P/O Roland R J Young RAFVR and crew - 576 Sqn – RAF Fiskerton – 1945.
Failed to Return - 13/14th February 1945 - Lancaster I – PD232 - Op Dresden.
Roland Young and crew ( pictured above ) were posted to 576 Sqn in December 1944. Young flew his first operation on New Years Eve 1944/45 as co-pilot in the crew of F/O D C Smith to Osterfeld in ME671.
He then captained his own crew 7 operations being lost on the 8th.
07/01/1945 – Munich – ? - P/O RRJ Young
16/01/1945 – Zietz – ME801 – P/O RRJ Young
22/01/1945 – Duisburg/Hambourn - ? - P/O RRJ Young
01/02/1945 – Ludswigshafen – PD232 – P/O RRJ Young
02/02/1945 – Wiesbaden – PD232 – P/O RRJ Young
07/02/1945 – Kleve – PD232 – P/O RRJ Young
08/02/1945 – Politz – PD232 – P/O RRJ Young
13/02/1945 – Dresden - Operation Thunderclap – PD232 – P/O RRJ Young – FTR - Crashed near Remlingen, Germany. Thought to have been lost in a collision with 405 Squadron Lancaster III PB183 F/L M O Frederick RCAF and crew.
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P/O Roland Robert John Young RAFVR – Pilot – 576 Sqn - Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt Kenneth George Greathead RAFVR – Flight Engineer – 30 – 576 Sqn - Son of Frank Greathead and of Laura Gertrude Greathead (nee Dixon); husband of Joan Evelyn Greathead (nee Gates) of Tottenham, Middlesex – Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany.
F/O Harold Norman Cheeseman RAFVR – Air Bomber – 25 – 576 Sqn - Son of Walter and Peggy Cheeseman; husband of Gladys Louisa Cheeseman of Woking, Surrey - Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt George Reginald James RAFVR – Navigator - 20 – 576 Sqn - Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt Douglas Patrick Bannister RAFVR – Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - 20 – 576 Sqn - Son of Bertie and Gladys Marie Bannister of Chelmsford, Essex - Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt Harold Edward Ward RAFVR – Air Gunner - 19 – 576 Sqn - Son of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Ward of Barnsley, Yorkshire; nephew of Mrs. M. K. Bullough of Esholt Lane, Shipley, Yorkshire - Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt Ernest William Webb RAFVR – Air Gunner - 19 – 576 Sqn - Son of George William and Ethel Mary Webb of Arley, Worcestershire - Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany.
This crew are interred at the War Cemetery in Durnbach south of Munich approx 300 miles from Dresden. That would suggest that they were not lost in the target area but outbound or homebound.
Another crew lost on this raid are also interred at Durnbach, P/O D C Rimmington's crew from 103 Squadron in LM682
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Sgt Douglas Patrick Bannister RAFVR
Douglas was born on 27th January 1925 in Chelmsford the only son of Bertie Bannister and Gladys Maria Bannister (nee Shorter). He had a sister born in 1930.
He was educated at Trinity Road and Moulsham Schools, Chelmsford, and was a member of Chelmsford's Air Training Corps and the Boys' Brigade Band. After leaving school he worked at Crompton Parkinson’s engineering works in Chelmsford, before joining the Air Training Corps and then the Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve). Douglas was a keen sportsman and a member of the Crompton Tennis and Cricket Clubs and the A.T.C. football team. He was said to be ‘of a happy and genial disposition’. Courtesy of Chelmsford at War website
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Sgt Kenneth George Greathead RAFVR
Sgt Greathead was a former London Metropolitan Police Officer
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13 February 45 – Dresden – Germany – Operation Thunderclap - Night. 14 aircraft detailed. Weather for take off was clear and to 0400E stratus tops 14000 ft built up as far as 0700E. This fell away to 5/10ths tops 12000 ft and into the target area where 4/10ths tops 8000 ft prevailed. Fortunately a clear patch was found over the aiming point. Similar conditions prevailed on return with good visibility at base.
PFF opened the attack with Newhaven marking which was accurate and punctual. Some crews were able to identify the target visually from an earlier attack by 5 Group. Red and green TIs and R/P flares were used and a Master Bomber was in control of this attack and crews bombed on his instructions.
Meagre heavy flak bursting 12000 ft to 17000 ft was encountered. There were no searchlights. One aircraft T2 ( F/L Halnan ) reported sighting an enemy aircraft, probably a Ju88. This crew also reported seeing an aircraft on fire in the air go down and explode on the ground.
F/O Carter in A2 was forced to feather 1 engine before reaching the target. He pressed on with 3 engines and bombed from 12000 ft. After bombing a 2nd engine became u/s and was feathered. The aircraft landed at Juvincourt in France and the crew returned to base the following day.
S/L Rooke in G2 was engaged by predicted flak on the return journey at Nuremburg which rendered the starboard inner engine u/s, None of the crew were injured and from Strasbourg this aircraft set course direct to base.
F/L Carter in C2 was forced to abort due to a u/s ASI and landed at Carnaby after jettisoning the bomb load in the sea.
From this operation F/O Young and crew in O2 failed to return.
Shortly after take off 2 aircraft, 1 from 550 Squadron and 1 from 300 Squadron collided and crashed near the airfield. Fire crews and crash tenders from the station were called out and rendered good service in extinguishing the fires.
Training – 1 fighter affiliation exercise, 1 air to sea firing exercise and 1 air test were carried out.
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( Operation Thunderclap was undertaken during this period. This was highly controversial and remains so to this day. The Air Ministry had, for several months, been considering a series of particularly heavy raids on German cities with a view to causing the dislocation and collapse of the hard-stretched German war machine and civil administration and thus bring the war to a speedy conclusion. It was considered that Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz - all just behind the German lines on the Eastern Front would be suitable targets. They were all vital communications and supply centres for the Eastern Front. As well as the morale factor of the attacks, there was the intention of preventing the Germans from moving reinforcements from the West to face the successful Russian advance.
The Air Ministry issued a directive to Bomber Command to this end at the end of January. The Official History describes how Winston Churchill took a direct hand in the final planning of Operation Thunderclap - although Churchill tried to distance himself from the Dresden raid afterwards.
The Berlin attack never took place but those on Dresden, Chemnitz and Pforzheim were carried out in February and early March.
The Dresden attack was particularly destructive and involved considerable loss of life. Recent research suggests a figure of 25k fatalities.
Certain factors have to be born in mind when assessing this business however.
1/ Dresden was an important German industrial and communications centre – by their own admission one of the foremost in the Reich.
2/ The raid did not use extraordinary means but was equivalent to many other similar raids against comparable targets.
3/ The raid was carried out through the normal chain of command and in compliance with the directives and agreements then in force.
4/ The Russians requested that heavy attacks be made on German cities in the line of their advance at Yalta in early Feb 45.
5/The raid was undertaken with a military objective i.e. to severely limit the potential use of Dresden by the Germans to stop or delay the Soviet advance.
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805 aircraft were dispatched in two separate raids and dropped 1,478 tons of high explosive and 1,182 tons of incendiary bombs. The first attack was carried out entirely by 5 Group, using their own low-level marking methods. A band of cloud still remained in the area and this raid, in which 244 Lancasters dropped more than 800 tons of bombs, was only moderately successful. The second raid, 3 hours later, was an all-Lancaster attack by aircraft of 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups, with 8 Group providing standard Pathfinder marking. The weather was now clear and 529 Lancasters dropped more than 1,800 tons of bombs with great accuracy. A firestorm developed similar to the one experienced in Hamburg in July 1943 and large areas of the city were burnt out. No one has ever been able to discover how many people died but a figure of 25000 is now thought a reasonable estimate. Bomber Command casualties were 6 Lancasters lost, with 2 more crashed in France and 1 in England.
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311 American B-17s dropped 771 tons of bombs on Dresden the next day, with the railway yards as their aiming point. Part of the American Mustang-fighter escort was ordered to strafe traffic on the roads around Dresden to increase the chaos. The Americans bombed Dresden again on the 15th and on 2 March but it is generally accepted that it was the RAF night raid which caused the most serious damage. )
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Lancaster PD232
This machine was a veteran of 64 being lost on its 65th.
It was a machine that was handed round quite a bit and flown by a variety of crews but principally by F/L A H Dutton and crew who took it on 16 ops.
Its first operation was on the 01/08/1944 to Belle Croix Les Bruyeres with F/L V Moss and crew
Compiled by David Fell. Photo from my archive.
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