I recently came by an interesting log book a Canadian Air gunner serving with 90 Squadron RAF, who became a casualty on Sepember 12th, 1944 while on a bombing mission to Frankfurt that day. Air gunners name was Basil Edward Columbus. His pilot was F/O Kirsch. They were flying in a Lancaster with the number XY “A”. He is buried in Durnbach War Cemetary in Bavaria…he was 19 when he died. Grave registration has him listed as being a casualty on September 13th, 1944, which is a day later then what is recorded in his log book.
Anyone having any further information on his aircraft and if there were any survivors please let me know.
Any further particulars would be very much appreciated.
Regards,
Konrad
By: Arabella-Cox - 4th January 2008 at 19:00
Hi lambstew,
The link leads to the entry on the Lost Bombers site.
exmpa
That’s great – thanks for that!
Cheers,
Konrad
By: exmpa - 4th January 2008 at 18:14
Hi lambstew,
The link leads to the entry on the Lost Bombers site.
exmpa
By: Arabella-Cox - 4th January 2008 at 16:58
The difference in dates is a common occurance He was killed on a raid that took place during the night of the 12th , his aircraft may have been due back during the early hours of the 13th . Bit of a puzzle this one as the codes for 90 Sqn are WA not XY and although 90Sqn was involved in these raids on this night I cannot see your man in the lists yet . “C”flight of 90 Sqn was given the codes XY and in October 1944 became 186 Sqn . I have now found him , the aircraft was a Lancaster 1 , serial HK605 , coded WP-A , take off was at 18.29 . F/L A L Kirsch RCAF , Sgt H W Hazell , F/S V L Wilkinson , F/O R E MacLaren RCAF , F/S R J Winchester , F/S R E Columbus RCAF and F/S M N Huribut RCAF , none survived .
That’s excellent information – thank you very much for checking – much appreciated! I wonder now if his aircraft was hit by flak or shot down by fighters??
Here are two pages from the log book, including the last page saying he was missing from ops..
Thanks again!
Cheers,
Konrad
By: OHOPE - 4th January 2008 at 04:38
The difference in dates is a common occurance He was killed on a raid that took place during the night of the 12th , his aircraft may have been due back during the early hours of the 13th . Bit of a puzzle this one as the codes for 90 Sqn are WA not XY and although 90Sqn was involved in these raids on this night I cannot see your man in the lists yet . “C”flight of 90 Sqn was given the codes XY and in October 1944 became 186 Sqn . I have now found him , the aircraft was a Lancaster 1 , serial HK605 , coded WP-A , take off was at 18.29 . F/L A L Kirsch RCAF , Sgt H W Hazell , F/S V L Wilkinson , F/O R E MacLaren RCAF , F/S R J Winchester , F/S R E Columbus RCAF and F/S M N Huribut RCAF , none survived .
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January 4, 2008 at 12:40 am