LEST WE FORGET
Air Operations (No. 467 Squadron Lancaster aircraft W4378), North West Europe, 18 January 1943
Date: 17-18 January 1943
Target: Berlin
Total Force: Dispatched – 187, Attacking – 111
RAAF Force: No. 460 Dispatched – 6, Attacking – 6; No. 467 Dispatched – 8, Attacking – 7
Tons of Bombs Dropped: 356
Total Aircraft Lost: 22
RAAF Aircraft Lost: No. 460 – 1; No. 467 -1
Both in the air and from the ground the bombers had to face determined and powerful opposition.
Dilworth (1) reported seven separate encounters with fighters and another Lancaster of No. 460 met five night fighters flying in loose formation at one point on its homeward journey. Another crew, whose Lancaster was badly damaged by gun fire, baled out as soon as they reached the English coast. This interference and difficulties in navigation again led to scattered bombing, damage being confined to isolated incidents as at the Lorenz radio works and the Borsig Rheinmetal armament works.
(1) Wing Commander John Frederick Dilworth (40044) (RAFVR) Killed on Air Operations: 25 February 1944
Extracts from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Against Germany and Italy 1939-1943, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1954 – Pages 469, 470
Lancaster W4378 took off from RAF Bottesford at 1705 hours on the night of 17/18th January 1943 to bomb Berlin. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it failed to return to base. Eight aircraft from the Squadron took part in the mission, and one of these W4378 failed to return. Post war enquiries found no trace of the missing aircraft or crew and the names of the seven crew members are recorded on the Memorial to the Missing at Runnymede, Surrey.
The crew members of W4378 were:
Sergeant Kenneth Roy Aicken (414372) (RNZAF) (Pilot)
Sergeant William Jesse Carter (577959) (RAF) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Frank Hanson (1114059) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant Frank Logie (778801) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Christopher Searle Hamilton Morley (711065) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Alfred Percy Smith (1265587) (RAFVR) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Pilot Officer Thomas Olver Truscott (125301) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
No. 460 Squadron lost Lancaster W4816 (Sergeant Dudley Anstruther Corfe (411124) (Bomb Aimer)) on 17 January 1943.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records