Lancaster Bomber 514 Squadron

Skipper, Erich, Otto and others,

I had a chance to speak to our local Kiwanis club about the role this forum played, and continues to play, in reconstructing the story of July 28, 1944.
I had a projector and was able to show the group many of the images that have accumulated here. The group was impressed with the art work that Skipper sent us.
Another person following this story is Earl Jones, the mid-upper gunner of A2 - C. Earl left a message at the Google Video site.
Avro Lancaster - 514 Squadron

You may have to click the comments link to see his comment.

Wayne

 

This is truly amazing. I really hope that one day all the families will be united, including the Giffins. If I am correct there are at least three other crew members or their families who are in touch with you. Also glad that the group likes the A2-C art work. I will be going for a 24h trip to Normandy tomorrow to meet an American friend but when I am back I will try to get more info about the death march and the place Earl Garland was captured. Also if the Garlands and the Jones (and other crew memeber families if more are in contact) want a copy of the A2-C artwork, they are welcome to contact me. Now I have even more reasons to drive back to the Chateadun area.

 

Wayne :

any type of hope that we can see part of the action here on this site by Earl or familie rememberances.

not sure of anyones PC-net hook-up but wouldn't that be something if possible ?

E ~

 

I have received more images regarding Earl Garland, some images from his log-book posted here:
Picasa Web Albums - EWC - Earl_Garland_log

He details some incidents (attacks, flak etc) from the period he was flying on Operations.
Wayne.

 

Wow and the logbook now. This is truly wonderful news. I notice some famous bombings such as Vaires. That place was certainly not saved by the bad weather conditions and got its share. I love reading about the details especially the attacks.
Erich there one for you here. I noticed that on April the Lanc was attacked by two Fw-190s while on a raid to Fougeres (Western France, near Rennes). Does that mean they were FW-190 Nightfighters? And if yes from which unit?

 

Skipper I've been going over Judy's log book and there are a few differeces in the notations. There is no mention of Me 109's anywhere and the notes about "slight flak" etc seem rather uncharacteristic of Judy's terms. There is no mention of the nightmare over Dortmund either. Hazel may have come up with a reasonable explanation as she said to me that he was probably too occupied and unable to see the goings on. This could even be an understatement of fact.
To mention just a few of his problems he was kept busy most of the time plotting our track and destination, then during violent evasive action his instruments went flying in all directions and get this bit he suffered terribly from air sickness (wearing an oxygen mask?)
I have not been talking to Ken(his son) yet about the log book. It seems likely that others have added notes in his absence as was the case with mine. Shall ponder on. Alex Campbell

 

Ok thank you Alex I was getting puzzled here, especially as there ocasionally one engined fighters fitted with radar devices, but these were very rare and I thought it was surprising they were not mentionned earlier.

 

>E Campbell said:
>Dad recently received an email from Shane Delacour of New Zealand. Shane had been searching the Internet looking for information on his uncle Herb Delacour RAAF, killed flying with 514 in 1944.

See: Lost Bombers - World War II Lost Bombers

E.A Cambell's crash information at:
Lost Bombers - World War II Lost Bombers

lostbombers.co.uk is an on-line searchable database of the bombers lost during the World War II.
An invaluable and most appreciated resource. Much thanks go to it's anonymous creator.

 

gents my head is in outerspace right now, a cycling freind died this past saturday and we laid him to rest tonight.

ok back to this......... skipper yes in April of 1944 Stab and II./JG 300 operated FW 190A-5's and A-6's and also 1./NJG r 10 but the latter unit was based at Werneuchen on the east side of Berlin. the A-5 and A-6 was fitted with the up-right aerialed FuG 217 radar with a single scope placed in the cockpit dash if you will. a real pain for the pilot to try and track a bomber and then still use his eyes in the Wilde Sau fashion for intercept and attack.

Bf 109's in JG 300 were not equipped with radar but when I./NJG 11 and later II./NJG 11 was formed from III./JG 300 a/c and personell in the summer of 44 some of the 109's did carry the FuG 217 in similar fashion to the fit on the Fw 190A.

E ~

 

Sorry to hear about your friend Erich and thank you for posting despite this terrible fate.
Thank you for the interesting details regarding FW-190 nightfighters.

Fred Wilson, thank you for the Delacour info.

 

Skipper get me some April 44 dates and I can check against the JG 300 data of which I have.........this is most likely the unit facing RAF heavies. In fact:

there were a total of 6 Fw 190A losses from II./JG 300 during April of 44 with another 2-4 additions from malfunctions of all kinds. In the above 6, two Fw 190A-7/N's were lost from 5th and 6th staffels on April 24/25, 1944 near Dortmund. Must confess that there were not a wide range of Fw 190A's fitted with the Neptun FuG 217 radar. Also I forgot to point out that JG 302 in part also had Fw 190A's fitted with the FuG 217, with one pilot coming to mind and that was ace Kurt Welter.

E ~

 

The data on the logbook shows the night of May 19/20th 1944. It says "three attacks by FW-190s LIGHT fLAK" . By checking lost data bases I confirm that 514 took part at the bombings of this operation (LE MANS) . In fact five Lancs were lost and two of those were from 514 Squadron. Both Lancs crashed homebound : LL641 crashed (spun) at Chippenham at 03.10, killing four including the skipper E. Shearing. there were 2 survivors. LL703 crashed at 03.00 at Graveley airfield . It was hit by lak while over France but the crew was unhurt (skipper= D. Gray) . The question is how to explain the presence of those FW-190s around the target at about 600kms south of their usual hunting area?

 

Skipper I see no actions of any LW fighter of JG 300 the date you mention. there is a lull in fighter activity for JG 300 from May 14th to May 21, 1944 as JG 300 was being brought back up to strength in equipment......

let me see now, well II./JG 302 and inf act the whole of JG 302 by May had given up their Fw 190A NF's and flew the Bf 109G-6 on daylight missions. I see no data reference for any night flights for JG 301 or JG 302 on the date in May.

again NJGr 10 was based east of Berlin so we can rule them out. I still think the candidate could of bee a flight by JG 300, II. gruppe but nothing is in the data/text about this. another and very remote is 4./NJGr 10 if I am correct who flew the Fw 190A and were based out of Holland and was a small independent unit - scored 0 victories during the war

 

This is what I thought too. Alex told earlier that this could have been wrong statement, but I always like to have proof that is as scientific as possible. The units involved around Le Mans in May 1944 were NJG4 (Coulommiers) and NJG5 (Athies) both were mainly flying ME-110s.

 

this may sound odd but it could easily have been mistaken ID, and that is simple enough when your bomber was attacked and chaos around you.

for 19/20 of May 44, Oberleutnant Schaus of II./NJG 4 scored 1 Lancaster, location unknown for his 10th victory. I see no other claims made for this night of activity by the LW Nachtjagd.

E ~

 

Schauss's claim was not around LE MANS. The three other Lancs that crashed near the target were all hit by Flak this is why thye are not mentioned in the Nachtjaght claims. Your statement is not odd at all, ID were mistaken all the time in a sutation of stress. This adds to the mystery and the fun. If everything was written down there would be ne more jigsaw to assemble.

 

Skipper yes, I was just trying to throw out one unit and I can also confirm NJG 5 as you suspect was in France at the time. May was an odd time for the LW day/night units with alot of shifting around and placement of airbases, had they known what was to come before them ~ Normandie ~they would of stayed well up front towards the coast

 

This is why NJG2 was sent to Chateaudun on June 7th, only 24h after D-Day, so from this aspect, indirectly , A2-C was a casualty of the D-Day landings...

 

and did you know Skip that NJG 2 in part was planning on opening up the Fernenachtjagd missions over England again.? the Normandie landings and aftermanth closed that idea down real quick... of course it never happened until march of 1945 with 3 + missions

 

Erich,

Sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.

Thanks for the link to the "lost bombers" site. You are right that is an amazing site and again appears to maintained by a volunteer.

Wayne