Hello all, I have found this forum thread researching the raid on Lille. Like 'Sippy' I too reside in Adelaide South Australia. I notice things have been pretty quiet on this thread for a while but am hoping to stoke the coals. I am a regular visitor (pre Covid that is) and Battlefield Guide in France and Belgium focusing mainly on WW1, but I became interested in the Lille raid through a colleague in Ieper whose family owned the brickpit into which JO-J crashed. I am also the founder of a website called Virtual War Memorial Australia https://www.vwma.org.au for which I began writing a piece about the raid. We have 'person pages' on each of the Australian crew (sadly our scope is limited to Australian personnel) lost on the raid - some more comprehensive than others, including the four RAAF members of the JO-J crew. I recently located a good quality portrait of the second gunner (FO Bob Croft) on JO-J through the VWMA site - it lists thousands of Memorials and we have linked many of the names on them to the records of the people they commemorate. Meanwhile back at Lille, I have tried plotting the actual crash sites but my information sources don't all align so a high level of uncertainty remains. I have accessed a series of French language sources, an excellent blog by another Australian researcher and an account of the aftermath of JO-Js demise through my Belgian connection. My own investigation has led me to include that two of the 467 Sqn aircraft likely collided or were caught up in the same conflagration (flack detonating a bomb load maybe?) over the target - PO-B and PO-J. At least one other was likely hit by a night fighter (PO-E) and the other two were probably hit by flack. JO-J's demise is well documented and attributed. I am determined to get around these sites on my next visit which will now likely be later than intended (late September). Any correspondence welcomed. For Sippy's benefit here is David Croston's VWMA person page. Virtual War Memorial | David Payne CROSTON
