RG475 Chemnitz March 1945

the loss of this a/c exemplifies the great debt of gratitude we all owe to the RCAF .

on this particular operation (to CHEMNITZ) take-off time from the RCAF bases in E Yorks coincided with very inclement freezing conditions and nine HALIFAX a/c crashed soon after leaving their airfields (Tholthorpe and Linton) – literally falling out of the sky .

as richard koval wryly comments on his website http://www.6grouprcaf.com/March45 ‘There was severe icing over England and this was a factor in most of the crashes. ‘

the attack , by 760 a/c (including 256 Halifaxes) , was a continuation of OPERATION THUNDERCLAP , implementing promises made at YALTA to support the Russians on the Eastern Front .

HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX

if such a hypothetical flypast was possible …………..i would wish to include the HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX !

LW324 crew

according to GORDON’S TOUR WITH SHINY 10* this crew started tour 09 11 43 .
‘The usual m/u Sgt Lampkin was ill for this raid and Sgt D Thomas took his place’ .

which is a/g Sgt D Thomas in the photo ?

* Gordon’s Tour With Shiny 10 – A Wartime Record of a Tour with RAF 10 Squadron – by J Gordon Shirt . First edition April 1994

lv905

well done 78 squadron !

i have record of a complementary article that appeared in SAGA MAGAZINE October 2005 :-

it begins thus :

Robert Chesshyre reports.
In May 1944 an RAF Halifax bomber, LV905, was shot down over southern Holland as it returned from a bombing raid. Now an excavation is under way to salvage the wreckage and recover the bodies of the five airmen who were buried with the plane. Robert Chesshyre reports on the extraordinary effort to repay a ‘debt of honour’ to Holland’s liberators

and after a lengthy account giving the dutch background it goes on to describe the efforts of Roy Peterson , brother of F/O Sidney Peterson RCAF (Navigator) , to locate the graves of the crew of LV905 during a visit in september 1957

jettisoning

dr who gaffe ….

having started this thread yesterday i hadn’t expected such a wide range of responses !
i must say i tend to agree with BSG-75 – that it certainly wasn’t one of the better efforts in the dr who series . there was too much of exchange of glances and running around . one of the few episodes i wasn’t sad to see the end of ! the potential was there for a good episode – i liked the idea of mixing fact/fantasy of the scientist and his ironsides – and his non-human gubbins .
my thoughts on the WAAF uniform gaffe still remain tho – many other details of uniforms were accurate – there was no need anyway to put the single chevron on the girl’s tunic sleeve !!!
little points like that make the element of fantasy (spitfires in space / daleks / robot scientist etc) more difficult to achieve successfully .

memorials in yr neighbourhood

Halifax W7714 LQ-K

t/o POCKLINGTON (not Topcliffe)

one crew member is buried in Ranwerederhem (Deersum) Protestant Churchyard

robert

obit for bill dean

looking through the january section of my trusty 1944 chorley ‘losses’ i see a P/O AW DEAN of 102 sq survived the shooting down of HALIFAX HX187 on 20/21 jan 1944 and was taken POW . is this the same ‘bill’ dean ????????