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NAME

POSITION

AIR-FORCE

COMMENTS

F/L Winchcombe.H.R.

Pilot

RAAF

Posted to 463 Sq 9.4.45. No ops to 8.5.45.

P/O Scott.P.J.

Engineer

RAF

 

F/O Munton.G.R.

Navigator

RAF

 

F/O McCosker.P.

Bomb Aimer

RAAF

 

F/S Reuter.J.F.

Wireless Operator

RAAF

 

F/O Gillespie.P.E.

Gunner MU

RAAF

 

P/O Williams.H.J.

Gunner Tail

RAAF

 

 

DATE

TARGET FOR TONIGHT

AIRCRAFT

COMMENTS

       

F/L Winchcombe.H.R and crew were to late on 463 to fly ops.

There is no information on the crew in Orbs, but a crew as senior as these may have been a 2nd tour crew.

 

Webmasters notes:-

This crew most certainly came over as a 'Second Tour' crew. They were posted in from 630 Sqd. The notes below have been emailed in by Ian Gillespie, son of the late F/O Gillespie P.E.

My father and the crew took part in the Berlin raid on 24-March when 73 were lost and 4 days later the Nurenburg raid when 96 were lost, and just wonder if with such a large loss of aircraft in just a few days the RAF undertook some housekeeping on their records and corrected some errors, thus resulting in a change of serial number for the aircraft they were flying. 

The crew also flew on the Mailley Le Camp raid, so they hit the trifecta, three of the worst raids of Bomber Command. After reading the Martin Middlebrooke book on the Nurenburg Raid,I asked my father about it, he replied that he had not noticed anything unusual as they had been up the front as "backers up". I pointed out that according to the book 630Sqdn. lost 3 out of 14, he was suprised and just shrugged his shoulders and said "we were just lucky". I think they were all the same in many ways to him, and he would never discuss his experiences much other than to say how he was just lucky and had had a great pilot and crew.

Contact Ian Gillespie

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