Sqn 156 Lancaster and crew

Hello all,

I'm a researcher on a new Australian TV series called In Their Footsteps, think of it as a cross between Who Do You Think You Are and a military history documentary. Each episode we will take one person on a journey of discovery to walk in the footsteps of an ancestor to learn about their wartime experiences.

In this, our first series (hopefully the first of many more), we are covering experiences from WWI, WWII and Vietnam.

Needless to say I was very excited to have an episode about a Pathfinder navigator land on my desk!

I have only been researching this for a few days so far, so these are fairly preliminary questions, I'd be happy to hear any advice on where to look for some of this information. First of all though some information about our navigator.

Frederick Charles William Healey DFC came to Australia from the UK as a young man, working in the cane fields, he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 21st June 1941 at the age of 32.

He moved through the usual training in Australia and Europe before eventually coming to RAF Sqn 156 in September 1943 - it is his experiences from here on that we are most interested in at this stage.

What we do know is his Lancaster, JA912 (GT-O) was abandoned after an encounter with a night-fighter somewhere near Magdeburg, all the crew were taken PoW.

Healey was interned in Stalag Luft 3 and, according to his family, was part of the Great Escape committee.

While another researcher in our team focuses on the POW part of our story I'm looking into the Lancaster side, so here are my questions.

I'm looking for surviving members of 156 Sqn for the grandson of Healey to meet and talk to - learn about the day-to-day life in Bomber Command, the Lancasters and of course the missions. They don't need to have known Healey, (although it would be fantastic if they did) just to have had a similar flying experience.

The crew on board JA912 were:

F/Lt Leslie Kilvington DFC (RAAF)
F/Lt T R Thompson (RAF)
F/Lt A Muggeridge DFC (RNZAF)
F/Sgt B H Heasman (RAF)
F/Sgt C Rogers (RAF)
F/Sgt S Galley (RAF)

I've been told they have all passed away but if anyone knows different please let me know. I'd also be very interested in hearing from any family members of the crew, particularly if you have any memorabilia such as photos, diaries etc.

Does anyone know if JA912 wreckage was ever located?

Finally one location we are already considering visiting is Warboys - both the site of the airfield (if possible) and perhaps a pub or other local establishments that airmen would have visited in the townships - I've emailed the Warboys historical society and am awaiting their reply but I'm happy to hear your ideas on visiting these locations. I have read the airfield has been returned to agriculture and a quick look at Google Earth confirms this; though it also gives the impression that some roads and maybe even runways may still remain in some form. I've also seen photos of the remains of various bunkers and buildings taken a few years ago. Has anyone here been there recently to tell me how it's looking and can anyone suggest who we should contact to gain permission to film there?

Of course if anyone has any great ideas for experiences we could offer Healey's grandson I'd love to hear them

Cheers everyone,

Tracey

 

PM me and I'll pass it on to my uncle who was a navigator in the Lancasters and see if he knows anything that might help.

KTK

 

We have a member here - 156Squadron - who is originally from Australia and who is truly an expert on the subject.
You may be able to contact him via a pm : -

http://www.ww2f.com/members/156squadron.html

 

JA912 was lost on January 21st/22nd 1944 over the target area and was possilby claimed by an Ace called
Hptm Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Witgenstein (his 83rd claim and 5th victim of the night! ) . Witgenstein was from Stab NJG2 . The claim was made at 23.00 pm . He flew a JU 88 call code R4+XM . At the time he was the Jachtnacht top scoring pilot.
Witgenstein died shortly afte rhis final claim and was possilby killed by Thomson , the gunner from JA912. Another possibility is that he was killed by F/sgt Snape who flew Mosquito DZ203 . The Ju88 crashed at Lübars . Suource :T Boiten NACHTJADG War Diaries.

 

Could do worse than ask here:

156 Squadron RAF - 8 Group Pathfinder Force

RAF losses/PoW/geneology anoraks here:

Main Category

Airfield nerds here:

Historic Aviation - Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums

Will this be on SBS, or another free-to-air network? Sounds like a great project.

 

I suggest we now all wait until Tracker returns, he hasn't posted again since his first post

 

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for your ideas.

Ken the Kanuck, I have tried to PM you on several occasions but I get a message saying my account doesn't allow it - I guess I need to have been a member for longer? Would you mind sending me an email at tracey.johns *at* shineaustralia.com and I'll get some information to you that way.

Martin Bull, we (my colleague Sarah and I) have been trying to contact 156Squadron via email for some time now but we have not had a response.

Skipper, sorry for not replying sooner, I'm not used to using forums and I didn't realise 2 days was a long time so I do apologise. Thank you for the info about Sayn-Witgenstein, Healey's son had told us that his father certainly believed their tail-gunner had shot down "a prince" apparently they were told it was a prince by some of the guards at Stalag Luft III, we hadn't had chance to look into that aspect of the story yet so your information has given us a huge head start.

Mhuxt, love the link for the Airfield nerds, will certainly be in touch with them! No, we won't be on SBS, all I'm allowed to tell you at the moment is that In Their Footsteps will appear later this year on a commercial network - I have no doubt there will be a lot of promotion surrounding it, it will be hard to miss.

I'll try to get on here and let you all know when it's about to go to air though I won't make any promises because I'll be travelling abroad at the time.

Thanks again for all your help, I may not reply immediately but I certainly appreciate it!

Cheers,

Tracey

 

Thanks for the info on the series - will look for it on the regular networks.

For what it's worth, although I'm a complete Mosquito fanatic, I don't really believe Snape shot down Wittgenstein. The Mossies weren't intended to be mixed in with the bomber stream - too strong a chance that all their own radar contacts would be friendly bombers, who in turn had a habit of firing on twin-engine aircraft.

Far more likely to have been the Lanc tail-gunner.

 

Hi Tracker, no need to apologise. It's just that people on the forum like to help people who actually return not people who vanish after a single post. Glad to see you returned.
Yes, Witgenstein was not only a Prince , he was also the top scoring nightfighter at the time of his death and his loss was dramatic for the morale of Gemran pilots. He was shot down just about when he was going to fire another burts and he told his crew to bail out, but personnaly chose never to take a parachute ( possibly considering a captain was to sink with his ship) and flew to his death. The details are known byt the testimony of his crew members. There was a huge ceremony and this is certainly how guards in the stalag heard about it. The Loss of the Prince is depicted in Theo Boiten's book as well as in many other books and places on the internet. You will find a lot about him . Glad I could help .

 

mhuxt, thanks for that observation, it certainly sounds logical.

Thanks again Skipper, is the Theo Boiten book you refer to Night Airwar? I'll try to get a copy. I'm just waiting for 'Princes of Darkness' by Claire Rose Knott to come back into my local Library as well.

Cheers

 

Yes, Theo's has recently published 2 volumes about the Nachtjagd, called Nachtjagd diaries. (red Kite edtions)

 

Hi everyone! Sorry for being absent for so long, due to some internet security issues I was locked out of this site

I wanted to give you an update on our story.

Tony and our film crew have just left Poland and are on the way to the UK where they'll spend the next 5 days, visiting sites such as RAF Warboys, RAf Downham Market (Bill was never at Downham Market but it has a lot of great buildings left and so will be more 'visually appealing' for TV than Warboys), The Eagle Pub in Cambridge and others.

Before leaving Australia Tony was treated to a crash course in GEE navigation by the former head of the RAAF school of navigation, Air Vice Marshal Norman Gray.

We have a couple more surprises lined up for Tony when he gets back to Australia - but I'll let you in on those once we've filmed them

Cheers all,

Tracey

 

Thanks for the update, Tracey. The forecast for this week is good so hopefully your guys will get some nice, atmospheric material in East Anglia which can look great in early spring. You're right in that Warboys may be a little disappointing but Downham should yield good material. I hope your crew enjoys their visit to 'Pathfinder country'.......

 

Thanks for the update!

 

Just saw the first "Coming Soon" ad for this on Channel 9, halftime of the footy broadcast.

Footy half-time slots don't come cheap - looks like this program has serious backing from the network. Looking forward to it!

 

First episode tonight 6:30.

 

so-o-o-o-o........ how was the show? I wish we got it over here on THIS side of the pond! It sounds like an interesting format.



-whatever

 

Unfortunately didn't see much of it due to fairly critical family issues, however assuming it was repeated at about 9:30 pm last evening, it's a well-done program.

As Tracey said, very much a cross of Who Do You Think You Are and a Military History docco. The bits I saw had to do with the startling horrors encountered by an Aussie PoW in the Pacific, who perished a month from the end of the war in an Allied bombing raid. Very moving, great niece of the serviceman met with a researcher, a vet who remembered him, went to visit grave in Yokohama. Very moving and well-done stuff.

 

Heheheheh, must be good, 7 Network is now running Fawlty Towers against it!