Legion of the Lancasters by Martin W. Bowman

Author:Martin W. Bowman [Bowman, Martin W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781526746078
Amazon: 1526746077
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Published: 2022-01-04T21:00:00+00:00

Sixteen of the 17 Lancasters on 463 Squadron that had set out for Stuttgart returned over England and began letting down for landing back at Waddington. Pilot Officer William Alexander Graham of Queenscliffe, New South Wales had taken ‘E-Easy’ off at 1927 hours and successfully completed the operation. Whilst circling the aerodrome preparatory to landing, the 25-year-old pilot was involved in a mid-air collision near Branston, 4 miles south east of Lincoln with ‘L-Leather’ on 625 Squadron skippered by 26-year-old Flight Sergeant John Percy Bulger RCAF. All fourteen members on the two Lancasters were killed. Sergeant Henry Alfred Baxter, the 22-year-old wireless operator/gunner on Graham’s crew left a widow, Vera Lilian Baxter, of Wandsworth, London. Flight Sergeant Alfred Samuel Humphreys of Gunnedah, New South Wales was 20-years-old. Bulger left a widow, Mary Margaret Bulger of Toronto. Jean Aiston, who was married to Sergeant Alfred William Aiston, the 35-year-old flight engineer, was living in Whitburn, County Durham in South Africa. One of Bulger’s air gunners, Sergeant John Douglas Dadswell of South Shields was 19-years-old. Warrant Officer Class II Gordon Ivey, the 23-year-old navigator was from Ellscott, Alberta. The air bomber, 24-year-old Flying Officer Robert Roy Jones came from Medicine Hat, Alberta.

At Elsham Wolds, seven nerve-shattered airmen on 19-year-old Pilot Officer Bradfield Lydon’s crew on 103 Squadron climbed out of their Lancaster after their harrowing trip to Stuttgart and made their way to de-briefing. Meeting fellow pilots, an exhausted Lydon said, “What a trip. I’ve never known such fighter activity. They must have had hundreds up against us!

How did you fellows cope?”

The replies were almost unanimous – “the quietest trip of their tour”. Cecil, a replacement gunner Lydon had taken with them for his first op was the only dissenter. They had been flying little more than half-an-hour when Cecil’s voice on the intercom became incoherent and finally non-existent. Brian Lydon called him several times but there was no reply. Finally he asked him to flash his call light if he was receiving messages. This was duly done so the pilot instigated a battle code: two flashes meant a fighter was attacking, one that it had been shaken off. Almost immediately came two flashes and the navigator found himself suspended between the navigator’s seat and the fuselage roof as Lydon took violent evasive action. Three minutes later it happened again and it was to keep happening all the way to the target and most of the way back to base. Cecil, it seems, had mistaken every Lancaster he saw for a Me 110!

All twenty-two crews on 166 Squadron that attacked the target, returned safely to Kirmington, although ‘W-Willie’ piloted by 20-year-old Flight Sergeant Victor Leonard Perry from Depford, London, was attacked by a night-fighter no less than seven times. ‘He was on his first operational sortie too’ wrote ‘Jonah’ Jones. “The rear gunner replied to the first three attacks, then his guns jammed and he was killed in the next attack. The mid-upper gunner also was wounded. The aircraft was extensively damaged but the pilot brought it back and crash-landed at base.

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