78 Squadron RAF

I am researching a man who went down with his Halifax on the night of 19 June 1942. He was a flight sergeant with No 78 Bomber Squadron and his name was Mostyn Maurice Crowe. I am aiming to produce a detailed biography of him to mark the 75 anniversary of his demise. He is listed on the Camberley and Frimely war memorial, but also has strong connections with Lustleigh in Devon.

I'd like to see if I can establish any details about his time in the RAF and particularly whether he took part in the historic 1,000-bomber raid on Cologne on 30/31st May 1942 and any specific details about his last mission.

Any straight answers or suggestions of where to look will be gratefully received.

 

Hello everyone,

I have just joined the forum and found this post. I have been researching 78 Squadron or the last 20 years and would be interested to hear from anyone who has a connection to the Squadron. I know a couple of the posters on this thread (Michael and Tony) and am willing to answer any questions I can.

Regards
Daz

 

Hi Daz,

I appreciate your willingness to help with answers and from others who read this as well. My mom and dad each lost a brother KIA in WWII My mom's brother Howard was a Flight Sgt (Pilot Officer) with a crew of 5 in a Wellington Mark X HE #273 with 424 Bomber Squadron flying from a roughed out air strip 25 km's SW of Kairouan, Tunisia on their Pre raid bombing mission to Messina Italy on 28/29 June, 1943. Another 5 man crew in #272 also never made it back. My Uncle Howard was 21 when he was MIA.

My Dad also in WWII was an Air Gunner on the Lancaster's and he lost his younger brother "Greg" who enlisted in Sept 1942 at 18 years of age served with 78 RAF Bomber Squadron. I read that he was in a Halifax II and I understand that he participated in other missions before going down as from what I copied below. He got his Air Gunners Wings on July 7th 1943 then went overseas to Britain on the 24th of July 1943 and went on operations shortly after that.

Raz, if you have more info on his missions, I would appreciate hearing about those. I have been reading up what I could find about the missions that 78 Squadron went on during his time with them and see some bombing campaigns over Germany if you are able to verify which missions he participated in. that would be nice to know. Anything on his final mission would be good to know as well and all greatly welcomed and I'm thankful for that!!!

"MULLIGAN, MAURICE GREGORY SGT(AG) R184306. From North Bay, Ontario. Killed in Action Jan 22/44 age 19. #78 Squadron (Nemo Non Paratus). Halifax aircraft #LW 300 went down in the North Sea east of Hull, England when returning from operations against Magdeburg, Germany. Four of the crew, not Canadians, missing believed killed. Two of the crew, not Canadians, were rescued from the sea. Sergeant Air Gunner Mulligan has no known grave, his name is inscribed on the Runnymede War Memorial, Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey, England."

Thanks very much again,

Sincerely yours,
John

 

John,

apologies when I read this yesterday your post wasn't visible. I will be able to provide you with some information. Give me a couple of days.

Regards

Daz

 

John,

So this is some of the information I have:

Maurice Gregory "Greg" Mulligan enlisted at North Bay on the 30th September 1942, he was then sent to No. 6 SFTS on the 18th December 1942. From there he was sent to 23 PAE Toronto on 8th March and then on to No. 2 Air Gunnery School on the 4th April. From there he moves to No. 3 Bombing and Gunnery School on 30th May 1943. He graduates from there as a Air Gunner and is promoted to Sergeant and gains his Air Gunners Brevet on the 7th July. On the 24th July 1943 he moves to No. 1 Y Depot in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is then moved to New York where he embarks to sail to the UK arriving on the 11th August. He then moves to No. 3 PRC on the 12 and from there is sent to No. 19 O.T.U. at Kinloss in Scotland.

Having successfully completed his operational training, he receives the following comments from Group Captain Swain:

"This N.C.O. has had only a short period of ground training but has attained a satisfactory standard.
His air work, generally, is good but he requires further practive in range estimation. He is very keen and with further experience has the ability to becoma capable and reliable A/G."

He and his crew move to 1663 Conversion Unit where they carry out further operational training on the Halifax, having picked up a second gunner and a flight engineer. There is no course immediately available to him so he and his crew mates are sent to the 4 Group Battle School for a sort course, where basically they are treated as soldiers! He finally completes his Conversion training and is posted to No. 78 Squadron at RAF Breighton in North Yorkshire on the 3rd December 1943.

The crew are not involved in operations until January 1944 when they undertake their first operation on the night of the 20th aboard Halifax II LE300 EY-H. Their target is Berlin. The operation is completed successfully and the crew return safely to Breighton. On the following night, the 21st they are again down for operations in the same aircraft, the target being Magdeburg. This was a ‘Derby’ operation and 78 Squadron dispatched 17 aircraft. EY-H was attacked by a night fighter en route to the target and the petrol tanks were holed as a result, this aircraft carried on and attacked the primary but owning to a shortage of petrol on return journey came down in the sea. Two members of the crew were picked up by a destroyer, namely FO Marston, Bomb Aimer and Sgt McMillan, Mid Upper Gunner, both suffering from shock. The rest were sadly drowned.

As you already know he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

If you send me your email by PM I will send the file I have created for him over to you.

Regards

Daz

 

Hey Daz,

Thanks again for everything and I will be passing pertinent information on to my family for Remembrance Day tomorrow as I honour My two Uncles Howard and Greg and also my Dad who returned safely from WWII where others had made the ultimate sacrifice and May they all Rest in Peace, but never be forgotten.

You've researched 78 Squadron over the last 20 years so have a connection in some way here as well. Do you have a relative who was lost in WWII or another conflict that you may wish to mention as well, or your direct military connection to the Squadron. Good to honour the service of all those fallen soldiers and also those who survived or that regenerate the stories of their lives as well. Post what you wish to on that, and thank you again,

John

 

John,

Thanks for the kind words. My uncle served on the Squadron as an Air Gunner in 1944, he was the sole survivor of his crew following a crash during an H2S exercise. He then moved to 76 Squadron. He never spoke about the war and I only found out about this after his death.

They were a generation, the like of which we will never see again.

Daz

 

Thanks Daz for sharing the story of your uncle who served with 78 Squadron as an Air Gunner in 1944. That crash and him being the sole survivor would have been traumatic and yes, many choose not to talk at all or very little of their WWII experience. I salute your uncle for his service with 78 Squadron and also with 76 Squadron.

My dad never talked about the war either, other then him being in Scotland and an Air Gunner, though he did say that he had wanted to be a pilot, but his eyes were not the best for that. He never mentioned about losing his brother either, which I'm sure would bring on bad memories from that. They may have seen each other while in Scotland, though my Dad was on the Lancaster's which he did mention a number of times, admiringly about that Bomber.

I did manage to put some good long tributes up on my FB page about the two Uncles that I never had the opportunity to meet, but some relatives are still around to appreciate that also. Thanks again also Daz for your contribution to that and I appreciate your time to get that to me!!!

 

John,

some more information for you, the two survivors from your uncle's crew, FO Marston and Sgt McMillan were awarded the DFC and DFM respectively for their actions on that fateful night. Sadly both would go on to lose their lives whilst serving with 78 Squadron.

Regards

Daz

 

Thanks for that additional info and I was thinking about the two that survived that crash and good that they did get rescued by a passing destroyer ship, but very sad to hear that they both lost their lives later on with 78 Squadron. It was nice to see that they received their Medals and I had a look at those, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Flying Medal. I then did some further research and saw a good link that I'll put here also which shows 78 Squadron going out on their mission departing Breighton to bomb Magdeburg on the 21rst and return on the morning hours of the 22nd of January 1944 as we knew, but with seeing as Sgt McMillan was the Mid Upper Gunner, then looking at that (HP-59) Halifax B. MKII LW300 EY-H and series 1a, that was followed in the last week of January with the Halifax III's coming in.

With the Halifax they were in, there was no front turret so the Mid Upper and also the R.G. Rear Gunners Turret position where my uncle Sgt M. "Greg" Mulligan would have been. I had a look at the Boulton & Paul Type E Turret and also saw one picture of that on the tail of the Halifax showing the Monica Radar which is right under the Rear Gunner and that was U/S "UnServiceable" so it must have been damaged while the two fuel tanks were holed in the night fighter attack. It has in the writeup also that a fixed aerial was shot away, which could have been part of a wing but it they damaged the Monica Radar at the rear, the night fighter may have also shot off part of the tail like some of the vertical stabilizer.

The corkscrew evasive action they use a lot and earlier models had problems breaking out of that spin, though they managed even after being badly damaged, unfortunately falling short of the return to Breighton, From where they ditched in the crash 30 miles north of Norwich that would be south of the route shown on the map, so I'm thinking that since the two fuel tanks were holed, they may have decided to use the most direct route back rather then head a bit north to split between Hamburg and Bremen, so even flying south of Bremen.

I was 18 year in the military army and air force so spent time in Germany so those are familiar areas. Thanks again for the update on the two that survived though the plane split in two on impact. I'll add the link with 78 Squadron Halifax details from the Magdeburg raid which was quite large.
John

Magdeburg,January 21th 1944 - Jan Kersten
Magdeburg,January 21th 1944
Magdeburg. January, 1944. 21 th. Tonight is Williams Seventh operation. In total of 648 aircraft - 421 Lancasters, 224 Halifaxes, 3 Mosquitos - on the first major raid to Magdeburg. The German controller again followed the progress of the bomber stream across the North Sea and many night fighters were in the stream before it crossed the German coast.

 

Hi Rob, I researching W7932 for quite a while now and would like to exchange information. Please contact me azantvoort@outlook.com