F/O Richard L Hughes RAFVR and crew – 576 Squadron – RAF Elsham Wolds – 1943
Failed to Return – 24th December 1943 – Lancaster III – ED713 – Op Berlin
Richard Hughes' crew were posted to 103 Squadron at RAF Elsham Wolds on the 23rd October 1943 from 1662 HCU. They were detailed for the following operations in November completing three. The 4th was cancelled due to high winds and an accident to another aircraft which blocked the runway.
18-Nov-43 - Berlin - Lancaster - ED767 - P/O RL Hughes - Aircraft damaged due to unknown cause. Landed Bradwell Bay
22-Nov-43 - Berlin - Lancaster - ED767 - P/O RL Hughes
23-Nov-43 - Berlin - Lancaster - ED767 - P/O RL Hughes - DNTO - Cancelled due to high winds which caused some aircraft to swing on take off
26-Nov-43 - Berlin - Lancaster - ED767 - P/O RL Hughes - Diverted to Leconfield because of bad visibility at base
At the end of November they were posted to the newly formed 576 Squadron also at RAF Elsham Wolds.
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They had taken off from Elsham Wolds at 0032 on the 24th December on what was to be their only operation with 576 Squadron. ED713 was reportedly shot down by Oblt Paul Szameitat. Sgts Woodruff, Morris and Lanxon all managed to escape by parachute and spent the rest of the war as prisoners. The remaining members of the crew were killed and now rest at Hanover War Cemetery.
P/O Richard Lloyd Hughes RAFVR – Pilot – 576 Sqn - Hanover War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt James Eric Frederick Paton RAFVR - Flight Engineer – 21 – 576 Sqn - Son of Clara Emmeline Paton of Brighton, Sussex - Hanover War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt J Woodruff RAFVR - Air Bomber - POW - Camp 4B – POW No 269805
Sgt Donald A H Morris RAFVR – Navigator - POW - Camp 4B – POW No 269793
Sgt John Phillip Gray RAFVR ( pictured below )- Wireless Operator – 576 Sqn – Hanover War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt Francis E A Rivett RAFVR - Air Gunner – 19 - 576 Sqn – Son of Arthur Henry and Isabella Rosalind Mary Rivett of Thetford, Norfolk. - Hanover War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt F H Lanxon RAFVR ( pictured below ) - Air Gunner - POW - Camps 4B/L3 - POW No 269785
Sgt Lanxon landed close to the crashed Lancaster and, in spite of losing blood from his wounds, he searched the wreckage in the hope of finding survivors. He had lost his flying boots which had been ripped off when his parachute opened and was exhausted from the cold and loss of blood so he was forced finally to give himself up to local villagers.
Sgt Woodruff and Sgt Donald Morris also survived. Donald's account is shown below.
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23 Dec 43 – Berlin – Germany – Night. 8 aircraft detailed for this late take off. Bombing was carried out from 20,000 to 23,000 ft. Only cloud and fire tracks are recorded on the photo prints. F/O Richards and crew, with F/O Marks as second pilot, and P/O Hughes and crew are both missing from this operation.
( 379 aircraft. Again cloud cover and also faulty H2S radars caused the Pathfinders problems. Marking was scattered and sparse but the south eastern suburbs of Berlin were damaged. )
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Donald Morris
Memories of service in the RAF and life as a prisoner of war.
Donald Morris worked as a Fire Watcher in London before volunteering for the RAF in 1941 aged 18 ˝ years. He joined up at the Yorkshire Grey recruiting office in Eltham. He went in to train as a pilot and learned to fly in Perth, Scotland, before he was sent to flying school in Texas, and then Ontario, Canada. He went solo in a Tiger Moth training aircraft after five hours. The Lancaster Bomber was introduced during the time Donald was learning to fly and he recalls that ‘the RAF found that they had too many pilots so a number of men in training like me were diverted to train as air crew in the new Lancasters.’
103 Squadron
Donald served with 103 Squadron and 576 Squadron in the crew of Richard Hughes. His memories of serving on the base in Lincolnshire are mainly very positive: ‘We did everything together and when we weren’t flying we were boozing!’ He completed three night missions to Berlin from Elsham Wolds, each trip was of around eight hours duration. On Christmas Eve 1943, Donald was ‘blown out’ of his aircraft over Hanover on a mission to Berlin at a height of 20,000 feet with two other members of his crew. The remaining four airmen went down with the aircraft. He now knows that his colleagues are buried in a military cemetery near Hanover.
Donald landed in a tree and the other two airmen landed nearby. There was deep snow on the ground. Once his colleagues released him from the tree it became apparent that he had hurt his leg and that he could not walk very far, but the airmen wouldn’t leave Donald and make their escape.
They survived ‘at large’ for around 24 hours before they gave themselves up to a local woodcutter in a forest near where they had landed. Unable to walk, Donald was transported to the police station in a goat cart. The three prisoners were held in the local police station overnight before the Luftwaffe came to collect them.
Interrogation
The Luftwaffe took the three airmen to an interrogation camp in Frankfurt. They were put into single cells where the radiators were switched on and off to drastically alter the temperature. Donald explains:
'After three days each airman was collected for interrogation in the middle of the night. The interrogation took place in the commandant’s office, and various tactics were used to get us to talk including the firing of pistols in nearby rooms to make each airman think that their colleague had been killed. However, it soon became clear that the Luftwaffe had far more information about our operations than we knew!'
Camp life
Donald and his three colleagues were then moved to a permanent prisoner of war camp – Mühlberg, 80 kilometres from Leipzig, Germany. The camp held approximately 10,000 Allied prisoners, most had been serving in the Army when they were captured. Donald recalls that the camp had been used in the First World War, and while conditions weren’t ideal and there wasn’t a great deal of food, they were well treated. His main recollection of his time in the camp was that it was ‘very boring’ although he was promoted twice while he was there. Donald’s parent’s were informed he was ‘Missing from operations’ by telegram on Christmas Day 1943. They received no further word of their only child until they received a Red Cross postcard from him in April 1944.
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Lancaster ED713.
This machine was a veteran of over 70 operations at the time it was lost - the last two with 576 Squadron. It had been flown by a number of well known 103 Squadron crews. Of note are those of Sid Cook DFC DFM, Nicky Ross DSO DFC, Norman Frost DFC, Reg Bunton DFC ( pictured above ) and Bob Edie DFC.
Item compiled by David Fell with top photo from the Lee family with a quite a few others. The Morris item was from a newspaper sent to me some years ago and I am not sure now from where it originated. The Bunton photo is courtesy of Mr Ashton.
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