Greig Watson and his colleagues at BBC online have been slaving away for the last few weeks trying to get a complete pictureboard of all 133 aircrew who took part in the Dams Raid.
Believe it or not, a display of this type has never been published before, and they deserve huge credit just for taking on the work.
However there are a few gaps, and the Beeb is very keen to find a relative somewhere who can help find a picture of the missing aircrew. All of them are British, so there should be a good chance that together we can complete the jigsaw.
Here are the missing photos:
David Horsfall (Now found!)
John Marriott (Now found!)
Michael Fuller (Now found!)
John Kinnear (Now found!)
Alan Gillespie (Now found!)
Robert Marsden (Now found!)
Jack Barrett (Now found!)
Thomas Johnston (Now found!)
Harry Strange (Now found!)
Daniel Allatson (Now found!
Dennis Powell (Now found!)
Norman Burrows (Now found!)
If you are related to any of these men, or know of a source for a picture of them, please let me know (leave a comment below or send me a private email) , or log onto the BBC site and send them the details.
(I can claim a modest part in this work, having helped the BBC with some of the picture research.)
Just an amendment to your post on the blog ‘Believe it or not, this has never been attempted before…’ It has been attempted and completed! My version will appear hopefully by the end of the year in the book, and will also feature photos of the 14 who didn’t fly that night (the Wilson and Divall crews), plus another 23 of the 26 who joined the Squadron and left before the raid, sometimes after only days. That latter group includes Gibson’s original bomb aimer…
Emailed the BBC – Norman’s picture appears on http://www.thedambusters.org.uk/aj-z.html would love to see a fitting tribute with all 133
norman Burrows has a picture as he was my grandfather brother and is part of my family
We had driver on British airways who was on 617 sqdn his log book showed a lot of history ..His name was ALEC SHARPE rear gunner I believe >>..
My father was an aircraft engineer working at Scampton in isolation during the raids.
I have a large horizontal photo of Lancaster with possibly 100 persons stood and seated. Would welcome the chance to have it looked over to see if it has any of the 133 crew.
Andrew — this sounds like the photograph of both aircrew and groundcrew combined, taken in July 1943. I will contact you directly about this. Charles
My Great Grandfather served with 617. Any idea why the interactive wall in no longer available? such a same after all that work.
Lee — I wasn’t aware that the BBC wall isn’t working. Thanks for pointing this out. I will contact them and find out why.
Who was your great grandfather? — CF
I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t working or just been taken down.
Thank you for finding out why.
My great grandfather is 1566434 Collie.J.A