Wejust builta memorial tothe crew ofLancasterND75535thSquadronWintzenbachfellinFranceon the night ofOctober 19, 1944.I am looking forallinfo,photos andcontact with familiesof the victims.The pilot wasF / O R. W.Brown. (DFC)
I am in the process of developing a website detailing 35 Squadron's history, so I have all the relevant operational records etc.
If you would like me to help, please let me know and I will produce a consolidated document for you regarding the aircraft and the crew based on all the information that I have.
Regards
Pete
__________________
Researching:
- CA Butler and the loss of Lancaster ME334
- Aircrew Training WWII (Basic / Trade / Operational)
- No. 35 Squadron [From Thetford to Scampton]
[Always looking for COPIES of original documents / photographs etc relating to these subjects]
T/o 1756 from Graveley. Crashed at Wintzenbach (Bas-Rhin), 5 km N of Seltz. All are buried in Wintzenbach Protestant Cemetery. At 37 F/S Phillips was over the average age of Bomber Command Aircrew. F/S Kiely came from Mitchelstown, County Cork in the Irish Republic. W/O Thompson had accompanied the crew as a second air bomber.
F/O R W Brown DFC RAAF +
Sgt C Johnson +
P/O J A C Clarke DFC +
F/S R F J Bright +
W/O D Thompson DFC +
F/O A Linton DFC +
F/S F D T Phillips +
F/S E J Kiely +
I cannot find any Luftwaffe claim for ND755.
You can find out more about the pilot on the Australian Archives website by doing a basic search using his service number 414768.
The memorialwill be inauguratednext OctoberandI'm looking forthe history ofthis aircraftand its crew.The village elderstold us thatthe planewas flying atlow altitudeandwas hitbyflackthat protected thecity ofKarlsruhe. The cyti is 20 km from Wintzenbach. Ifyou could help meandsend me theinformationorpictures onthecrew memberswould be wonderful.Contact me onmy email address.Isend yousomepictures of thegravesin the cemetery ofWintzenbach thank you very much
I note that Paul and Alan have contacted you via your message board with offers of help so to avoid duplication of effort I will stand down. If I can be of any help, please let me know.
Please keep me up to speed with progress as it will provide useful input into my 35 Squadron project.
Regards
Pete
-- Edited by PeteT on Sunday 2nd of March 2014 10:20:17 AM
__________________
Researching:
- CA Butler and the loss of Lancaster ME334
- Aircrew Training WWII (Basic / Trade / Operational)
- No. 35 Squadron [From Thetford to Scampton]
[Always looking for COPIES of original documents / photographs etc relating to these subjects]
Sorry am not logged in properly but have just been advised of this post from one of your members ( think ) and would seek to stay involved.
My wife Margaret (now QUIRK), is the sister of Bob BROWN the Aussie Pilot of this craft and crew and we have , over the last few years been chasing down information from all possible sources to tie together all contacts we could amongst the surviving relatives and crew members ..... our first objective being a full narrative of their time together and a full understanding of the outcome.
From this network of emailed messages we achieved contact with six families of the eight who went down in Wintzenbach and visited (again for Margaret) the town in late April last year. We also met with as many contacts as we reasonably could, visited Gravely and the PFF Museum and the new BC Memorial in Green Park London.
Our trip and information re the visit was well co-ordinated by two residents of the town who have similarly assisted others on such visits but I appear to have lost direct contact with then, only last week ( they are probably on holidays) in assisting Bob BROWN's nephew plan a visit. The townspeople from the Mayor down all have great respect for the graves and appreciate maintaining contact with visitors.
Our recent visit convinced us that our Memorial Narrative (which can be shared via 'Dropbox" or similar file sharing link) needed to be updated to cover our visit, it needed updating and other information has come to hand since ....... We met with the now elderly (then) 17 year old schoolboy who was early to the crash scene and who played a role in advising the RAF immediately after the War of the location, and having extracted all available information from the Aussie Archives, have now added to our knowledge base the small personal diary that Bob maintained until October 1944.
What we had not done until our return to Oz was consider further contact attempts with the Crew Families not found previously and also with contacts with the small number of stand-by crew members who had flown with Bob when they needed a seat filled at short notice.
I am assuming that this message will join those in this Forum, maybe this is the one I joined with a few years back and who gave me so much help.
We would love to assist from far away OZ and keep up with what you are aiming at. I am happy to share our direct email but better to see what can be attracted to this idea and all in first instance
Sorry for my lack of procedure but wish to advise that only way I can send you my file is via a Dropbox Invitation to "sharing the file".
It is in pdf format and about 27.1 meg.
Please just email me on the address below and I will fire up my Dropbox settings and invite you to download it and print as you require.
quirks@aapt.net.au
There is a need for me to upgrade the content following our trip to Wintzenbach last year and with new information that has come to light, but that will follow these more recent requests for sharing. The PFF Museum holds a copy (hard) and on CD, which will also have to be updated.
Just came across this thread, if anyone is interested I have a photo of the Flight Engineer Colin Johnson sent to me a few years back by someone who was friends with Colin. The crew all served with 466 Squadron between April and June 1944. Would very much appreciate any photo's of the other crew members as we are trying to have a picture of all aircrew members that served in 466 and 462 Squadrons. John Dann halifaxlv827@yahoo.co.uk
I would be interested in a copy of the photo; my e-mail address is available by clicking my name in the left hand corner of this post.
Does anyone know if the memorial is in situ and, if so, does anyone have ant photographs that I can include in the memorial section of the No. 35 Squadron website?
Regards
PeteT
__________________
Researching:
- CA Butler and the loss of Lancaster ME334
- Aircrew Training WWII (Basic / Trade / Operational)
- No. 35 Squadron [From Thetford to Scampton]
[Always looking for COPIES of original documents / photographs etc relating to these subjects]