LEST WE FORGET
Air Operations: (No. 463 Squadron Lancaster aircraft NF990), Germany, 6 November 1944
Bomber Command showed more interest in the proposal to attack the heavily used internal waterway system of Germany, especially the Dortmund-Ems canal which linked with the Mitteland canal to provide a direct passage from the Ruhr to central and eastern Germany. … The Waddington squadrons had also set out on 6th-7th November to bomb an embanked stretch of the Mitteland canal at Gravenhorst but this attack was abandoned because of thick cloud. Ten aircraft were shot down including three from No. 463, while two crews of No. 467 had to beat off determined fighter attacks during this disappointing and abortive raid.
Extracts from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Over Europe 1944-1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1963 – Pages 311-2
Lancaster NF990 took off from RAF Waddington at 1645 hours on the night of 6/7th November 1944 to bomb the Weser-Ems Canal at Gravenhorst. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Sixteen aircraft from the Squadron took part in the raid and three of these including NF 990 failed to return.
The crew members of NF990 were:
Sergeant E Evans (2211558) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant J A Hayward (939402) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) PoW
Sergeant Stanley Harding (3005903) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) Fatally injured, Died on 25 November 1944
Flying Officer Cyril Joseph Lynch (424270) (Pilot and Aircraft Captain) PoW Discharged from the RAAF: 31 July 1947
Flight Sergeant Richard Charles Rogers (1587087) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer) PoW
Sergeant Cecil Sunderland (1624631) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Eric Alfred Woolmer (432327) (Wireless Operator Air) PoW Discharged from the RAAF: 9 October 1945
No. 463 Squadron lost Lancaster PD311 (Flying Officer Peter John Bowell (422394) (Pilot)) on 6 November 1944.
No. 463 Squadron lost Lancaster NG191 (Flying Officer James Austin (419452) (Pilot)) on 6 November 1944.
No. 463 Squadron lost Lancaster NG256 (Squadron Leader Desmond Joseph Sullivan CSO DSO (415192) (Pilot)) on return to Waddington on 6 November 1944.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Chorley W R, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War – Volume 5 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1944, Midland Counties Publishing, 1997
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll