Welcome to the forum, and your offer of information. You ought to edit your email address, and replace the @ with AT, as there is a high possibility of spammers automatically hijacking your email account. The genuine members here will know what the AT stands for.
Alan
-- Edited by AW on Sunday 1st of September 2013 08:02:24 AM
I am interested in hearing from anyone connected with, or interested in, 514 Squadron. I am writing a history of the squadron and any contact is appreciated. In addition, I am more than happy to try and help with any queries.
Please feel free to contact me on or off forum. My e-mail for 514 Sqn. queries is 514squadronraf@gmail.com
The effect you are referring to is called a strobescopic effect caused I believe by the stop frame imagery of filming. This is the same reason why chuck wagon wheels in Old Western movies seem to spin backwards at times and appear at times to have stationary spokes when they should be rotating in one uniform direction. It explains the differences in apparent propellor rotation but it's an illusion. Watch an initial start up carefully and that will reveal the direction the props rotate.
I'm French and I'm interested with Lancaster LL690 who crashed down in my village (Iwuy North of France) during the night of 15/16th of June 1944. I went last year to visit the museum in waterbeach before it was closed and a good guy drove me on the runways. It was great for me to see the aerodrome from they took off by the 15th of June 1944.
You'll find at this adress the history of this crew
I'm still missing a photo of LL 690 impossible to find at this very day (since 5 years I'm making investigations about this plane) and I only got the historical flying record of the Rear Gunner who was from Canada.
Maybe you already have these infos but just in case you can get the book by Harry Dison : "SOME OF THE STORY of 514 SQUADRON" that you can buy contacting Oliver Merrington at : oliver.merrington@ntlworld.com for 10£ + postage.
If you need more infos you can contact me anytime. I enclosed a photo of the runway taken by the 25th of september 2012.
My Great Uncle and all his Mates were shot down returning from a Night Raid on Stuttgart March 15/16 1944 they all Rest at VILLARS-LE-PAUTEL COMMUNAL CEMETERY; Haute-Saone, France Grave Reference: Joint grave 6. They were Flying Lank LL653, I would Greatly Love a Photo of this Plane if anyone has one. My Mother remembers the Day Her Uncle Lawrence Wry left for the War,She was only 5 at the time.
Hi my great great uncle Sydney Arthur picton he was a wireless operator his plane got shot down in Deinvillers. dose any one have any info on him so far i know where he is burried .And for those that want to no more about 514 squadron here is the website they also have a facebook page to http://www.514squadron.co.uk/
Reading your post, I searched and found this photo of a Lancaster where we can see the letters JI-E (alas we can't see the number)
JI-E was given to these 9 planes of the 514 according to the web site http://www.bomber-command.info/514sc.htm : DS786 DS796 LL653 LL697 LM181 LM265 LM275 ME380 NG118
You can find this photo here : http://freespace.virgin.net/tracy.triumph/photogallery.html
This is a first step I hope helpful for your searches.
Just received word that the plane in the Photo is LM181 Taken July 1944. I also came across a web site that I believe has Pictures of Wreckage found of LL653 but am unable to read it very well,Whereas it is written in French. http://francecrashes39-45.net/page_fiche_av.php?id=988 Could you possibly have a look and let me know in general what it Say's. Thank you so much for your info. Sincerely, James
In fact in that forum there is a guy who searches remains of a plane on a crash site. Reading the different posts, he is asking about the name of each pieces he found. One of the contributors of the forum said that these are remains of LL 653 and one said that there were 8 crew members instead of 7 usually. It seems according to him that there was a second pilot there just for learning. I think you should suscribe to this forum and introduce yourself, it would be great for the guy who searches the remains cause he plans to do an exhibition for a tribute to the crew members.
Thank you Mallicolle, I will do that.I have found out it was Sgt K Drummond From RNZAF (NewZeland) First Time on a Bomb RunThe crew flew ten ops, one of which was aborted with the rear turret u/s. The ops were:
14/1/44 Aircraft DS813 JI-H to Brunswick 20/1/44 DS813 JI-H to Berlin 21/1/44 DS813 JI-H to Magdeburg 27/1/44 DS786 JI-E to Berlin 30/1/44 DS785 JI-D to Berlin 21/2/44 LL653 JI-E to Stuttgart 24/2/44 LL653 JI-E to Schweinfurt 25/2/44 LL653 JI-E to Augsburg 1/3/44 LL653 JI-E to Stuttgart 15/3/44 LL653 JI-E to Stuttgart. Thanks Again for your Help, Sincerely,James
My searches are about LL690 who crashed down in my village. As I'm now retired and as we are close to winter.... I go on the investigations I begun 5 years ago about this plane.
It was like LL653 a Lancaster MKII and one mystery is still existing : I'm wondering if there was a "belly turret" on the LL690. Do you know if there was one on LL 653 who was built in the same "serial" of MKII than LL690. According my informations this serial of 301 models of MKII with Armstrong Witworth motors (instead of Rolls Royce Merlin)were delivered to the Squadrons with "belly turrets". This extra turret should be held by a 8th crew member, or both mid upper and belly turret should have been held by the mid upper gunner. The informations I got on the subject is that the base commander of 514 at Waterbeach ordered to remove these turrets because they were a matter of extra weight. So when I read s that there is an extra crew member in a Lancaster I'm wandering wether it could be the "belly gunner".
So may be you could have this kind of information given by your Great Uncle ?
Anyway if ever you have any document or informations about LL690 during your investiagations, it would be nice of you to send them to me. LL690 made 34 missions with several crews, the crew who fell with LL690 in my village had 22 missions (one of them aborted).
LL 690 and the crew subject of my research participated to the fatal mission of your great uncle Lawrence WRY on 15/3/44 over Stuttgart.
My name is Hannah and my Uncle was Ernest Kingham, the pilot of LL690. My mother, Ernest's sister. told me of a Frenchman who witnessed the wreckage and who later wrote to her father. My 8 year old son's teacher has asked if I would be able to tell the class about my Uncle and I would be very grateful if you could give me any information regarding that night and what you saw.
My name is Hannah and my Uncle was Ernest Kingham, the pilot of LL690. My mother, Ernest's sister. told me of a Frenchman who witnessed the wreckage and who later wrote to her father. My 8 year old son's teacher has asked if I would be able to tell the class about my Uncle and I would be very grateful if you could give me any information regarding that night and what you saw.
With many thanks and kind regards,
Hannah
Dear Hannah,
You can't imagine how I felt when I saw this post on the forum. I don't know how many forum I suscribed and how many letters I've sent to the supposed family I detected on the net with the name or Ernest Arthur Kingham since 5 years now. I'm not one of the witnesses of the wreckage (I'm 57) but my research about LL690 came from this story that my mother told me so numerous times when she heard the motors of the plane before he crashed 500 meters far from her house. I have many informations about LL 690 and I am desperatly looking for a photo of this Lancaster with the crew members in front of him. However to answer your question, I enclosed a document about a certain Mr Marlière who was the witness of the crash and who could have been the person you are talking about. There is still a living witness of the crash (Mr Ernest Capliez 93 yo that I met twice). He wrote a book about the story of the village 30 years ago and he mentionned as follows (I translate with my own words : "By the night of June 16th 1944, two English aircrafts collapsed -when he wrote the book Mr Capliez ignored that LL690 was shot down by Oblt Peter Ehrardt- One of the crews made sacrifice of his life and rather than bailing out, the pilot guided the bomber far from Iwuy "shaving roofs" . He crashed down at the north east hedge of the village not far from a place called "The bridge mill".(E.Capliez C. Colpart IWUY 1890/1990 Maulde et Renou Maubeuge 590/MB). When I met M Capliez he told me about the last moments of LL690 and he recalled the evidents efforts of your Great Uncle to avoid the houses of Iwuy. Another witness is still living Mr Alfred Trioux (88 yo) who helped to identified LL690 by sending a photograh of the navigator RH Hutt that he found in the vicinity of the crash site. He was hidden in a wheat field while the Germar were there to remove the remains of the Lancaster. I supposed that you know this web site but I give it to you just in case :http://www.aircrewremembered.com/raf1944/3/kinghamernest.html. It would be great if you could send me copies of photos of your Great Uncle, in a few month there will be an inauguration of a mediatheque (I'm not sure of the translation) here and I plan to expose for duty of memory the documents I have about this Heroïc unknown crew. Thanks for your help and you can ask me for any informations.
Thank you so much for your message and the attached documents. The frenchman who wrote to my Grandfather was Mr Marliere. I have now seen a copy of this letter and it is very interesting and poignant. I have seen photographs of my Uncle but none of the crew with their Lancaster. I will let you know if I find one but I will need the permission of Ernest's immediate family (i.e. his surviving brother and sisters) before I can pass any copies on. I hope to visit my Uncle's grave with my children this summer.
It was great for me to read you one more time. I'm living 3 kms from your uncle's grave and it would be nice if we could met when you'll come next summer. For your son I have many other documents and informations but I would prefer that these documents stay in your family, so just send me back your email address for me to send them. You'll find my email in the section profile of this forum.
I think that without this forum and internet it would have been difficult to find you. So thank you to this forum administrator.
I enclosed a photo of your uncle's grave with his crew friends and some others of the other Lancaster who crashed down in Rieux en Cambrésis the same day.
Best regards, hope you could find and send me some photo of your Uncle even if he is not in his military service.
Seems we have something in common with this my friend. My Uncle Sgt Gilbert Cosgrove was also part of that fateful crew that night. He was the onboard Flt engineer (RAF). He is buried in grave number 5, next to your kin.
I was with my late father in the mid 1970's when we drove to France and visited the graves. It was a very very sad moment watching my dad in tears at his older brothers grave. He was only 12 years old when Gilbert was killed that night. It affected him deeply for the rest of his life.And It was the only visit he ever made to the grave.
We also spent a few days in the village with a lovely couple (Maurice and Yvette Jaques) who had lived all their lives in Villars le pautel and who were both children at the time of the crash. My Mum had brought some old b/w photos taken just after the war. Showing my Grandma and Grandad greeting with the local townspeople. This was whilst on a visit to the Gilberts grave funded in England by the Salvation Army. Amazingly Mr and Mrs Jaques were both in the photos as children with their families!
Even though they spoke no English and we spoke very little French, we still managed to find out quite a lot about what happened that night and the subsiquent military funeral that was given to the boys by the German army.
I also remember that we visited the lonely crash site with my dad and Mr Jaques. Who by coincidence, worked in the forest where the plane had came down. It was completely overgrown at the time but Mr Jaques still managed to pull a twisted hoop of metal from out of the undergrowth. It was the serrated gear track for the rear gun turret! He gave it to my Dad as a souveneer. My dad treasured it for years but it sadly disappeared after he died.
I have seen the posts on the other website by the French guy who is collecting items from the plane. I have also tried to contact him via the french site but it wont allow me to register my details for some reason in order to do so!
Please do feel free to contact me if you know anything other about all this.
Hi, My Dad was an air gunner in 514 Sqdn seeing active service in the last few months of the war, followed by Operation 'Manna' and 'Exodus'
I have his log book and I'm interested in finding out more about 514 Sqdn.
Mal
Mal, I am interested for scans of the logbook for these operations to cross-check and/or add in my database.
You can send them to pinuche0706ATgmail.com
I have a lot of information for 514 Squadron. What is the complete name of your father if possible with ID number and spelt all Christian names initials? Where he was posted just before 514 Squadron?
Best regards
Roger G.
-- Edited by pinuche0706 on Saturday 14th of June 2014 03:18:21 PM
Seems we have something in common with this my friend. My Uncle Sgt Gilbert Cosgrove was also part of that fateful crew that night. He was the onboard Flt engineer (RAF). He is buried in grave number 5, next to your kin.
I was with my late father in the mid 1970's when we drove to France and visited the graves. It was a very very sad moment watching my dad in tears at his older brothers grave. He was only 12 years old when Gilbert was killed that night. It affected him deeply for the rest of his life.And It was the only visit he ever made to the grave.
We also spent a few days in the village with a lovely couple (Maurice and Yvette Jacques) who had lived all their lives in Villars le pautel and who were both children at the time of the crash. My Mum had brought some old b/w photos taken just after the war. Showing my Grandma and Grandad greeting with the local townspeople. This was whilst on a visit to the Gilberts grave funded in England by the Salvation Army. Amazingly Mr and Mrs Jacques were both in the photos as children with their families!
Even though they spoke no English and we spoke very little French, we still managed to find out quite a lot about what happened that night and the subsiquent military funeral that was given to the boys by the German army.
I also remember that we visited the lonely crash site one night with my dad and Mr Jacques. Who by coincidence, worked in the forest where the plane had came down. The wreckage was completely overgrown at the time but Mr Jaques still managed to pull a twisted hoop of metal from out of the undergrowth. It was the toothed running track for the rear gun turret! He gave it to my Dad as a souvenir. My dad treasured it for years but it sadly disappeared after he died.
I have seen the posts on the other website by the French guy who is collecting items from the plane. I have also tried to contact him via the french site but it wont allow me to register my details for some reason in order to do so!
Please do feel free to contact me if you know anything other about all this.
I have my grandfather's log book which was kept impeccably during the war along with photos through the bomb Aimer, maps and charts. Does anyone know P/O S.S GIll? Sadly he died three years ago and I have so many questions about his experiences which I shall never truly know now.
Hi Anonymous As I said it in my previous message, I am interested for scans of your Grandfather logbook, photos and more, looking to add several information in a large 514 Squadron database. You can let me a message in my Facebook page "Roger Guernon" and then I send you my email address.
You can also post your questions about S.S. Gill in Facebook page : 514 Squadron RAF
At the moment I have no many information for SS Gill. He was bomb aimer in R. Worthing (pilot) crew and flew apparently at 514 Squadron 20 operations from 23 December 1944 to the last on 14 March 1945. I can send you a spreasheet extract with all these ops including for each the names of crew members, the targets, etc. but for this crew some other data remains with empty cells. If you want that let me know your email address in my Facebook page.
just had a look on Facebook and the only Roger Guernon, i could find mentions Nice, France, is that you? I will absolutely ensure you get copies of the documents I have.
just had a look on Facebook and the only Roger Guernon, i could find mentions Nice, France, is that you? I will absolutely ensure you get copies of the documents I have.
Yes I am this one with mention Lycée Masséna Nice which it was my High School. But if large part of my family lives always at Nice or close to, since 1969 I live Choisel 35km SW from Paris.
514 Squadron Lancaster DS822 JI-T was shot down 10km from my home and I found and I met Australian and British relatives of the crew . I know also the story and I found several documents of the New Zealander hero Phil Lamason from another Squadron shot down the same day who was sheltered in a family near my village. Lamason lived in Dannevirke and died few years ago.
2746 Squadron RAF Regiment, Lossiemouth (UK); moved to Milltown 24 March 1943; became Anti-Aircraft squadron 17 May 1943; moved to Waterbeach 27 June 1943; at Little Staughton by 3 July 1944; moved to Minster on Sea 3 August 1944.
Thank you so much, I do have most of this information and actually live quite close to the cemetry.
I believe my Grandad died in the UK, in an accident involving 1 of our planes on the 18th June 1944, as a child I was told he was covering someone else's watch (but this may not be the case).
I can't find any details at all, does anyone know anything??
Sorry Anonymous I don't understand very well your question.
Do you speak about S.S. Gill Bomb aimer in R. Worthing crew? ((163638 (1676072) F/O Stanley Sanderson Gill)) or of another airman?
Your grandfather's death was recorded at St Neots, Huntingdonshire, so the accident would have been within that area. The closest airfields would have been RAF Little Stoughton, RAF Thurleigh, Tempsford, and Graveley. RAF Thurliegh was used by the USAAF so you can possibly rule that out. Have you requested a copy of his death certificate from the GRO, this should have the details on it
Thank you, my curiosity is well and truely awakened.
I thought he was stationed at Waterbeach, my Aunt has the death certificate which I haven't seen- so I'm drawing a blank hear. I will eventually ask her.
There is another query I have - my Granfather Frederick Charles McIver joined as a volunteer and was stationed at Lossiemouth. I think this would have been 1941 ish, but the query is - how during a time when civilian movements were restricted in the country - did he manage to move his wife and 2 young children with him?
My father James Mciver and Aunt Beryl Mciver (Freds 2 children) and Jenny (his wife) lived in Lossiemouth with him and my father started school there. Any ideas?
My Great Uncle and all his Mates were shot down returning from a Night Raid on Stuttgart March 15/16 1944 they all Rest at VILLARS-LE-PAUTEL COMMUNAL CEMETERY; Haute-Saone, France Grave Reference: Joint grave 6. They were Flying Lank LL653, I would Greatly Love a Photo of this Plane if anyone has one. My Mother remembers the Day Her Uncle Lawrence Wry left for the War,She was only 5 at the time.
With some friends all over the World, I am involved in 514 Squadron history, memory and archives. So I am interested in any new information, photo, logbook copy. @alieneyes, thank you for those you just shared. Some were unknown by me. @Hetzer, I'll PM you a link to access all what I know regarding LL653 JI-E. Any other photo or document (or of better quality than mine) will be much appreciated.
In attached photo which I have compiled, the names are: Left to right top: K.T. Penkuri; G. Cosgrove; K Drummond; Bottom: W.F. Sutherland (believed); L.A. Wry; K.E. Peake.
Seems we have something in common with this my friend. My Uncle Sgt Gilbert Cosgrove was also part of that fateful crew that night. He was the onboard Flt engineer (RAF). He is buried in grave number 5, next to your kin.
I was with my late father in the mid 1970's when we drove to France and visited the graves. It was a very very sad moment watching my dad in tears at his older brothers grave. He was only 12 years old when Gilbert was killed that night. It affected him deeply for the rest of his life.And It was the only visit he ever made to the grave.
We also spent a few days in the village with a lovely couple (Maurice and Yvette Jacques) who had lived all their lives in Villars le pautel and who were both children at the time of the crash. My Mum had brought some old b/w photos taken just after the war. Showing my Grandma and Grandad greeting with the local townspeople. This was whilst on a visit to the Gilberts grave funded in England by the Salvation Army. Amazingly Mr and Mrs Jacques were both in the photos as children with their families!
Even though they spoke no English and we spoke very little French, we still managed to find out quite a lot about what happened that night and the subsiquent military funeral that was given to the boys by the German army.
I also remember that we visited the lonely crash site one night with my dad and Mr Jacques. Who by coincidence, worked in the forest where the plane had came down. The wreckage was completely overgrown at the time but Mr Jaques still managed to pull a twisted hoop of metal from out of the undergrowth. It was the toothed running track for the rear gun turret! He gave it to my Dad as a souvenir. My dad treasured it for years but it sadly disappeared after he died.
I have seen the posts on the other website by the French guy who is collecting items from the plane. I have also tried to contact him via the french site but it wont allow me to register my details for some reason in order to do so!
Please do feel free to contact me if you know anything other about all this.
Best .. pete
Hi Pete Cosgrove
For our archives, I am looking for information about Gilbert. Could you PM me a way or email address to contact you?
Hello Jim
here is Roger G. happy to hear again from you. It seems you changed the previous email address that I had since June 2014, so one email I sent you must not be delivered.
In few minutes I'll send it again.
Kind regards
Roger
Hi Jim
Thank you, you already responded to my email few days ago by sending me a page of the logbook and by confirming me your crew positions in the Squadron photo 1945.
Roger G....