I recently published my fathers biography under the title Shalom, Jack (ISBN 978-1-907953-70-5). It included as full and as accurate account as I could deduce about what happened to Lancaster bomber RF154 on the night of 16 March 1945, when it crashed during the last major bombing raid of Nürnberg in WW2. My father, Jack Goldstein, was the only one if the crew not to have bailed out, so crashed with the airplane.
I have eyewitness accounts of the crash and of Jack being taken from his mid-upper gun turret, being laid down a short distance from the aircraft but being found not be dead. Surviving crew reported that still on board when the Lancaster came down was a 4000lb Cookie. The explosion rom the crash was heard 5km away and left a crater that was described by eyewitnesses as big enough to put a house in. Yet Jack was still in the mid-upper gun turret. The canopy had been blown off and his face was covered in blood; it appeared that his nose had been torn off by the blast. But otherwise his body was intact. He was buried in his flying gear in a local German cemetery before being re-buried after the war in the CWGC cemetery in Durnbach, Bavaria.
The magnitude of the blast suggests that the Cookie exploded on impact, but if so, it would be expected that Jack would have been far more seriously damaged. So maybe it didnt in which case why such a loud explosion and crater?
I would very much appreciate any advice, suggestions, or observations on this anomaly.
MGVC - This is only anecdotal and I am also aware that this post is about your Father, so will choose my words with care. When I was a young man I served my apprenticeship with two ex WW2 RAF ground personnel. They would recant many many tales about life on active stations. Your post has recalled one of the tales one of the chaps told me. The tale was a about a Wellington bomber that crashed landed at the station with a bomb(s) on board. The bomb(s) exploded on impact and my colleague(ex RAF Regiment) told me that when they went to the crash site one of the crew was clear of the wreckage and at first they thought he had survived as there were no signs on the body that it had been in a crash and explosion. However when they went to move the body it was in a jelly, supple like condition. The blast has destroyed the firmness of the body but it had remained intact. Clearly I am not a forensic pathologist and it was only a tale told me 40+ years ago, but I believe that your Fathers body could have remained intact and perhaps part of his turret mechanism protected him from the blast. Only an observation and I hope this tale is of some help to you.
No need to hold back - I have lived this event for a long time so I can be frank too. It was suggested to me some time ago that because jack was buried in flying gear is an indicator that his body was badly broken - the flying suit keeping it together. So that does chime with your tale.
Many thanks for you interest and reply - any further help would be appreciated!
You are welcome, I'm glad that the tale chimed true with you. I really can't add anything else to the above in terms of detail, I just wanted to pick my words carefully so that it didn't cause you any unnecessary discomfort. The guy who told me this tale was called Fred Worsey, he was a sergeant in the RAF regiment. The other guy was Bill Kirby who was a Fitter 2E working on Merlin engines. I was only 17/18 at the time and now I am 58, your story made me recall that tale. At break and lunch times they would both sit there and tell me tales of war time life, most of it mundane, I wish now that I had listened more closely, the same with my parents, but such is life. As Oscar Wilde once said ...youth is wasted on the young. Glad you posted as it prompted me to recall two good guys who have been dead a long time. As a mechanical engineer - Bill Kirby had a very positive influence on my teenage years - its good to recall him(and Fred) after all these years.
I am so glad my post had an incidental good effect! It is really amazing how people who have read my father's biography, "Shalom, Jack" had contacted me to tell me about resonances with their own lives or the lives of their family. I even found out that someone with whom I had been very close friends but had drifted apart had a father in the same Squadron as mine and flew on most of the same missions, so they must have known each other! An amazing coincidence, which has brought us both back in regular friendship.
