Members of three Dambuster families came together earlier this week to mark the anniversary of the deaths of their relatives. Pictured above are (far left) William Castle, nephew of Sgt William Hatton, (third from left) Rene Hopkins (sister of Sgt William Hatton) and (second from right) Valerie Ashton (daughter of Flt Sgt Victor Hill). They are gathered at the graveside of Sqn Ldr David Maltby, in St Andrew’s Church, Wickhambreaux, Kent for the annual commemoration of the deaths of this Dams Raid crew after an aborted raid on the Dortmund Ems Canal in the early hours of 15 September 1943. David Maltby’s body was the only one recovered after their aircraft went down – those of the rest of the crew were never found, and they are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The accident may have been caused by a collision with a Mosquito of 139 Squadron returning from a completely separate raid on Berlin, but this has never been proved.
The commemoration was organised by the East Kent branch of the RAF Aircrew Association, whose chairman, John Addley, is on the far right.
This year, 2010, 16 May will fall on a Sunday. On another Sunday 16 May, in 1943, 133 aircrew in 19 Lancaster aircraft took off from RAF Scampton on what would prove to be the RAF’s most famous bombing operation of the Second World War, the attack on the dams of the Ruhr. Two of the targets were breached and many millions of gallons of water were discharged, causing mayhem in the area and disrupting the German war machine for many months.
However, the cost in lives was very high. On the ground, 1,341 people died – troops defending the dams, civilians living nearby, prisoners working in forced labour camps. Of the aircraft that took part, eight did not return and 53 of their crews died. The other three were captured.
On this 67th anniversary of the raid, we show pictures of the gravestones of six of the pilots and links to pictures of their crews.
Thanks to Lyndon Harper for the use of his pictures.
Flt Lt Bill Astell, buried Reichswald Forest War Cemetery
Flt Lt Norm Barlow, buried Reichswald Forest War Cemetery
Plt Off Lewis Burpee, buried Bergen op Zoom War Cemetery
Flt Lt John Hopgood, buried Rheinberg War Cemetery
Sqn Ldr Henry Maudslay, buried Reichswald Forest War Cemetery
Plt Off Warner Ottley, buried Reichswald Forest War Cemetery
The other members of these crews can be seen in a post on the WW2Talk Forum, as below:
I do not, at present, have access to any pictures of the graves of Sqn Ldr Melvin Young and his crew, who are all buried together in Bergen General Cemetery in Holland. Anyone who can help me with pictures is asked to contact me.
Plt Off Vernon Byers’s aircraft was shot down in the Waddenzee area off the coast of Holland. Of this crew, the only body recovered was that of the rear gunner, Sgt James McDowell, and he is buried in Harlingen General Cemetery in Holland. I would also welcome any pictures of his grave.
These pictures date back to the 65th anniversary of the Dams Raid in May 2008 (incidentally the month I started this blog!). They show aircraft from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in action over the Ladybower reservoir in the Derwent valley, Derbyshire. They are great shots and deserve a mention, even at this late stage. Thanks to Rob McPherson for sending them to me.
All members of the public are welcome to join members of the East Kent RAF Aircrew Association and the Maltby family at David Maltby’s grave in St Andrew’s Church, Wickhambreaux, Kent, at 11.30am on Monday 14 September 2009.
This annual event, commemorating the lives of all of David’s crew, takes place on the anniversary of their last operational flight. Weather permitting, local flyers led by David Maltby’s nephew George Foster will be conducting a flypast and poppy drop.
All members of the public are welcome to join members of the East Kent RAF Aircrew Association and the Maltby family at David Maltby’s grave in St Andrew’s Church, Wickhambreaux, Kent, at 11.30am on Monday 14 September 2009.
This annual event, commemorating the lives of all of David’s crew, takes place on the anniversary of their last flight. Weather permitting, local flyers led by David Maltby’s nephew George Foster, will be conducting a flypast and poppy drop.
The crew who flew on that last flight, in Lancaster JA981, was the same as that which had flown on the Dams Raid, almost exactly four months previously:
Sqn Ldr David Maltby DSO DFC (pilot) Baldslow, Sussex Flt Sgt Vivian Nicholson DFM (navigator) Sherburn, Co Durham Plt Off John Fort DFC (bomb aimer) Colne, Lancashire Flt Sgt Antony Stone (wireless operator) Winchester, Hampshire Sgt William Hatton (flight engineer) Wakefield, Yorkshire Flt Sgt Victor Hill (front gunner) Berkeley, Gloucestershire Sgt Harold Simmonds (rear gunner) Burgess Hill, Sussex
Warrant Officer John Welch (mid upper gunner) Chesham, Buckinghamshire, seconded from 218 Squadron, flew as an extra gunner.
(Picture shows the Aircrew Association’s 2007 tribute.)
In the rush of dealing with a major computer problem and getting away on holiday (in which I completed the Coast to Coast walk, 192 miles from St Bees Head to Robin Hood Bay — more on this later) I failed to notice that the centenary of the first British powered flight had taken place. This was undertaken by none other than Alliott Verdon Roe in a triplane of his own design, on Walthamstow Marshes in London, on 13 July 1909. The wonderful Diamond Geezer has reported on this event in his own indomitable way, and provided his usual eclectic list of links to further information about the famous aviation pioneer. From this I learnt that Roe himself developed some rather unsavoury political views, and was a supporter of Oswald Moseley, who was of course interned during the Second World War.
Ironic, then, that the company Roe founded would go on to make the War’s most famous British heavy bomber, the Avro Lancaster, and play a huge part in defeating the fascist war machine.
In the rush of dealing with a major computer problem and getting away on holiday (in which I completed the Coast to Coast walk, 192 miles from St Bees Head to Robin Hood Bay — more on this later) I failed to notice that the centenary of the first British powered flight had taken place. This was undertaken by none other than Alliott Verdon Roe in a triplane of his own design, on Walthamstow Marshes in London, on 13 July 1909. The wonderful Diamond Geezer has reported on this event in his own indomitable way, and provided his usual eclectic list of links to further information about the famous aviation pioneer. From this I learnt that Roe himself developed some rather unsavoury political views, and was a supporter of Oswald Mosley, who was of course interned during the Second World War.
Ironic, then, that the company Roe founded would go on to make the War’s most famous British heavy bomber, the Avro Lancaster, and play a huge part in defeating the fascist war machine.
On this day 66 years ago nineteen Lancasters of 617 Squadron took off from a grass aerodrome in Lincolnshire on an operation which would change the lives of everyone who took part. Fifty-three of the aircrew died that night, and the destruction of the Möhne and Eder Dams led to the loss of 1341 other lives, many of them civilians or forced labourers.
In contrast to last year, when various flypasts and other events marked the 65th anniversary, there will be no official ceremonies marking today’s date.
Let’s just remember all those who died that night, and the millions more who died during the Second World War, and hope that we never see destruction on this scale again.
In commemoration of those who died, here are some pictures of the plaques marking the crash site of the aircraft AJ-M, piloted by Flt Lt John Hopgood. His efforts to keep his plane aloft let three of his crew bale out. Two, John Fraser and Anthony Burcher survived. Those who died at the site were Charles Brennan, Kenneth Earnshaw, John Minchin, George Gregory and Hopgood himself. The site is about 6km from the Möhne Dam.
The pictures were taken last month by a reader of this blog, Steve Gough, who has kindly let me use them.
Interesting article by a British academic in the New York Times about different attitudes to Remembrance Day in different countries. It goes under a number of different names: Armistice Day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day. In the USA, the day is more about celebrating lives of those who survived. In Poland, it is a day of national rejoicing as it marks the day in which the nation was reborn. In both France and Britain, however, it is more about remembering those who died.
Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 September 1943 were dark, dark days in the history of the new 617 Squadron. It was almost exactly four months since its first operation, the raid on the German dams which had made those who took part famous.
The squadron was then held back from other operations, apart from a short series of three raids against Italian targets, while RAF top brass decided what to do with it. Then, in late August, a new ‘light case’ 12,000lb bomb became available and 617 Squadron was detailed to use it to attack the Dortmund Ems canal on a low level raid.
It was not a success. On the first night, the raid was aborted due to poor weather conditions over the target and David Maltby’s Lancaster came down in the North Sea – an accident that may have been caused by a collision with a Mosquito from 139 Squadron ‘that shouldn’t have been there‘. All eight on board were killed, and only Maltby’s body was recovered. The following night a further 33 aircrew lost their lives when four further Lancasters crashed or were brought down. Over the two nights, 13 of those lost were from the crews who had survived the Dams Raid. The rest were men who had missed the first raid through sickness or who had arrived on the squadron as replacements. In terms of casualties, it would be 617 Squadron’s second worst day of the war, after the Dams Raid itself.
I will be writing more about the Dortmund Ems canal raids next week, but today I would like to give you advance warning of three events which will take place in Kent about the time of this sad 65th anniversary.
Waterstone
1. Friday 12 September, 6.30pm
I will be doing a talk at Waterstone’s bookshop, St Margaret Street, Canterbury on David Maltby and his crew. David had many connections with Kent, and I will be showing many photograph, a number of which were not included in my book.
2. Sunday 14 September, 11.30am
The annual event to commemorate David Maltby and his crew takes place on the anniversary of their last flight, at David Maltby’s grave in St Andrew’s Church, Wickhambreaux, Kent. This is organised by the East Kent branch of the Aircrew Association. Members of the Maltby and Hatfeild families also attend each year. Visitors are welcome.
3. Sunday 14 September, all day
A fly-in is being held at Manston Airport, Kent, at which there will be a number of aerial and static displays, other attractions and bookstalls, including one run by your Humble Scribe. If you are in the area, please come and say hello. This event was postponed from the Spring Bank Holiday weekend because of the downpour that took place that day. Let’s hope for better weather this time!
This moving account of what it was like on the night in May 1943 when 19 Lancaster bombers brought the war to a valley in the Ruhr has been recently published in a New Zealand magazine. The people who still live in the village below the Möhne Dam hold an annual church service, and have published a brochure with personal stories of what happened to them when the dam was breached.
The dignified way in which many Germans continue to remember this particular event, and many others, contrasts with the puerile approach to the war’s key moments which are taken by many Brits. For instance, a recent episode of the BBC Top Gear programme spiced up a motoring competition with its German equivalents with countless references to the war. The series of races were held “in that traditional location for Anglo-German disagreements – Belgium”, the British presenters arrived in three Spitfires, named the teams in one of the races as the “Allies” and the “Axis” and generally behaved like a bunch of upper class football hooligans.
I await the comments, which I’m sure will come, accusing me of having no sense of humour. Not true… there’ve been many things on TV about the war which I’ve found funny. The classic Carling lager ad is an obvious example, because it’s clever and has a lovely final twist when the flight engineer removes his oxygen mask and speaks. But it isn’t it time we called a halt to boorish remarks about who won the war, especially from people who are too young to have experienced it directly?
At a time when so much stuff about the Dams Raid is simply the recycling of old material (and often inaccurate old material at that) it’s great to be able to say that this new publication, Breaching the German Dams from the RAF Museum comes up with real new information. As it is written by two genuine experts, Richard Morris and Robert Owen, you would expect nothing less. For the bargain price of six quid you get 80 A4 pages containing a number of articles: inter alia, family memories of Barnes Wallis, Roald Dahl and the film script that never was, how the crews were trained, how the Lancasters were modified, how Gibson was selected as the operation leader (including the daring suggestion that he might have been the only available candidate!), possible uses of Upkeep later in the war, and the final Operation Guzzle (you’ll have to read it to find out what that was all about). Order it now from the RAF Museum!
(Picture shows the Aircrew Association’s 2007 tribute.)
Dambusters Blog 