Guy Gibson RIP 70 years ago this very night – 19 Sept.

Camlobe.
Gibson and his bomber leader Hayes? had come to Manston to watch an ‘upkeep’ test at Reculver. As they took off to return home the engine cut out and they landed in a field. I believe it was a Magister luckily, not a Lanc….!
mmitch.

I thought this was well known, I’m sure I read it in James Hollands book .

My Grandfather was on the raid and has said before that he saw an aircraft going down on fire which he believed was the master bomber, there is nothing noted in his logbook about it but he said he filed a report when they got back to Waddington. At the time he obviously wouldn’t of known who was flying the aircraft. Here’s the page from his logbook.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]231879[/ATTACH]

This might be of interest from the local heritage trust newsletter.

http://www.birchingtonheritage.org.uk/articles/guygibson.htm

Mmitch,
When I find my copy of GG’s logbook, I’ll have a look at the entry. Always wondered what “it” might have been. You may have given me the answer.
Thanks,
Camlobe

Camlobe.
Gibson and his bomber leader Hayes? had come to Manston to watch an ‘upkeep’ test at Reculver. As they took off to return home the engine cut out and they landed in a field. I believe it was a Magister luckily, not a Lanc….!
mmitch.

At Newark Air Museum there is a plaque in their memory, the following text was in the original Notts Aviation booklet:

“In the Lancaster Corner display area of Hangar 1 at the museum is a commemorative plaque in memory of Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC and Squadron Leader Jim Warwick DFC. They were killed on 19th September 1944 when their Mosquito aircraft crashed near Steenbergen, The Netherlands. Gibson was the pilot of the aircraft and Warwick was his navigator, at the time of the crash Warwick had been an instructor with 1661 HCU at RAF Winthorpe. The plaque was loaned to the museum by Jan and Connie van-den Driesschen.”

An abridged version is included in the 2014 Aviation Memorials In Nottinghamshire, if you follow this weblink you can still request free copies! 🙂

Whatever the reason R I P Guy Gibson and Jim Warwick and i hope the crew of the Lancaster managed to come to terms with things and the not knowing.

I was aware that the theory behind his death was that he took with him a navigator who had no Mosquito experience. It was common for the nav to operate the fuel system as the cocks were in a difficult place for the pilot to reach. In the event between them they cut off the fuel, I know it was easily done, I managed to cause an immediate cut to both engines by mishandling the fuel system. While checking on the invaluable Google I however found the attached.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/guy_gibson_death.htm
Sounds plausible

Apparently not a well known issue, prior to his time at 617, Gibson had been a successful Beufighter night fighter pilot logging a number of ‘kills’. He almost didn’t make it to 617 in far more innocent circumstances. In his log book there is an entry referring to a flight in (IIRC) a simple comms aircraft. In the remarks column, there is simply ” NEARLY BOUGHT IT”. For the uninitiated, this does not refer to a desire to purchase, but a short version of the old aviators adage of “nearly bought the farm” or, piled into the ground. There are no other comments, so the circumstances will probably never be known.

Camlobe

Thanks for the correction there, Tigercat. He was indeed 26 when he died.

Although courageous and victorious, Gibson and Cheshire had very different characters and we can never know but although he was a childhood hero I don’t think Gibson shared Cheshire’s humanity. Which does not detract from his short but distinguished career but is merely an observation following your comment about Cheshire.

Gibson was 24 years old when he did the Dams Raid, he had turned 26 by the time of his death. (Date of birth 12 August 1918 according to Wikipedia).

There is a story I was told, by an ex-8 squadron Stirling pilot that there was a celebration for Gibson in the mess and a large cake was made to mark the occasion. When Gibson entered, his head was unceremoniously pushed into the cake. Apparently he wasn’t well liked on the squadron.

Leaders are often not well liked. Bader, Gibson and probably many more people could mention. But that doesn’t detract from the fact they were great leaders.
It’s a shame Gibson was killed (he shouldn’t have gone back on ops) but don’t forget his crewman who died with him.

A true leader and warrior, if ever there was one. With all the hype and press coverage about his exploits, it’s remarkable to hear that he was only 24 when he died.

There is a story I was told, by an ex-8 squadron Stirling pilot that there was a celebration for Gibson in the mess and a large cake was made to mark the occasion. When Gibson entered, his head was unceremoniously pushed into the cake. Apparently he wasn’t well liked on the squadron.

Gibson may well have gone on to bigger and better things had he survived the war. Look at Leonard Cheshire, who turned his enormous talents to helping a great many people after the war with his Leonard Cheshire homes’ organisation.

I gather that they didn’t find much of poor old Gibson after his crash. Does anyone know, were there more of his remains found when his Mosquito dug up some year’s ago?

Anon.