Ronald Everest Watts(rear gunner)

Hello, Nigel I have photographs and information about your grandfather and would love to connect with you. You can email me at kponi3s@aol.com. Thank you, Kathy

Has anyone information pertaining to my Grandfather,ie pictures,documentation etc.His name was Ronald Everest Watts,Gunner Sgt(1818766) 405 Squadron,Shot down and killed over Holland 02/01/1944;buried at Schoonebeek,Drenthe,NL. Any information would be treasured,thankyou very much.

Hello Wattsnigel,

In the 90’s we excavate the remaining parts of your grandfathers Lancaster.
During one of this excavations (I suppose your Uncle) Patrick Watts, the son of your grandfather was also there.

In 1995 Patrick and I were in charge for electing a monument at the cemetery from the municipality Schoonebeek were your grandfather is buried together with 23 other airman who were KIA in this municipality area.

I have quit some information about the Lancaster and crew but i don’t understand your asking because Patrick has a huge file with information. Maybe you can send me a PM to discuss further?

With respect,

Harry Bakker

Hei wattsnigel,

Try to contact the NFLA at www.nfla.nl.
Perhaps they can help you to find stories from local people about the crash.

best regards,

Mathieu

Many thanks Moggy,Steve and Archie-the comprehensive crew members and incident detail including German pilot whom shot my Grandfathers aircraft down more than helpful.thankyou!

The entry in RAF Bomber Command Losses by W R Chorley gives the following information about the loss of your grandfather and crew:

Lancaster III JB280 LQ-K took off 0023 from Gransden Lodge on op to Berlin.
Outbound, shot down by nightfighter (Lt Friedrich Potthast, IV./NJG1) crashing 0210 at Nieuw Schoonebeek (Drenthe) in the commune of Schoonebeek, where all were buried on 5th January in Schoonebeek (Oud Schoonebeek) General Cemetery. F/O Donnelly RCAF (the pilot) gained his DFM, Gazetted 4/8/42, with 57 Sqdn.

Crew (all killed)
F/O T H Donnelly DFM RCAF
Sgt L G R Miller
G/O A J Salaba RCAF
F/S W L J Clark RCAF
Sgt B S J West
Sgt R E Watts
Sgt R Zimmer RCAF

Also may be worth checking this site here http://www.associations.rafinfo.org.uk/ for details of any 405 Squadron Association who may be able to help with photographs.

Good luck with your search.

We flew a couple of miles to the north of Gransden Lodge yesterday morning, and I think EN830 might have shot some decent aerial photos of the place. I think he’s still on his way home after Legends weekend, but I’ve pm’d him with a link to this thread to see whether he’s got anything he can post up here.

Nigel – good luck on your search for information.

It would appear that he set out on the fateful night from the Squadron’s then base at Gransden Lodge.

As this is now a gliding club you might feel you could get a little nearer to him by taking a trial flight there one day.

Moggy

All the in depth information in your reply will certainly enable me to retrieve much of what i am searching for,I am truly grateful,thankyou,Nigel

Specific information of any great detail is unlikely to be found amongst us, but we can help advise of places to go for it.

Firstly, the RAF Records at Innsworth http://www.mod.uk/contacts/raf_records.htm
As you have the name and number of your grandfather they should be able to trace his service records (the application will need to be immediate next of kin though). This gives the basic data from which to continue your search, via the National Archives (formerly Pulic Records Office) at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/militaryhistory/airforce/ who will have specifically the Operations Records Books (Form 540 and 541) plus various combat/intelligence reports relating to the units in which he served, amongst other items. Having received the service record from Innsworth, you will have the dates of which unit he was with, and thus can obtain photocopies for those periods from each unit, giving an overall picture. Next stop is RAF Hendon at http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london/research/index.cfm for further snippets. The 541 will record aircraft serials in which he flew. Aircraft / movement cards are there I believe, accident cards etc too. Plus of course a photographic archive, which leads us of course to the Imperial War Museum, Duxford at http://www.iwmcollections.org.uk/overview.asp which have perhaps the best of the photo collections. Rebecca needs the work as she sends far too long in the Runway cafe with various Forum people. They also have maps and documents too. another good source of information, although of dubious nature, is your local Records Office. Mine here in lowestoft has microfilm of newspapers dating back to ages ago. I found a lot of relative information on the squadron I am involved with.

The very best source, though, is his Flying Logbook. If you have that, then we can certainly translate it for you so that it makes sense. His entire RAF career is held in that one document. Good luck, I really do hope that you get as full a pictre as you can.