49 Squadron Members

In order to sort the list into meaningful periods and places, I have based it on the home airfield at the time they were on the squadron and cross referenced it to the page in "Beware of the Dog at War".

To keep this page up to date, I will add details of any successful links and provide further details. Some of the entries now have more specific enquiries as more information comes to light.
Well, I said I would do this but it is now becoming a monumental task. Our new website has been further expanded and now contains much more background information on those who died and where they are buried and comemmorated. In addition, those who completed a tour and went onto other stations are listed. So go to it NOW

But first of all do you know the whereabouts of any of these past members or associates?
MEMBERS
J.Arnold, Maidstone; J.Challoner, Sevenoaks; D.Deeley, Gnosall, Staffs.; B.Golding, Reading; B.Graves, Horsham; R.Keen, West Wickham; D.Lock, Camberley; G.Murray, Cardiff; S.Simpson, Kings Lynn; I.Topping, Dorchester; P.Varvel, Dawlish; J.Vinal, Manningtree; R.Walsh, Bicester; J.Wilkinson, Humberside; J.Wynn, St. Helens; A. Yule, Edinburgh;
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
P.Boulton, Matlock; B.Cook, Bury; J.Leach, Dymock; A.Murphy, Streatham; A.Travers, Birmingham; W.Morgan, Nottingham; Mrs. M.W.Mitchell

This is the main list of the CYH entries. I have left in all of the enquiries and only amended them or included positive results when contacted.

• France 1918
  
  • R.L.Cuttle MC, is commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial and yet there is little information as to why this Australian from the Royal Field Artillery should have been flying with 49 Squadron. (He is not even listed on Page 9 of BotDaW)
    
• Scampton
  
  • C.Robinson, having joined the 49 Squadron Association wants to know who else made the trip to Kinloss with him in March 1940? (Page 26)
    
  • The Duisburg raid on the 20/21st December 1942 took a flight path across Holland that was thought to be the cause of a large explosion near the town of Venlo (about 25 miles/40 km due east of Duisburg). There were a number of aircraft that were shot down that night and a Dutch researcher is trying to establish if the explosion was caused by a cookie being jettisoned. Of the 12 aircraft that failed to return, 49 Squadron's only loss was Sgt. Johnston and crew hit by flak as they made their way home across Holland and crashed on the coast near Ijmuiden (Page 176)
    
  • Do you remember David Pugh (569510 - FII/A) at Scampton & then Fiskerton working on Hampdens, Manchesters and Lancasters? He would like to get in touch with old friends now he is back in the UK.(October 2003 Newsletter)
    
  • Peter Miller has emailed me asking if anyone remembers his grandfather, Norman Ouston who was stationed first at Scampton but then moved with the squadron to Fiskerton. We know he was ground crew but no other details available.
  • Can you identify any of the groundcrew on this Scampton photograph? We do not have any details and it would help Peter and others to sort out when it was taken.
    Our only feedback so far is that it is the Electrical Section. Back row, 3rd from the right could be Harry Newell.
    

  • Does anyone know the whereabouts of Tony Eyre? He joined the squadron in March 1942 and went with them to Fiskerton, completing his tour in April 1943. (Page 182 lists the crew and our new member Robert Hogg would like to meet up - Magazine Issue 7)
    
  • Does anyone remember 1145697 'Bert' Greenwood, with the Squadron from 1941 until 1945 when left as an LAC? (Magazine Issue 5)
    
• Fiskerton
  
  • Sixty years after P/O T.E.Tomlin DFC and crew failed to return from the Peenemunde raid on 18/8/1943 the Association was able to take part in a visit to honour their dead comrades. JA851 hit the shore and crashed some 500 metres into the Baltic Sea near the village of Holm on the Danish island of Ala, killing all the crew. The body of the pilot, Tom Tomlin, was washed ashore and he lies in the Abenraa Cemetery. The rest of the crew, P/O's W.J.Rooke and T.Tonkin DFC, F/Sgts W.A.Davies and G.B. Silvester DFM and Sgts K.E.Watson and C.Stancliffe are remembered on the Runnymede Memorial despite the fact that the body of one of them was found and buried in an unmarked grave. This is now believed to be F/Sgt G.B.Silvester DFM, the rear gunner. The villagers of Holm decided to erect a memorial stone to the crew with a plaque giving pictures and details of the Peenemunde raid, arranging this for the 60th anniversary. A ceremony with the unveiling of a memorial stone took place there on the 17th/18th August 2003.
    In the March/April 2005 Newsletter is a photograph of F/O Tom Tomlin DFC, who was originally from Plymouth. He was found near the wreakage, having stayed at the controls. Apart from F/Sgt Silvester it is not known what happened to the rest of the crew, who must have left the a/c by parachute, but whose bodies were never recovered.
    In the November 2005 Newsletter, Alan Parr reports that two of our Danish friends tend the graves of the crew, which may indicate that the bodies of the rest of the crew were recovered. Does anyone know if this is the case? (Page 245-6)
    
  • On the same raid, the squadron lost another Lancaster, JA691. This crashed on the outskirts of Lojt Kirkeby, where a memorial to the crew, F/O H.J.Randall, Sgts L.J.Henley, L.F.Freeman, R.Fowleston, N.W.Buchanan, W.J.Stiles and R.W.Slaughter had been erected in 1949. So the Association members went on to Holm (see above) to Lojt Kirkeby after visiting their graves in the Aabenraa Cemetery. After the laying of wreaths at the memorial, there was a reception in the village hall. A gentleman who had been to a Scout Jamboree in England in 1951 had befriended the son of Sgt Henley. Having lost contact with him many years ago, he has asked if it was possible to trace him and so this entry is made in the hope that he can be found.(Page 245 and the October 2003 Newsletter)
    
  • J.G.Burrows, the only survivor from W/O Brunt's crew, was being sought by the nephew of Harold Bronsky. (Pages 274 and 281)
    I received an email with this request in August 2002 and passed it on to the Association's experts with the records but without success. This was one of the reasons why I started this page as you never know who might be searching for that lost link. Then, out of the blue came an email in March 2003 from the nephew of Frederick Ashman who was in contact with the son of Sgt. Burrows, the only survivor who sadly had died in 2002.
    In February 2004, I had a "thankyou" email from Chris Ashman as he had been in touch with relatives of Harold Bronsky and Ron Brunt. He has been able to construct a fair amount of information about the crew and this is published at:- http://www.btinternet.com/~christopher.ashman/mygeds/Families/JohnAshmanb1801/AshmanFred.htm
    However, he is still looking for relatives, friends or previous colleagues of the other crew members, F/Sgt R.P.O'Dea, Sgt R. W.Norley DFM, and Sgt E.D.Wilson. They are in the photograph on page 274 of BotDaW with their Lanc JB362. Please get in touch if you knew them.
    
  • Does anyone remember Sgt Walter Carr, a navigator in F/O G Mabee's (RCAF) crew? His daughter Esme would like to contact anyone who does. The crew went down on their first trip 29/30 March 1943.(Page 201 - Is Sgt. G.A.Jones still about?)
    
  • J.R.Sidebottom, D.Reid, and E.A.Milligan are sought by relatives in Australia of the late Flying Officer G.B.L. (Brian) Taylor. (Page 354)
    
  • Does anyone remember A.R.Boyce, the F/E in F/O T.Russel's crew, along with Nav G.Miller, W/Op E.H.Hird, A/G's V.Frost and J.O'Callaghan and B/A R.W.Read? D.Boyce, an Assoc 4T9er, asks this in the October 2002 Newsletter.
    
  • One of our associate members 'down under' would like to know if the damage reports on Lancasters were kept or destroyed at the end of the war. Has anyone seen them at the P.R.O., Kew?
    
  • The crash site at Poligny, France, where LM541, EA-N, came down on 8th July 1944, has been found. The crew were buried in the communal cemetery of Le Chesne, near Breteuil sur Iton, Normandy. Members of the local crashed aircraft association would like to correspond with relatives of the crew. As far as is known the 49 Squadron Association has never had any contact with the relatives. The crew were F/Lt G.E.Ball, P/O G.Millar, P/O J.Kernaham, P/O G.A.Rae RCAF, F/S G.J.W. Parkinson, Sgt J.A.Kirwan, Sgt E.Wardman. As mentioned in the Jan. 2003 Newsletter. (Page 358)
    
  • Sgt Leslie Cartwright was killed with four other aircrew in the crash of JB235 on the Fiskerton approach on the 27th November 1944. He is buried near his hometown of Bournemouth where a local resident has taken it upon himself to tend the grave. He would very much like to get in touch with any next-of-kin. Can you help to trace them? (Page 278-281)
    
  • Does any one remember Sgt. later P/O Len Coxill, Pilot, who flew 25 ops between 3rd July 1943 - 23rd Jan. 1944? (Magazine Issue 5)
    
  • Now searching for information about the crew of Sgt Bernard (Barny) Gumbley,DFM, RNZAF, 414614. Any details, crew photographs or possible contacts please advise our SEcretary.
    
  • We are still searching for any surviving relatives of the crew of JB 701, a Lancaster of 49 squadron which was shot down over northern France on July 29 1944, after a bombing operation on Stuttgart, Germany. In the plane that day were Pilot, Flight Lieutenant William Leonard Powell, aged 22 of Croydon, Surrey, Flight Engineer, Sergeant John Frederick West, aged 29 of Altrincham, Cheshire, Navigator, Flying Officer Geoffrey Edward Franklin, aged 31 of Lampeter, Cardiganshire, Air Bomber, Flying Officer Albert Stanley Cole, aged 21 of Hastings, Sussex, Air Gunner, Sergeant George Edward Kirkpatrick, aged 30, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, Wireless Operator, Flight Sergeant Donald Carl Stephens, of Truro, Cornwall and Air Gunner, Sergeant Thomas Moore, home town unknown. All of them perished when the plane came down and crashed between the villages of St Martin sur Oreuse and La Chapelle sur Oreuse, in the French department of l’Yonne, northern France.
    The relatives of F/O Franklin have been found and they were able to attend the dedication of the memorial in July, 2004. For more details go to here
    However, contact has yet to be established with relatives of the other crew members, so the Association would be interested to know if anyone can help. The family of F/L Powell were still in the Croydon area until a few years ago.
    
  • Email 27/11/2005 Andy Millar seeks information about his father's cousin P.O. George Millar, kia 8/7/1944, in LM541, Pg 358.
    
  • Email Tom Shaw wanted to know more about a distant cousin, Adam Telfer, kia 20/4/1943, in ED620, Pgs 209,210.
    
  • The magazine February 2008 Issue 9 asks for further information on Sgt. Norman Myer Goldberg kia 22/23rd May 1944 and F/O Richard Bailes in the last flight and crash of ND553 in April 1944.
    
• Fulbeck
  
  • J.Gunn, an air gunner from F/L Abbott's crew would like to make contact with any of his old crew. (Page 436 1st Op.)
    
  • F/Sgt A.L.Kermode completed a tour on the 11th November 1944 with F/O Burns and crew and was posted out. He had joined the squadron at Fiskerton on the 18th July 1944 and moved with them to Fulbeck. Does anyone know where he was posted and whether he was commissioned later? Better still, does anyone know where he went to on demobilisation?
    
  • Owen Trevor Williams, WOP in F/O Cannon's crew, completed their first tour in January 1945. He seeks news of the crew, Sgt.C.W.Lusty, P/O F.Picking, F/O F.T.Lane, F/Sgt D.J.Myers, P/O W.E.A.Salter (Mag. Issue 5)
    
• Upwood
  
  • The Squadron spent some time here postwar, but there is very little said about it in the book. An Association member would be interested in being reminded of some of the names of his colleagues - can you help?
    
• Wittering
  
  • Peter Rogers (SAC Wireless Mech B Flight 138 Squadron) would like to make contact with any of the 4t9ers who were about at that time.(October 2003 Newsletter)
    
  • Peter Unitt (based at Offutt AFB near Omaha to service the flights through to Christmas Island) would like to get in touch with any of the Megaton people who met him there.
    
• Marham - It seems that the squadron's time here must have been rather quiet, but having had an enquiry by email in March 2006 from Norman Hayes, is there anyone who remembers him?
  

Latest update: 23rd August, 2008