Missing 49 Squadron Lancaster unearthed in Germany

The remains of a 49 Squadron crew have been found together with the wreckage of their Lancaster at Laumersheim, near Frankfurt.

A team led by amateur archeologist Uwe Benkel discovered the remains of a Rolls-Royce engine and landing gear of the bomber, along with other fragments.

Benkel said: ‘It doesn’t make a difference if they are German or British – they were young men who fought and died for their country for which they deserve a proper burial.’

F/O Alex Bone

The seven-strong crew comprised the pilot, flying officer Alex Bone (31), engineer sergeant Norman Foster (22), navigator sergeant Cyril Yelland (23), wireless operator sergeant Raymond White, bomb aimer sergeant Raymond Rooney (19) mid-upper gunner sergeant Ronald Cope (23) and rear gunner pilot officer Bruce Watt (22).

Lancaster ED427 (EA-O) was one of 327 bombers that took part in a raid on the Skoda armaments works at Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, in March 1943.

Returning to base at RAF Fiskerton, Lincolnshire, the aircraft was hit by flak. Witness Peter Menges (now 83) saw the Lancaster coming down in flames. It was one of 36 bombers which failed to make it back that night.

Following the crash, the German air force recovered two bodies from the site, believed to have been those of sergeants Cope and Watt, and arranged their burial.

Sgt Cope

Sgt Foster’s daughter Hazel Snedker was three when he was killed at the age of 22. Mrs Snedker, now 72, from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, said: ‘I can remember my mother fainting when she received the telegram saying he was missing. In those days very little was spoken about it and you just carried on.

‘My mother died from tuberculosis when I was six years old and I was bought up by my paternal grandparents. I know that they quietly hoped that there would be some news of their son.

‘After all these years, it is a great relief to know what happened to him. At least he will now have a grave with a headstone.’

The remains of the airmen will be buried in the same coffin at a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Germany.

Mr Benkel said: ‘They flew together and died together. It’s right that they should now rest together.’

BBC show pays tribute to Bomber Command

A humbling show on the BBC tonight paying tribute to the airmen of Bomber Command.

The youngest of the RAF veterans is today 88 years old. Some of them are still in remarkably good nick.

The Portland stone memorial contains the bronze figures of seven airmen who are depicted having just returned from a mission. Their eyes search the sky for other aircraft, aware that some of their comrades will not be coming back.

Veteran shares thoughts on Bomber Command Memorial

A former 49 Squadron wireless operator has told the BBC about his feelings regarding the new Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park.

Ted Cachart, 87, from Heage, was the wireless operator in a Lancaster and was shot down over Germany in 1944.

Mr Cachart joined up in 1941, at the age of 15, after lying about his age.

He wrote a book about his wartime experiences, Ted the Lad, to raise funds for the Bomber Command Memorial.

He said: ‘It is amazing. It is something we have waited so long for and now to see it almost complete is absolutely brilliant.

‘Sixty-seven years is a long time to wait for a memorial but it is going to be worth it, now I've seen it.

‘It will be a true justification to all those who lost their lives, the 55,573 who were killed, absolutely in their honour.’

He added: ‘I do feel bitter it has taken so long. I think all of us in Bomber Command feel as if we have been overlooked and forgotten.

‘But now we are going to be remembered, and remembered for many years to come.’

World War II fighter plane found in Egyptian desert

Flt Sgt Copping’s aircraft sits where in came down in 1942

The well-preserved remains of an RAF Kittyhawk fighter have been discovered in the Egyptian desert, reports The Daily Telegraph. 

The aircraft was found more than two months ago by Jakub Perka, a Polish oil worker, at a remote place called Wadi al-Jadid.

There was no trace of the 24-year-old pilot, Flt Sgt Dennis Copping, who was the son of a dentist from Southend in Essex.

Flt Sgt Copping, of 260 Squadron, went missing on 28 June 1942 and appears to have executed a near-perfect emergency landing, perhaps after becoming lost and running out of fuel, and to have survived the crash.

He rigged a parachute as an awning and removed the aircraft's radio and batteries, but then apparently walked off into the desert in search of help.

The Kittyhawk with well-preserved camouflage scheme

  

David Keen, an aviation historian at the RAF Museum, says the pilot broke the first rule of survival in the desert, which is to stay with your plane or vehicle.

Mr Keen says of the many thousands of aircraft which were shot down or crashed during the Second World War, very few survive in anything like this condition.

He said: "Nearly all the crashes in the Second World War, and there were tens of thousands of them, resulted on impact with the aircraft breaking up, so the only bits that are recovered are fragments, often scattered over a wide area.

"What makes this particular aircraft so special is that it looks complete, and it survived on the surface of the desert all these years. It's like a timewarp."

The RAF Museum has a P40 Kittyhawk on display, but it has been put together from parts of many different aircraft.

Recovering Flt Sgt Copping's plane will not be easy. It is in a part of the desert which is not only remote but also dangerous, because it is close to a smuggling route between Libya and Egypt.

The British authorities are trying to find out whether Flt Sgt Copping, who is commemorated on the Alamein memorial, has any surviving close relatives, because if his remains are found a decision will need to be made about what to do with them.

Lord Ashcroft gives £1 million to Bomber Command memorial

Members of a World War II bomber crew 

Lord Ashcroft, the former Conservative Party Treasurer, has formally donated the final £1 million needed to build a long-overdue memorial to the 55,000 men who lost their lives serving with Bomber Command, reports The Daily Telegraph Newspaper.

The memorial in London's Green Park is due to be unveiled on 28 June.

The Telegraph quoted Lord Ashcroft, who owns three of the 19 Victoria Crosses awarded to Bomber Command during the Second World War, as saying he was ‘very proud to be part of’ the memorial campaign.

He told the newspaper: ‘Over the years there has been controversy about Bomber Command [because of the policy of area bombing] but you can respect bravery and men who obey their call of duty irrespective of what they do and which side they are fighting on.’

Lord Ashcroft had already donated £57,000 and had agreed that when the campaign came within £1m of its target, he would provide the remaining funds.

Although the £6.5m needed for the memorial, designed by Liam O'Connor and featuring a sculpture by Philip Jackson, has been raised, the Bomber Command Association is still raising the £1.5m fund needed for its upkeep, as well as £500,000 to pay for security, policing and seating for the opening ceremony.

Donations can be made at www.bombercommand.com

Pilot Officer Theophilus Dos Santos

J/26605 Pilot Officer Theophilus Dos Santos
Air gunner
426 Squadron, RCAF
Killed in action 18 August 1943

Pilot officr Dos Santos was from Trinidad, but had enlisted in the RCAF in Canada.

He was a member of 426 (Thunderbird) Squadron and on the night of 17/18 August 1943 was part of the crew of Wing Commander Leslie Crooks DFC, DSO, the squadron commander.

The squadron was assigned to take part in the attack on the German research centre at Peenemunde and nine of its Lancasters took off on time and headed east.

Crooks' aircraft, DS-681 coded OW-V, was attacked by a night fighter. According to Martin Middlebrook in his book The Peenemunde Raid, at least one RAF airman saw Crooks' Lancaster going down.

‘Report No19 Greifswald, 2 miles S of, 00.50. Aircraft seen falling on fire but managed to get down and make a forced landing, finally bursting into flames on the deck after what appeared to be the third bounce.'

Crooks and most of his crew were on the 6th or 8th operation of their second tour, hence presumably why Dos Santos had been promoted to Pilot Officer.

The air bomber, Sgt Reading, bailed out and survived, but the remainder of the crew were killed. Reading and flight engineer Sgt John Hislop were replacements and both on their first mission.

Pilot: W/Cdr Leslie Crooks, 33, Peterborough, Northants
Flight engineer: Sgt John Hislop, 21, of Glasgow
Air bomber: Sgt Reading
Navigator: F/Sgt Alfred Howes, 21, Shepherds Bush, London
Wireless operator: F/Lt Francis Marsh DFC, Toronto
Air gunner: P/O Theophilus Dos Santos, 21, Trinidad
Air gunner: P/O Henry Smith, 24, Toronto

The crew is buried at the Berlin 1939-45 War Cemetery.

On 28 May 1943 Squadron Leader Crooks award of the DSO was published in the London Gazette.

It reads as follows:

'As a Squadron Leader took part in No.426 Squadron's third operation, 21 January 1943; date of award incident was 26 April 1943; Commanding Officer of unit, 15 February to 17 August 1943 (missing, Peenemunde raid).

'This officer's courage and skill were admirably demonstrated during a recent attack on Duisburg. When approaching the target his aircraft was raked by cannon fire from an enemy fighter. Wing Commander Crooks skilfully evaded the attacker but his aircraft had sustained much damage.

'Although one aileron and half the port tail plane had been shot away, while the hydraulic and electrical systems were rendered inoperative, Wing Commander Crooks flew the bomber back to this country.

'Unfortunately, it was impossible to effect a safe landing, but when the crew were forced to abandon aircraft, all descended safely. In the face of heavy odds, Wing Commander Crooks set an example worthy of high praise.'

Crooks was born in Bishop Aukland and had lived in York. He enlisted in the RAF as an apprentice in 1927 and served as a Sergeant pilot in Iraq from 1935-1937. He was commissioned 1940 and awarded the DFC in February 1941 for services with No.58 Squadron.

A visit to St Clement Danes church, Strand, London

A visit today to St Clement Danes Church on the Strand - the RAF church. In the crypt at the moment there is a small display looking at Bomber Command, with the likes of a flak map of Berlin on show.

The church itself was thick with incense, this being Easter weekend. Its floor is filled with squadron crests in Welsh Slate, there is a fine memorial to the Polish airforce of World War 2 and the books of remembrance listing all the RAF's casualties.

On a table near the entrance were some cards and Haig Fund crosses left by friends and relatives in memory of loved ones killed while serving in the RAF.

They made moving reading. One read, 'John Stephen Treseder... You are always in my heart... In loving memory, Son, Rod.'

F/O Treseder (29) was killed in July 1943 while flying a 613 Squadron Mustang fighter in an attack on a German convoy off the coast of Holland.

Another card read, in neat, slanting writing, 'Jimmy and crew, Berlin, 21.1.44. All my Love from Laura.'

That night the RAF lost 35 aircraft - 22 Halifaxes and 13 Lancasters. No 102 Squadron, from Pocklington, lost five of its 16 Halifaxes.

A third, written in a slightly shaky hand, said: 'John William Cummings. Died 29/9/1943. I remember seeing you with your brolly, my [f... illegible] in about 1943/3. I am looking forward to seeing you again. Love, Heather.'

A litle research has revealed that on 29/30 September 1943 the RAF raided Bochum and lost five Halifaxes and four Lancasters.

1334212 Sergeant Jack Cummings was 22 and serving as a mid-upper gunner on board a Lancaster Mk III (AS-Y ED904) of 166 Squadron. He was from Croydon in Surrey.

The other members of the crew were as follows.

Pilot: 1321868 W/O Brian Davidson, 21, of Beckenham, Kent.
Air bomber: 1395190 Sergeant Lionel Comer, 20, of King's Lynn, Norfolk.
Flight engineer: 1001372 Sergeant Leslie English, 31, of Pelton, Co Durham.
Navigator: 656183 Sergeant Henry Jones, 25, of Vroncysylite, Denbighshire.
Wireless operator: 1212477 Sergeant Laurence Gee, 22, of Birmingham.
Rear gunner: J18832 P/O Cyril Vincent Galavan (RCAF), of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.

The squadron had converted from Wellingtons to Lancasters in September 1943 and was based at Kirmington, Lincolnshire.

Lancaster ED 904 was delivered to No103 Squadron on 19 May 1943 and transfered to 166 Squadron on 19 September 1943.

When lost this aircraft had a total of 195 hours, having taken part in three raids on Hamburg, as well as having flown to Berlin, Cologne and Hanover.

It was the first Lancaster to take off on 166 squadron's first Lancaster sortie.

On the night of 29 September 1943 AS-Y was airbourne at 18:22 hrs from Kirmington.

It crashed near Dortmund, perhaps a victim of flak over or near the target, and the crew were buried at the city's Hauptfried (Am Gottesacker) on 4 October.

They have subsequently been re-interred in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.