Five unknown airmen, 26.11.1943.

[Col Bruggy]

Originally Posted by Alex Smart

Hello,
The other Runnymede Names that are under 26/11/43 that I could match were -

STIRLING, R.J.T - F/O - 130875 - RAFVR - 21 SQN - Mosquito HX906.
HARRIS, G.H.R - F/O - 136362 - RAFVR - 100 SQN.
CHEETHAM, W.C - F/Sgt - 658945 - RAF - 180 SQN.
ROOTS, D - Sgt - 1333024 - RAFVR - 180 SQN
WHELAN, T.N - Sgt - 1330368 - RAFVR - 180 SQN.
180 Sqn a/c was Mitchell II - FL205.

Re: HARRIS, G.H.R. - F/O 136362 - RAFVR - 100 SQN:

26/27 Nov 1943
550 Sqn
Lancaster III LM379:BQ-S
Op: Berlin

T/o 1721 Grimsby. Set on fire and abandoned in the vicinity of Potsdam.F/L Frangley, who was last seen at the controls, was buried at Potsdam and it was not far from this city that Sgt Ward was recovered from the River Hamel. Of those who died, three* [sic] lie in Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery while F/O Harris has no known grave.

F/L P J M Prangley +
Sgt A K Ward +
F/O G H R F Harris +
P/O J W Lowe - PoW
F/S F W Smith - PoW
Sgt R Redfern +
Sgt F C Diggle +

* Should read four. (see: http://www.rafinfo.org.uk/bcww2losses/1943.htm. 1943/406 550/LM379.

Note. These were the first casualties suffered by 550 Squadron, which formed the previous day at Grimsby from C Flight of 100 Squadron. The CWGC registers shows the deceased as belonging to 100 Squadron.

See: BCL4/406.

[Alex Smart]

Hello Col,

Thanks for details on Harris, don't know how I missed that .

Have not as far as I know answered the original question about the unknown airmen but have details of all 35 of those on Runnymede Memorial for the date given.

AUSTRALIA
CONROY, D.J - F/Sgt - 418632 RAAF.- 26 OTU - Wellington X - HE855.
MARTIN, V.A - P/O - 417096 - RAAF - 61 Sqn - Lancaster I - DV339 "QR-W".
McALPINE, J.G - P/O - 408917 - RAAF - 61 Sqn - Lancaster I - DV339 "QR - W".
HARRIS, H.W - P/O - 414024 - RAAF - 61 Sqn - Lancaster I - DV339 "QR-W".

NEW ZEALAND
MURPHY, M.J - W/O - 37213 - RNZAF - 83 Sqn - Lancaster III - JA686 - "OL-K".

CANADA
BROWN, C.M - F/Lt - J/20377 - RCAF - 97 Sqn - Lancaster III - JB221 - "OF-W".
DAVIS, K. G - W/O - R/117353 - RCAF - DFM - 83 Sqn - Lancaster III - JA913 - "OL-G".
MILLAR, K.R.G - P/O - J/18310 - RCAF - 83 Sqn - Lancaster III - JA913 - "OL - G".
VAREY, B.H - F/Sgt - R/182204 - RCAF - 61 Sqn - Lancaster I - DV339 - "QR-O".
STEPHENS, J.A - F/O - J/20202 - RCAF - 61 Sqn - DV297 - "QR-O".

Alex

[RSwank]

The other men missing from DV339 are:

Sgt Eric Vine: https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/c...40/vine,-eric/

PO Sydney Heald: https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/c...heald,-sydney/

Sgt Harold Sewell Oldfield: https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/c...harold-sewell/

[Col Bruggy]

Alex

The German authorities actually had the names and numbers of the seven members of No.61 Sqn Lancaster I DV339 (suggesting burials). The International Red Cross Committee in Switzerland was notified in Totenliste 202, they quoted the K Report as "KE 7157". Could you check that out on Fold 3?

See: https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/Sear...aspx?B=1073798 see: p.12 of 67.

Col.

[Joe Potter]

Hold on Lads,
I just had an email from the CWGC, their records show that the Five came from a Lancaster down at Sustrum, very close to Niederlangen, 26.11.1943,
So these five could be part of PO Mc Alpine's crew, but how to prove it? How many other Lancaster's were listed as missing that night.

[alieneyes1]

Attachment 17257


This may help...or hinder.

[RSwank]

Sustrum, Niederlangen and Oberlangen are adjacent to each other. Sustrum is the northernmost, it adjoins Niederlangen to the south and below Niederlangen is Oberlangen All within 2 to 3 miles.

Fold3 has 3 (different??) Lancasters listed that seem to have crashed in this area. The second one has "DtD 308 C" in the "markings" column. (May have been a typo of some sort with the lower case "t". (If the plane blew up at altitude and some large pieces were scattered about, perhaps the Germans thought they had multiple crashes.)

So starting with the one mentioned previous, we have:

26 Nov 43 /(no time)/Lancaster / / Niederlangen West of Meppen / 116600

26 Nov 43 /22:30 / Lancaster/ DtD 308 C / Sustrum near Erdhuette, Inn / 116648/116649


26 Nov 43 /22:30 / Lancaster / / near highway Niederlangen-Sustrum / 116580-116581


Note the last column is normally the "KU", "KE", "A.V." (etc,) numbers, but the lists will include the prefix letters.

These 3 Lancasters just show numbers, so are they some other type of report or a location?

[Alex Smart]

Hello,

Had to brake off during my earlier post, so to continue here follows the UK losses.

UK

CALMAN, D. H - F/O - 130287 - RAFVR - 61 Sqn - Lancaster I -DV297 - "QR-O".
COGDELL, C.J.B - P/O - 159885 - RAFVR - 61 Sqn - Lancaster I - DV297 - "QR-O".
SMITH, E - Sgt - 1139609 - RAFVR - 61 Sqn - Lancaster I - DV297 - "QR-O".
STRANGE, A.P.E - P/O - 155793 - RAFVR - 61 Sqn - Lancaster I - DV297 - "QR-O".
Also in this crew was-
JOHNSON, EDWARD .F - Sgt - 10601041 USAAF.

HEALD, S - P/O - 160862 - RAF - 61 Sqn Lancaster I - DV339 - "QR-W".
OLDFIELD, H.S - Sgt - 1322967 - RAFVR - Lancaster I - DV339 - "QR-W".
VINE, E - Sgt - 1624673 - RAFVR - Lancaster I - DV339 - "QR-W".

ALDERSON-HILLER, J - F/O - 123518 - RAFVR - Lancaster III - 83 Sqn - JA686 - "OL-K".

BIRKS, F. R - Sgt - 1430538 - RAFVR - Lancaster III - 83 Sqn - JA913 - "OL - G".
PENNELLS, R. H - F/Sgt - 1391441 RAFVR - DFM - Lancaster III - 83 Sqn - JA913 - "OL-G".
KING, M.N - F/Sgt - 1335800 - RAFVR - Lancaster III - 83 Sqn - JA913 - "OL-G".
HARSLEY, J.H.S - F/Sgt - 1380381 - RAFVR - Lancaster III - 83 Sqn - JA913 - "OL-G".
STACEY, S.T - W/O -1169401 - RAFVR - Lancaster III - JA913 - "OL-G".

TUTT, B. F - Sgt - 1384140 - RAFVR - Lancaster III - 97 Sqn - JB221 - "OF-W".
WATSON, T - P/O - 161042 - RAFVR - Lancaster III - 97 Sqn - JB221 - "OF-W".

GREEN, W.A - Sgt - 1591531 - RAFVR - Lancaster I - 166 Sqn - DV387 - "AS-W".
HOWELL, D. J - Sgt - 1386465 - RAFVR - Lancaster I - 166 Sqn - DV387 - "AS-W".

MATTHEWS, L. H - P/O - 53821 - RAF - 408 Sqn - 408 Sqn Lancaster II - DS723 - "EQ-B".

KEMPSELL, J. C - P/O - 162955 - RAF - Lancaster III - 619 Sqn - EE111 - "PG-S".

BOLT, N - Sgt - 1836087 - RAFVR - Lancaster III - 625 Sqn - ED809 - "CF-T".

Total 35.

[Theo Boiten]

Dear all,

Most interesting thread -could this fit to the following NJ claim that I wasn't able to match to a known bomber loss during the writing of the 1943 NCA series?:

Fw. Rudolf Frank 2./NJG3 Lancaster W. Quakenbrück (Leghorn/3 C): 5.500 m. 22.22 unidentified. Note: claim (achieved in Ju88 C-6 D5+AK, t/o Wittmundhafen 21.33 hrs, landing Wittmundhafen 23.58 hrs) not listed in OKL/RLM 2./NJG3 Confirmed Abschussübersicht

Cheers, Theo

[Alex Smart]

May be nothing, but regards to 166 Sqn Lancaster III - DV247 - "AS-F".
Two of her crew are in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery. The other five became POW's.
What if anything is known of the fate of those five, did they survive the war ?