Combat Report 578 Squadron Halifax LK797, written off following NF attacks Nürnberg Raid 30-31.3.44 (F/O Barton VC)

[Theo Boiten]

Dear all,

Can anybody tell me if there is a Combat Report available for 578 Squadron Halifax LK797, written off following NF attacks Nürnberg Raid 30-31.3.44 (F/O Barton Victoria Cross). I would especially be interested in an exact location and time for the combats with the German night fighters. The London Gazette states a location some 70 miles short of the target, which would be somewhere in the triangle Aschaffenburg-Würzburg-Schweinfurt.

And what was the ToT for 578 Squadron on 30-31 March 1944?

Cheers and thanks for any info, Theo

[andy bird]

Hi Theo,
Don't know if you've seen this ?
Best wishes, Andy B.

http://www.aircrewremembered.com/barton-cyril.html

[Theo Boiten]

Hi Andy,

Yes I've seen this one, but it does not mention a time of the successive combats. Reason for asking is that I have several unconfirmed Nachtjagd claims on 30/31.3.44 and hope to tie LK797 to one of them ..

Cheers, Theo

[andy bird]

Hi Theo,
Having worked for The Guardian Newspaper previously I check there archive using the surnames of the crew: This is what I've come across uncensured version filed June 1944 by Aeronautical Correspondent.
Cheers Andy B.

F/Sgt Maurice Trousdale of 120 Chillingham Road, Heaton, a RAF Halifax Engineer and former member of the Newcastle College of Commerce, ATC Squadron recalled the raid on Nurnberg in which his pilot won the Victoria Cross.

The navigator had just taken a fix and radioed through to our pilot that we were 70 miles from our intended target Nuremberg and over Schweinfurt.

Within minutes our aircraft was then attacked by a Junkers 88 its bullets and cannon shredded the intercom system so that we couldn’t communicate, in the process an outer engine was damaged.

Then a Me 210 slipped in and their cannon shells punctured their way into the Halifax finishing of the engine, and power to our aircrafts turrets was extinguished, so we couldn’t fightback.

Seeing that we were a lame duck, our Halifax was harassed continually by enemy aircraft which fastened onto it, for the next five to ten miles if I remember rightly. During the height of the air battle an arranged signal for evasive action was misinterpreted, and our navigator, bomb-aimer, and wireless operator bailed out.

Our brave pilot Cyril 'Smiler' Barton died in the crash, and I was near to death. Fortunately the colliery doctor stopped the bleeding by holding a severed artery in my arm, and a hospital sister then gave me a transfusion of two pints of blood which saved my life.

My Newcastle pal Sergeant Len Lambert of Beatty Avenue was one of the stupid clots who bailed out by parachute and is now sitting in a POW camp in Germany and has now been promoted to a pilot officer!

Their’s me having survived the crash into the colliery cottages at Ryhope on April 1 now back on operational flying.

F/Sgt Maurice Edward Trousdale was awarded the DFM in August 1944. “For devotion of duty against odds.”

[Theo Boiten]

Hi Andy,

Thanks a lot for this most useful input -I think I've found the claimant for Barton's Halifax now.

Cheers, Theo