          W/236937                           Panel 204

PRIVATE                               Betty Precious                                                   W/147946                            Panel 228

L/CPL                                     Enid Rice                                                              W/144264                         Panel 231

SENIOR MATRON             Gertrude Sadler                                                254580                                  Panel 237

(South African Military Nursing Service)

STAFF SGT                           Jessie Semark  MiD                                          W/7326                                Panel 239

PRIVATE                               Marion Taylor                                                    W/99752                              Panel 251

To find out more about the crew and nurses use the IBCC Losses Database here

The ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) was founded in 1938, originally just offering such positions as chefs, orderlies, stores persons or drivers.  The range of jobs was expanded allowing men to be released onto front lines duties.  More than 250000 women served in the ATS.

More stories like this can be found on our Blog Space here

Home on the Hill

Home on the Hill: The IBCC at Canwick Hill in Lincoln is the home for all our lost Bomber Command loved ones…..58 thousand of them, all shown on the Walls Of Remembrance. But what we know about their lives is just a drop in the ocean – or perhaps I should say – a star in the sky. This is just a small contribution to eight of those brave young men…..

The crew of 57 Squadron Lancaster JB 529. DX-P lost on 2nd December 1943

                                   ………………………………………

SGT. IVOR FRANCIS GROVES. 1576028 (Wireless Operator)

This young man was one of four sons born to Florence and Harry Groves, a lovely family who lived in Greet, near Birmingham. All four boys joined the forces, two in the Army and two the Royal Air Force.

When Ivor left school in 1937 he went to work at Cadbury Bros. in Bourneville and was also a member of the ATC and Home Guard.

 One particularly bad night during a blitz on Birmingham, Ivor, a very brave and caring young lad, helped to dig our two men, buried under a fallen building. He was first on the scene , closely followed by his father and other residents, but after saving one of them the German ‘planes turned their guns on the streets. Ivor could hear the second man , a much loved favourite with the local youngsters, calling for help but  was unable  to rescue him in time. Shortly after this, Ivor enlisted in the R.A.F. and after several months of training at No.4 Signals School and then at a Gunnery School, met up with his future crew members.  They were posted to 57 Squadron, then still stationed at Scampton, in July 1943 but he tragically  lost his life at only twenty years of age. It was his 22nd operation, destination Berlin, 2nd of December 1943. 

P/O  DOUGLAS PARK. 162548 (Navigator)

Douglas was born in Beverley, Yorkshire in 1923, the fourth of six children born to Sarah and Joseph Deakin Park . After leaving High School he took up an apprenticeship  with a large engineering works until January 1942 when, aged 18, he joined the Royal Air Force. He underwent his navigator’s training at Paignton, Devon, and later met up with his future crew members in March 1943. After several more months of training together they were posted to 57 Squadron, stationed at Scampton, on the 7th of July.

This much loved young man was only 20 years old when he lost his life on the 2nd of  December 1943  on a mission to Berlin, their 22nd operation. Very sadly,  Douglas was due to marry his young fiancée Mary, just a few days later. 

P/O ERNEST HAROLD PATRICK  162550 (Bomb Aimer)

Ernest was 25 years old, born in Stamford Hill, London and was the eldest of two sons born to Mabel and Juan Patrick. On leaving Technical college he began working for his father in the engineering trade, later, in a munitions factory in Gloucester, before volunteering for the Royal Air Force. After initial training, he was shipped out to South Africa for a bomb aimer/navigator course. On returning to England and further training, Ernest joined up with the crew before they were sent to 57 squadron in July 1943.

On the 2nd of December 1943, on an operation to Berlin, Ernest sadly lost his life along with the rest of the crew. It was their 22nd operation.

His young brother Alan, who was ten years his junior, was devastated at the loss of his big brother of whom he was so proud, and until the day he died he kept, as a memorial, a ten shilling note that Ernest had given him on his fifteenth birthday. 

FLT.SGT HAROLD ALEXANDER MOAD  R134973  RCAF (Rear Gunner)

Harold was from a large farming family in Clanwilliam, Manitoba. His parents, John and Ethel had nine children and both Harold and a younger brother Calvin, were posted to England after training, to fly with the R.A.F.

Harold had originally enlisted as a Tradesman in 1941 and trained under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. He later re-mustered as an air gunner, graduating in December 1942 at MacDonald, Manitoba. Arriving in England in January 1943, Harold met up and trained with other members of a crew who were later posted to 57 Sqn at Scampton on July 7th.

It was on the crew’s 22nd operation that Harold so sadly lost his life. It was the 2nd of December 1943 to Berlin and Harold was only 23 years old.

One of the many small lakes in the north of Manitoba has been named “Moad Lake” in his memory.

His brother Calvin, who flew from R.A.F. Skellingthorpe was shot down in the October of 1943  and made a  prisoner-of-war. He eventually returned home after several years in captivity. Within two years of his homecoming he had married but had also lost his life in a traffic accident. 

P/O ROY ARTHUR LEWIS  161699. (Mid-Upper Gunner)

Roy was the only son of Walter and Elsie Lewis, born in 1922 in Eastleigh, Hampshire. The family moved north in 1937 when his father went to work for the Manchester Ship Canal. Roy finished his schooling at Chorlton Grammar School where he enjoyed playing rugby and then on leaving school he became an apprentice as a garage mechanic also at the Ship Canal.

Roy met his future wife Moya at a Scouts’ church parade and they later married at that same church on the 31st July, 1943. He had enlisted in the Royal Air Force in early 1942 and after basic training in the UK was sent out to Bulawayo, Rhodesia for his gunnery training. He returned home in April 1943 and in the June, was at the Heavy Conversion Unit in Winthorpe where he joined up with the other crew members. On the 7th of July, they were all posted to 57 Sqn. which was then stationed at Scampton, Lincolnshire, later being transferred to East Kirkby. Tragically on the 2nd of December that year, the crew all lost their lives on their 22nd operation which was to Berlin . Roy and Moya had only been married for four short months. 

P/O ERNEST HENRY TANSLEY  149542 (Pilot)

Ernest was the middle son of Albert Edward and Mary Ann Eliza Tansley of West Ham, Essex, born on 22nd January 1914. His elder brother, Albert was in the Merchant Navy and the younger, Fred was a captain in the Royal Artillery, 1st Airborne Division. On leaving college, Ernie started working for a Shipping Agent in London, later joining the Dock Industry at King George  V docks. He was transferred to Gourock, Scotland when war broke out and it was whilst there that he enlisted in the Royal Air Force in March 1941.

He was sent out to America in the November to train as a pilot under the Arnold Scheme, leaving behind his young wife Irene, a son Peter aged five and  an eighteen month old daughter Anne.

 He didn’t return to England until October 1942, by which time his wife and children  had returned  back south to Essex to be near their families. They managed a very short re-union in Bournemouth at No,3 Personnel Reception Centre before Ernie was sent off for a further period of training which eventually enabled him to fly the Lancaster Bomber. He and his crew were posted on the 7th of July 1943 to 57 Sqn at Scampton and later to East Kirkby. It was from here, on the 2nd December 1943 on his 22nd operation to Berlin, that Ernie and all his trusty crew so tragically lost their lives when shot down by a JU 88 over the small town of Trebbin.

Three months later his second son Bob was born who was never to see his daddy.

The above crew stayed together from beginning to end but on the night of the crash there were two new young faces who had only joined them that day. 

SGT LEONARD BROWN  1615648 (Flight Engineer)

This young man born in 1923, was only aged 20, one of two sons born to William Charles and Ellen Brown who lived in Bermondsey, London. His younger brother Victor William was born in 1924.

Len didn’t have a very easy time in training because his first pilot, on a ‘second dickie‘ trip, lost his life on the Peenemunde raid so he and the rest of the crew had to then retrain with a new pilot.

After being posted to 57 Squadron, now flying from East Kirkby, this new crew found themselves pilotless once more. Len carried out a couple of missions  before joining the above experienced crew on the 2nd December 1943. It couldn’t have been easy for this young man flying with new faces for the first time  and regrettably , the crew didn’t make it back home. On this operation, which was to Berlin, they were attacked and shot down south of the target by enemy aircraft with sadly no survivors. 

P/O JACK PROCTER DALTON.  161782  (second ‘dickie’ Pilot)

Jack was born in 1921 in Burnley, Lancashire, the son of Arthur Rushton and Mabel Dalton. He also had a younger sister, Jean. On leaving  the local grammar school Jack went to work for his father, a well known shirt manufacturer and owner of two Men’s Outfitters.  He also ran a mail-order business where Jack worked until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force.

On completion of his pilot training he was posted to Upper Heyford  before eventually ending up at the Heavy Conversion Unit prior to arriving at 57 Squadron at East Kirkby on the 29th of November 1943.

Jack was flying as a ‘second pilot’ with this crew to get experience before being allowed to fly his own aircraft. Sadly, he was never to do this as on the 2nd of December on this, his first operation, the aircraft was attacked by enemy aircraft and shot down south of the target, Berlin. Tragically, none of the crew survived.

All eight of these young men are buried side by side in the Berlin War Cemetery and also each remembered by a stone in the Ribbon Of Remembrance in the IBCC gardens. Their home on the hill.

If you have memories of loved ones or friends who were in Bomber Command then please pass them on to ‘The Home On The Hill’, before it is too late.

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SOPHIE SCHOLL – WHITE ROSE RESISTANCE

“Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone.”

In war-time Germany, there were voices of disquiet that the Nazis tried to silence, violently. One such voice was Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Resistance Group.

Born in 1921, Sophie was the fourth of six children, whose father was a fierce critic of Nazi rule. Politics and beliefs that influenced his children to stand up and raise their voices against the brutal regime.

Sophie had a carefree childhood, but in 1932, joined the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls). The strict rules opened her eyes to Nazi doctrine and their treatment of other peoples, and she became disillusioned with German education. She also served six months in the Auxiliary War Service, but this only strengthened her resolve against the Nazis.

She joined her brother, Hans and his Munich University friends when they formed a passive resistance group called ‘The White Rose’. Their actions against the regime included peaceful demonstrations, painting anti-Nazi slogans and distributing leaflets. It was the leaflet distribution that led to their arrest. They were observed by a university janitor collecting those which had not been taken, he denounced them.

They were arrested on 18 February 1943, whereupon the German found the manuscript for their next leaflet. The Gestapo believed that Sophie was too young, and as a girl, to be involved with the Resistance Group, but she willingly admitted to her involvement, and  was convicted of high treason, and was executed at Standel Heim Prison in Munich by guillotine.

A guard who witnessed her execution, said she showed no fear  and walked bravely to her fate. Her final words reflected her innate strength.

“How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?”

On 22 February 2003 a bust of Sophie was placed in the Walhalla Temple, Bavaria. She and Hans were named as the fourth and fifth all-time most important Germans. Her  life has been remembered in books and on film.

Image courtesy of Indiegogo.com

The IBCC has recorded and preserved 100’s of first-hand accounts of life during the War, they are available for free for everyone on the IBCC’s Digital Archive.

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ACM Sir Arthur Longmore

Considered by some as one of the Fathers of the RAF, and one of the “Big Six” of Britain’s Airforce during WW2, Sir Arthur Murray Longmore started his service career in the Royal Navy in 1901. He worked his way up from midshipman to acting Lt Commander and in 1911 he volunteered for pilot training and was one of only four successful applicants, out of 200, to gain his Air Certificate. Longmore joined the newly formed Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in 1914. During that time, he saw action in the Battle of Jutland and spent time as an instructor at the Navy’s Central Flying School where he taught Major Hugh Trenchard, ‘Father of the RAF’ to fly as a military pilot. He took Winston Churchill on a fact-finding flight searching for submarines and was a pioneer of both flight and aviation warfare, launching the first torpedo from a British aeroplane in July 1914. He was decorated many times over in WW1, by the UK, Belgian, French and Italian Governments.

After taking up commission in the RAF (the world’s first independent air force) in 1920, he served in Iraq and Bulgaria. In the 1930’s, Sir Arthur was AOC at RAF College Cranwell, Coastal Command, Training Command and Commandant of Imperial Defence College. He was also appointed Deputy Lieutenant for Lincolnshire in 1938/39. He was one of a group invited to watch German service manoeuvres in 1937.

At the outbreak of WW2, Sir Arthur was an ACM in charge of RAF Training Command. On 2 April 1940, he was appointed Air Officer Commanding in the Middle East, enhancing his reputation for leadership and, as he always, insisted on piloting his own aircraft, he was extremely popular with his men.

In the 2^nd week of June 1940, the Italians joined the war and very shortly afterwards Sir Arthur launched an attack on their airfields, taking them completely by surprise.

In the House of Commons Dec 1940, Churchill said: We have seen the spectacle of a whole Italian Division laying down its arms in front of a far inferior force, and the work of our Air Force, against three, four or five to one has been attended with continued success … I must not forget the work that has been done in this battle by Air Chief Marshal Longmore, who at the most critical moment in his preparations had to have part of his force taken away from him for Greece. Nevertheless, he persevered, running additional risks, and his handling of the situation and his co-operation with the Army has been of the highest value”.

The Army, too, acknowledged a great part of their success in North Africa was due to Sir Arthur’s well-calculated and consistent plans for bombing enemy aerodromes.

In March 1941, King George Vl bestowed the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

With the loss of Greece, however, he lost the full confidence of Winston Churchill who disapproved of Sir Arthur’s constant demands for reinforcements. Churchill hated pessimists and senior commanders who complained about their lack of resources and he accused Longmore of failing to make proper use of the manpower and aircraft he had. Sir Arthur was relieved of his command in May 1941.

Sir Arthur was a big supporter of the Air Training Corps. He helped establish the Grantham ATC with Lady Longmore – he was the chair and she was secretary.

He was in favour of a flexible air force where personnel were not tied to one role, but available for employment where most needed at the time.

During the war Sir Arthur experienced the loss of his son Wg Co Richard Longmore who was KIA while serving in Coastal Command.

He subsequently became the Inspector General of the RAF before his formal retirement in 1942. In retirement he was Vice Commissioner of the Imperial (Commonwealth) War Graves Commission.

Sir Arthur stood as the Conservative candidate at the Grantham by-election in 1942. It was a two-horse race between the Conservative Longmore and the Independent, Kendall, with Longmore receiving a joint letter of endorsement from all the leaders of the parties in the coalition. Support for Kendall by the Grantham Labour party was withdrawn but Kendall campaigned and won as the first Independent to defeat a government candidate since the beginning of the war.

Later in the war, Sir Arthur served as a Major in the Home Guard and skippered a Naval support vessel which acted as a tender to the invasion fleet during the ‘D’ Day landings. His crew had an average age of 60.

Longmore’s memoirs, ‘From Sea to Sky 1910 -1945’, were published in 1946.

Tony Worth, who was the force behind the IBCC, was Longmore’s Grandson. He was, understandably proud of the place Arthur held in history.  Read more about Tony’s journey here

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Image courtesy of the AWM

OPERATION EXODUS

Towards the end of WW2 in 1945, a very different use was found for the familiar Lancaster Bomber.  Instead of being seen as causing death and destruction over Europe it now became a sign of life and hope for our own loved ones. Between 3 April-31 May 1945 the operation flew missions to bring PoWs home.

HELP REQUIRED

By April 1945 there were more than 354,000 ex-prisoners of war stranded in Europe, having been liberated from PoW camps hundreds of miles from their homeland. They had travelled to collection points all over Europe but had no means of coming home. Many of these young men were sick, starving and wounded so it was obvious that they needed help and quickly.

THE CONVERTED LANCASTER

A massive air operation would be required and the Lancaster was one of the aircraft thought most suitable for this kind of use.  She was adapted to carry small groups of between 20 to 24 people. Collection airfields were Lubeck (Germany), Brussels (Belgium) and Juvincourt (France), while reception airfields were RAF Dunsfold in Surrey, RAF Wing and RAF Westcott in Buckinghamshire.

OPERATION EXODUS

Bomber Command flew over 3,500 sorties to collect our ex prisoners of war from overseas and bring them back home. Most of the aircraft landed in the South of the country where the rescued men, many thousands of them arriving each day, were then sent on to British receiving centres.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

There were two thousand nine hundred missions from the Belgian bases alone, arriving in England in just 23 days. At the height of this operation the repatriation aircraft from Europe were arriving in England at a rate of 16 aircraft per hour, bringing home over one thousand of our young people each day.

What a wonderful and extraordinary feat!

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Picture courtesy of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Exodus_(WWII_operation)

Violette Szabo (George Cross)

As a petite, headstrong tomboy, Violette Szabo was destined to be remembered.

The only daughter in a family of five children, was born in Paris 1921 to an English father. Her father had served  in WWI where he met her French mother. Time was spent in France, where she stayed with an aunt until the age of 11 before returning to the family home in South London.

Violette’s war service began in 1940 when she joined the Land Army and then worked in an armaments factory.  It was also in 1940 when she met her future husband, an officer in the French Foreign Legion, named Etienne Szabo.  Marriage followed, and a daughter was born in 1942, but Etienne was killed at El Alamein, never having seen her.

Devastated, Violette wanted to assist the Allies in France, being bi-lingual, she joined the SOE (Special Operations Executive).  Tough training saw her become a field operative and courier. Her mission in France was to investigate the arrest of over 100 Resistance fighters and to find how they had been betrayed.

Her second mission was 8 June 1944, two days after D-Day when she parachuted into Limoges, France to help reinstate resistance lines that had been lost to the Germans.  She was trying to evade a roadblock, and in the ensuing gunfight twisted her ankle, leaving her unable to escape.

Violette was taken to Paris before being transported to several camps including Ravensbruck. There she was tortured and kept in horrendous conditions in solitary confinement before being executed on 5 February 1945, just twelve weeks before peace.

Her service and bravery behind enemy lines was recognised, and she was posthumously awarded the George Cross. Her daughter Tania collected it from George VI on 17 December 1946. She was also awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1947 and La Medaille De La Resistance in 1973. “Carve Her Name With Pride” tell her life in books and film.

The IBCC has recorded and preserved 100’s of first-hand accounts of life during the War, they are available for free for everyone on the IBCC’s Digital Archive.

Like this blog? Visit the IBCC’s Blog Space to read more.