70 years ago yesterday (18th April 1943) 619 Squadron was formed at RAF Woodhall Spa as a “Main Force Bomber Squadron” and the final line of the initial ORB record stated – “Weather – mainly cloudy good visibility. Fresh westerly wind around midday.”
This weekend the weather forecast is similar and the 619 Squadron Association is holding its annual reunion at the Petwood Hotel –I will be honoured to be in the company of many squadron veterans when I attend the Reunion Diner tomorrow evening.
During the build-up to this year’s gathering many items of research have come together and I have been asked to assist a group in the Netherlands. They are producing commemorative display boards for several aircraft crash sites in their region and are trying and establish contact with any of the family members of the following crew that were lost on 19/20 September 1944.
Avro Lancaster III – PB405 (PG-S)
RAF Dunholme Lodge, Lincs
Target: Mönchengladbach, Germany
Cause of crash: Night-fighter, Oblt. Fritz Lau 4./NJG1
The crew were all killed in this crash and are buried in Venray Cemetery in the Netherlands they are:
F/O Leslie William Leonard (Pilot) – RAFVR
Sgt. Donald John Carter (Flight Engineer) – RAFVR
F/S John Montague Davies (Navigator) – RAFVR
F/S John William Charles Mabbutt (Bomb Aimer) – RAFVR
F/S Joseph Kenneth Stobbs( 2nd Bomb Aimer) – RAFVR
W/O James Webster (Wireless Operator) – RAFVR
Sgt. William Johnson (Air Gunner) – RAFVR
Sgt. John Rennie Sutherland (Air Gunner) – RAFVR
If anyone has any leads to these airmen I would be grateful for details to be either posted here or sent through via PM.
By: TwinOtter23 - 28th January 2014 at 19:14
Hello robsuth,
As so often happens with appeals of this type, you seeing the appeal from last year has by a strange quirk of fate come at the ’right time’!
After a spell of nearly ten months last weekend I received further communication from the Netherlands in relation to this request – and only yesterday I sent off a good old fashioned letter to the Association Secretary to repeat the appeal.
To best explain I will quote the main content of the email that I received last weekend from a lady in the Netherlands; I know that she will not mind:
“Now I have a question for you: do you know or can you tell me how to contact the family members of the men mentioned on the graves of the attached picture (the 8 names of the 4 graves on the left) This is the crew of PB 405 of 619 squadron that crashed on 19th or 20th September 1944 in Heythuysen-Roggel The Netherlands.
We are preparing a bicycle tour next to all the crash sites of our municipality and this is one of them. In 2014 (date not yet known) a plaque will be placed close to the crash site and we will have a booklet printed and will put information on a website. I would really love to get in touch with the family of these crew members to let them know this and if possible, to find out more about those brave men. I would very much appreciate your help. Could you please let me know if you can help me with this? Thanks in advance.”
If you send me your email address via Private Message (PM); with your permission I will forward it on to the Netherlands; I will also send you a photograph of the grave and headstones.
Thank you for joining the forum (welcome by the way) and good luck with your investigations into your cousin’s service career!
By: robsuth - 28th January 2014 at 16:10
Information on Lancaster PB405 Crew
Dear TwinOtter23
While continuing researching my family history recently I finally found full name details of my first cousin who died in 1944. I knew he served with the RAF during World War 2 and was killed on a mission. I did an internet search and got a large amount of new information including a link to your posting on the Aviation Forum. My cousin was Sgt John Rennie Sutherland as listed above.
I know your post was nearly a year ago but I would be most interested to know if your Dutch group have made any progress in commemorating the crash site of PB405. I am planning a trip to Holland on a military history tour in May and will definitely be visiting my cousin’s grave at Venray Cemetery and the crash site at Heythuizen, so any details the actual location of the latter would be gratefully received.
I have been amazed at what I have been able to find out so far and any further details you have of that particular mission on 19/20 September 1944 to Munchen Gladbach would be nice to know.
I am in touch with some other family members including a nephew of John Rennie S and will be following up my discoveries to see how much they already know about this.
Thanking you in anticipation.
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April 19, 2013 at 5:50 pm