Headstone

Yes I have used post image, and it’s fine for the odd image upload. I have now gone over to Flickr for albums.
I don’t particularly like it, but it seems to work reasonably well.

Just a heads up I noticed your having the same Photobucket issues a lot of others are having if you want to remedy this give postimage.org a try it’s really simple to use you cant go wrong when your given the image options choose the 1st one up from the bottom of the given list and that will display what your posting straight away.

Thanks for the extra info. I read somewhere else that he was in the RAF in 1917, I assume they meant the RFC.
The names of his wife and parents are listed, but little else.
Apparently that cemetery had 2000 burials, but only a handful of headstones remain. Although I expect many didn’t have headstones.

I found the following which may suggests that he may have been killed during a raid on either Biggin Hill or Kenley :-

http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?1076-400818-Unaccounted-airmen-18-8-1940

and this one which shows he has a grave near Maidstone, Kent :-

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GScid=2196889&GRid=16672552&

According to IWM Lives of the First World War site he was born on 16 June 1900 so he may well have served at the end of WW1 as well.
Strange thing is that his is the only internment currently listed at Barming Mental Hospital Cemetery but the cemetery was abandoned for a long time so it is possible that all the records were lost.

A slightly different challenge this time. A headstone seen on a video.
“Leading Aircraftman T H Lovett”, so unlikely to be a flying incident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcdsKYjjIh8&t=2s…. @ 13:03mins.

He actually died at the hospital and was buried in the hospital cemetery.

https://www.cwgc.org/find/find-war-dead/results?initial=T%2BH&lastName=Lovett&country=United%2BKingdom&war=2&servedIn=Air%2Bforce

I wonder if during the war, the hospital took military casualties ?

Thanks for the info .

Yes, it looks like 7 Squadron were on Stirlings at the time.

http://7squadronassociation.com/squadron_history

Also: a good possibility this was from a raid on Hamburg

28/29 July 1942

Hamburg

256 aircraft – 165 from 3 Group and 91 OTU aircraft – dispatched. A much larger force had been detailed for this raid but bad weather over the bases of 1, 4 and 5 Groups prevented their participation. The force which took off comprised 161 Wellingtons, 71 Stirlings and 24 Whitleys. The weather worsened and the OTU aircraft were recalled, although 3 of them went on to bomb Hamburg. The remaining bomber force became very scattered; many more aircraft turned back and only 68 bombed in the target area. Hamburg suffered 13 people killed and 48 injured with 56 fires, 15 of them large.
Bomber casualties were heavy. 16 Wellingtons and 9 Stirlings were lost from 3 Group, 15.2 per cent of those dispatched by the group. 4 OTU Wellingtons were lost and a Whitley crashed in the sea.

30 Bostons and 13 Blenheim Intruders were dispatched. 2 Bostons and 1 Blenheim lost.

http://sas.raf38group.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=851

Thanks for the additional information.
Would that have been a Stirling, with a six man crew ?

searches on the CWGC site came up blank

Hi Alan,

I can’t help on the rest, but:-

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2073562/BLACK,%20JOHN%20MORTON%20BURROUGHS

It appears from that that his grave was concentrated at Sage from ‘Heldenfriedhof, Wittmund’.

From this, it seems that he was part of a crew

NZ 411912 Sgt C P Lund, RNZAF
615462 Sgt J H White, RAF
748714 W/O J M B Black, RAFVR
1109242 Sgt F E Lawson, RAFVR
631675 Sgt F A Murphy, RAF
1126302 Sgt V Anderson, RAFVR

All have date of death noted as 28.7.42 and Lund is annotated ‘Pilot’, so I am assuming they are all a crew.

Hope this helps

ETA:- More info including first names, courtesy RAFCommands roll of honour

I was wandering around the same cemetery today and came upon another headstone with an RAF connection.
I was actually looking to get some wildlife shots.

It’s another interesting one, as searches on the CWGC site came up blank. The RAF role of honour site says he was with 7 Sqdn and is buried in
Sage War cemetery, Germany, So this must be just an inscription added by his family to remember him
The only other info I can find is that he was (probably) at RAF Oakington flying Stirlings.

Thanks very much for that info Simon. It’s easy to forget how many service personel lost their lives in accidents, and still do.
I wonder if the non-standard headstone is a replacement made locally, copying an earlier one ?

Alan

DE DROZOZICKI – Air 78/48 at the National Archives has him listed as 1335733 Napoleon Michael DROZDZICICI, and to add to the confusion, FreeBMD has a Napoleon M De DROZDZICKI, aged 19, death registered Southend, in the July-August-September 1942 quarter.

The headstone is not a standard CWGC headstone:

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=33341733&ref=acom

The link to the third photo has the following information:

This man is neither Commonwealth War Dead nor a Foreign National but he is in the CWGC database. He is classified in the sub-group Non-World War (Conducive & Incidental) in CWGC Care. He was not in service at death and therefore he does not qualify for war grave status. However, he was buried by the authorities in a war plot which was later taken over by CWGC.

DARLER, William Thomas, Service Nº 84044, 952 (Balloon) Sqn, Sheerness. Death registered Sheppey, listed as ‘Killed on Active Service’, so perhaps an air raid victim. Also killed from the same unit on that date:

AC1 William A. COYTE – 845123
Cpl Henry E. FORTESCUE – 843166
LAC Edward G. HALLIDAY – 840911

See: http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?2293-Unaccounted-airmen-6-1-1941

FITCH, Edward William, Service Nº 1632361 – Bombr Command Losses, Volume 7 – Whitley ED358 of 10 O.T.U.:

Took off from Abingdon for a night cross-country. It is strongly suspected that the Whitley exploded at approximately 0045, scattering debris over a wide area some 2 miles S of Great Wilbraham, five miles E from the centre of Cambridge. All rest in various UK cemeteries.
Sgt H M Hale
Sgt H Coupe
F/S J C Tucker RAAF
Sgt R F Higgs
Sgt E W Fitch

Nice photo of the fox too…!

Regards

Simon

I was in a different part of the cemetery today, trying to get some wildlife shots. The grass in the cemetery was getting a bit long,
except for where there were some military headstones…..

I’d love to know if anyone can come up with the story of these three servicemen.

While photographing these headstones, I felt I was being watched

Thank you very much Pete, I knew that someone on here would come up with the answer.

Mystery solved and hopefully another forgotten event & crew remembered.

Anyone have a copy of “Bomber Command Losses, Vol. 7, Operational Training Units, 1940-1947”?

Wellington R1767

F/O J S Willis
Sgt G Newman
Sgt T F R J Roch
Sgt F G Coster
F/S R E Elms

T/O Finningley for night cross country. Dived into ground from very low altitude at Horseway about 1mile NE of Chatteris. Seconds prior to the crash, at 2110, a searchlight had illuminated the Wellington and it is believed the pilot was dazzled by the brightness and became disorientated.

Pete

Thanks on info so far.

Deaths registered in March, Cambs, along with three others:

Sergeant FREDERICK GEORGE COSTER (25) Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Flight Sergeant ROBERT ELMS (23) Royal Air Force
Sergeant GEORGE NEWMAN (25) Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Sergeant THOMAS REGINALD FREDERICK ROCH (22) Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Definitely 25 OTU: Coster was WOp/AG, and confirm Newman as Obs: so maybe a Hampden crew?

EDIT: Satellite of 25 OTU also at Balderton. Can’t find an obvious Hampden, so likely to be Wellington.

Anyone have a copy of “Bomber Command Losses, Vol. 7, Operational Training Units, 1940-1947”?

Death Certificate?

CWGC supporting docs say he was with 25 OTU (Finningley), which would mean Hampden, Manchester or Wellington. It is also feasible that he died of natural causes, road accident etc.