Halifax II JB908 KN-W Pilsen raid

[pwilson]

Hi

Does anyone know about the cause of loss of this aircraft and the time of the crash?

I have Chorley's books.

Halifax II JB908 KN-W 16/17.4.43 77 sqn Elvington Sgt Wall Abandoned nr Ehningen, west of Boblingen

Peter

[RossGmann]

The following site will give you a little information

http://lostbombers.co.uk/bomber.php?id=106

Kind regards
Ross

[pwilson]

Thanks for trying. However I do not recommend the site you recommend for the following reasons.

1. It is practically word for word the same as Bill Chorley's Bomber command losses. (for some reason!)

2. He does not state who he is (actually he is J.W.Sharp) or name his sources.

3. When I wrote to this person, asking who he was and what his sources were. He did not reply. The same was true of Mr Chorley's attempts to contact him.

4. The only source he quotes is Middlebrook and everyone knows Middlebrook does not include information about individual losses in B.C. War diaries.

5. The errors in Bill's books are exactly the same in lost Bombers web site.

Try it yourself. Ask this chap where he got his information and Let me know what his answer is. I would be interested to know if it took him several decades to produce his web site. I doubt it!


Draw your own conclusions!
Peter

[RossGmann]

You would probably be aware of the following information, but if not here it is

John Sharp, Mayfair House, Callerton Lane, Ponteland, Tyne & Wear, NE20 9EG

His alleged biography
I would like to take a moment to explain how I ended up creating this site. The easiest way is if I give you a small potted history of my life to date.
At this time I am 76 years old (2006) and spent 40 years of my teenage and adult life in Aviation. I joined the Royal Air Force at the tender age of 16 and then served 12 years Regular Service. Throughout this time I was stationed in the Air Traffic Control Branch moving from Runway Controller to Precision Radar Director. Whilst in the service I took, and passed, the Civil Requirement for Air Traffic Control, although at the time this was called a Certificate of Competence.
On the 24th May 1958 I left the R.A.F. A few days later I joined the United States Air Force on the 1st June 1958 as a ‘native son’ Air Traffic Controller with the A.A.C.S. (Aerodrome and Approach Control Service) serving the 81st Tactical Fighter Wing at RAF Woodbridge, a period I thoroughly enjoyed.
I stayed with the U.S.A.F. for some 18 months and then joined the Air Traffic Control (A.T.C.) staff at the Vickers test Airfield at Wisley for a brief period before coming to my wife’s home in Northumberland. I then took up employment at Woolsington, Newcastle City Airport in September 1961 where I remained until a medical enforced early retirement in 1985. As you can tell my passion is for aviation.
I had by this time acquired a History Degree (BA) with the Open University and decided to put it to use. With my background as described above I decided to do something about the RAF. The MIddlebrook/Everitt superb work 'The Bomber Command War Diaries' had just been published so I read that. Brilliant work. Having learned how to use a Word Processor during my student studies, I branched out and constructed a Data Base using Loco script into which I copied the 'Diaries'. It was a clumsy layout but it kept me happily occupied and it worked. I was so pleased.............and hooked.
But now was the time when my illness caught up with me and I was incarcerated in Hospital with cancer of the colon and a prognosis of just a 30% possibility of survival.
I had taken the Diaries to Hospital with me. One could just open it and read of a raid then doze off and think about it. The percentage of survival I had been gently given caused me to look more closely at the loss reports, always accompanied by the percentage of losses from the Main Force.
Such facts as ‘the Berlin raid 29/30 De c43 where 11 Lancasters and 8 Halifax were lost - 2.8% of Main Force. 20 aircraft, 7 crewmen per aircraft. 140 young men lost.’ Seemed to take on a different perspective.
I gradually came to the decision that if I survived I would make it my task to identify those young men. I know that there are journals and books galore that also publish the names, but I wanted to construct a Database so that anybody could just type in a name and it would come up almost immediately with the information about that young man.
This is what you are looking at now. I spent eleven years doing it. It will also find a raid by date, include Sqdn details and a lot of other information.
Needless to say I survived and I sincerely hope that this offering will assist anybody who wants to seek the information they require.
Kind regards
Ross

[pwilson]

Hi again. Yes I have read the front page. My comments in red.

'I had by this time acquired a History Degree (BA) with the Open University and decided to put it to use.'
Funny how soeone with a degree in history doesn't know how to reference his sources!

'I had taken the Diaries to Hospital with me. One could just open it and read of a raid then doze off and think about it. The percentage of survival I had been gently given caused me to look more closely at the loss reports...' Which loss reports? Bill Chorley, UK National Archives, Air Historical Branch?

'I know that there are journals and books galore that also publish the names,' mmmm.

'This is what you are looking at now. I spent eleven years doing it. It will also find a raid by date, include Sqdn details and a lot of other information.'

Wonder how this was done in 11 years? 55,000 crew and thousands of aircraft! Good going when it's taken me 6 years to do 2,300 crew, by travelling all around europe, interviewing veterans, hundreds of hours in Archives etc.

Thanks for you input Ross,
Peter