Lancaster W4232 – 5 LFS, RAF Syerston

Last summer Newark Air Museum hosted a short visit from a gentleman called Jim Humphreys. Jim’s brother, Bruce had trained with 1661 HCU at RAF Winthorpe in 1944, but was sadly lost with his crew on 17th April, 1944 whilst flying out of RAF Syerston, Notts with No.5 Lancaster Finishing School.

We were able to arrange for Jim to visit RAF Syerston so he could see where his brother had taken off from. Through various local contacts NAM has also helped Jim to find out a little more about what happened to his brother and crew.

P/O B L Humphreys RAAF was the pilot of Lancaster I, W4232 RC-Y which took off from Syerston at 1601 hours for general flying training. Shortly after take-off eyewitnesses saw the aircraft stall and as it fell the port main-plane and starboard wing tip were reported to have come off the aircraft.

While in Nottinghamshire Jim was even able to meet a local resident who while working as a Land Girl had witnessed the crash; fittingly this meeting took place on the same day that the Bomber Command Memorial was unveiled in London.

Jim is now looking for possible contact with relatives of the other RAF crew members lost on 17th April, 1944 who were:

Sgt A Townsley
F/S A H Farrell
Sgt N H Cutler
Sgt R J Brown
Sgt J A Davies
Sgt A D Bale

Any leads or feedback would be greatly appreciated.