LEST WE FORGET
Air Operations: (No. 467 Squadron Lancaster aircraft LL846), Germany, 29 July 1944
On 28th-29th July the three RAAF Lancaster units provided 51 aircraft in a force of 493 sent to Stuttgart, but on this night the attackers were unfortunate in several respects. Diversionary tactics failed and a strong force of 200 night fighters harassed the bomber stream in bright moonlight all the way from Orleans to Stuttgart, but the target itself was blanketed in cloud. Before reaching Stuttgart the bomber stream had become rather dispersed in both horizontal and vertical planes and many crews could not identify either ground or parachute target indicators and were forced to aim at the often misleading glow of fires dimly seen through cloud. Thirty-nine (or nearly 8 per cent) of the Lancasters were shot down, but in spirited battles many night fighters were also claimed as destroyed or damaged. No. 460 claimed one FW-190 probably destroyed and one Me-109 damaged; Flight Sergeant Cox (1) a rear gunner of No. 463 shot down an Me-109 at very close range, and another crew from his squadron claimed an Me-210 as probably destroyed as it was seen to roll over on its back and disappear through cloud apparently out of control. Returning crews of No. 467 Squadron, although they commented on the large number of fighter flares seen along the inward route reported no combats, but the squadron lost two of its experienced crews, captained by Flying Officer Johns and Flying Officer Ian Fotheringham each of whom had completed 20 or more bombing raids.
(1) Flying Officer John Elliott Cox DFC (432496) was discharged from the RAAF on 11 September 1945.
Extract from Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Over Europe 1944-1945, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1963 – Page 297
Lancaster LL846 took off from RAF Waddington at 2211 hours on the night of 28/29th July 1944 to bomb Stuttgart, Germany. The bomb load was 1 x 2000 lb (pound) (450 kg) bomb, 12 x J” clusters. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Fifteen aircraft from the Squadron took part in the raid, and two of these including LL 846 failed to return.
The crew members of LL846 were:
Flying Officer Arthur Henry Birch (171883) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) PoW
Flying Officer Samuel Johns (425021) (Pilot) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 26 November 1946
Flying Officer C E Langstone (J/27488) (RCAF) (Navigator) PoW
Flight Sergeant Bruce Peter Molloy (419472) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 7 February 1946
Flight Sergeant Matthew John O’Leary (426379) (Bomb Aimer) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 14 September 1945
Sergeant Desmond Kenneth James Phillips (1866742) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Bryan Robert John Pring (1853987) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) PoW
It was later established that the aircraft ditched and that Sergeant Phillips sustained severe head injuries and was unable to get into the dinghy despite valiant efforts by Flying Officer Johns to get his colleague on board. By morning the Flight Engineer could no longer be seen and he is presumed to have drowned. The other six members of the crew became PoWs.
In a later report by the then Warrant Officer O’Leary he stated “was being marched westwards by the Germans ahead of advancing Russian troops. With two other RAAF companions they fell out in a village pleading exhaustion and waited there fourteen days for the advancing Russians. They were then marched back 45 miles to a reception centre and later taken by motor lorry and train to Poland, and subsequently Odessa.”
In his report Warrant Officer Molloy stated “The aircraft was hit by flak about 6000 feet at Le Havre as we were first heading for UK. Flames were coming from the port wing which would have broken off but for the Skippers presence of mind who immediately put the aircraft down and made a perfect ditching 5 miles off Le Havre. All got out but the Engineer was badly smashed up during the ditching and disappeared from us and was not seen again. Six of us spent three days in the dinghy. I was a POW all the time until released by the Russians from German POW Camp.”
Sergeant Phillips who was listed as missing is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Runnymede, Surrey, UK.
No. 463 Squadron lost Lancaster ME615 (Flying Officer John Anthony Howard Wilkinson (417547) (Pilot)) on 29 July 1944.
No. 467 Squadron lost Lancaster ME856 (Flying Officer Ian Fotheringham (418378) (Pilot)) on 29 July 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