Hi All
In the night of 7/8 July 1944, Avro Lancaster LM338 of Squadron 467, crashed near the town of Courgent, France.
There were no survivors.
The town would like to have a picture of all the crew members, for a permanent display inside the city hall.
The person who contacted me told me he had written to the RAF (but he didn’t tell me which service), and also to the authorities of the hometowns of the crew members, but so far, he received no answer.
I also did a quick Google search to see if I could find a website for the 467th, but obviously, they had done the same before :
http://www.467463raafsquadrons.com/memorials/ryanpwgrave.htm
Here is the list of those seven airmen:
-P/O RYAN Philip Wyatt, 418012, RAAF, Beechworth, Victoria, Australia
-Sgt HAYS George Arthur, 1591247, RAF, Forest Hall, Northumberland, U.K.
-W/O JONES Clifford Cecil, 415032, RAAF, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
-F/S COCKROFT Verne Edward, 425605, RAAF, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
-F/S PORRITT Leonard Haig, 419481, RAAF, Beechworth, Victoria, Australia
-F/S KILLWORTH William Deldon Douglas, 408443, RAAF, Scottsdale, Tasmania, Australia
-F/S STEFFAN James Pat, 429643, RAAF, 20 ans, Mount Lawley, Western Australia
Could any of you give them some help?
TIA,
Laurent
By: Snapper - 11th August 2006 at 17:43
Laurent, my local butcher was a rear-gunner on this a/c in 1943, making 8 flights in it. Maybe of interest, maybe not. PM me if you want to know more – he left the Squadron 24/12/43 (tour expired)
By: Skipper - 16th January 2006 at 08:56
Hi Laurent,
I agree with Andy P and JDK, as I’ve used the AWM site with much success just recently. The Australians seem to be far more accomodating compared to the British with respect to allowing access to veterans’ service records and the like.
Although I am unsure whether this source could provide you with a crew photograph I think it should be able to provide you with photographs of each of the individuals. Be aware that I only base this assumption on the fact that I recently received a copy of the service record for my recently deceased great-uncle (a Lancaster pilot with 15 sqn) and it came with a small number of perosnal portraits that our family had never seen before.
The only flaw I see with this approach is that if you have to obtain the service records for 6 persons, which will cost you circa 30 Australian dollars EACH!! You also won’t get the photo for the RAF person using this approach. However, it might be a fall back option if you are otherwise unsuccessful.
Good luck with the search!
Regards
Graham
By: JDK - 16th January 2006 at 02:48
For Australian Servicement and Women, best starting place is indeed the Australian War Memorial. For individual records, have a look at http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/ Again, the Commonwealth War Graves is another good resource if the subject died in action. http://www.cwgc.org
LaurentB, given this reminder, had any luck?
By: stormo - 16th January 2006 at 00:51
looks interesting
I’ve been doing some family research on the lancaster squadrons and it’s good to see some interest generated. My grandfather is the older brother of Verne Cockroft that flew in LM338 and I to am hoping to find some crew pics as my Granddad seems to have lost most in floods in the 70’s.
By: Andy P - 19th December 2004 at 10:39
Laurent,
Have you looked at www.awm.gov.au this is the Australian War Memorial site and there is a search facility with a roll of honour database.
Regards,
Andy
By: LaurentB - 19th December 2004 at 07:34
Thanks for your help, Oscar. Very much appreciated!
Laurent
By: oscar duck - 19th December 2004 at 07:24
I’ve asked my friends from my old home town in Toowoomba to help. One of the crew came from there…
By: LaurentB - 17th December 2004 at 19:41
Thanks for your help.
Laurent
By: EN830 - 16th December 2004 at 18:17
Try contacting the RAAF, or alternatively contact the newspapers in the various hometowns, tell them your story. This has worked for me in the past !!!
A simple search on the net will find the relevant journals.
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December 16, 2004 at 5:44 pm