WW2 Lost Airmen Now Found

[robstitt]

Following up on Peter's post, all the answers are to be found in the documentary we made about the discovery and quest to find the crew members' relatives:

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/71years

I think any forum member would enjoy this. BTW, there's nothing in it for me, financially.

Robert

[PeteS]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...d-crashed.html

Published 18 June 2015

Lancaster PD214 - 106 Squadron 06/10/1944

The family of Flight Engineer Ronald Barton found the crash site last year near the town of Cloppenburg - but discovered the field had recently been sold to developers. His granddaughters Julie Barton and Debbie Bartlett launched a desperate campaign to save the site, and eventually persuaded the German authorities to allow an archaeological dig before the building work began.

In 1946 an RAF investigation team exhumed the two bodies and identified them as Australian trainee pilot Flt Lt John Colclough Barlow, 35, and Rear Gunner Sergeant Ronald James Paul, 20. They are both buried in Becklingen War Cemetery. The other six men who were on board that night were all listed as having 'no known grave' and are remembered at the RAF memorial in Runneymede. The location of the crash site was lost in the RAF archives, and the families of the dead believed they had crashed into the North Sea on their return journey. The missing men were Ronald Barton, 34; Flt Lt Douglas Stewart, 29; Flt Sgt George Bowering Kirby, 22; wireless operator Gordon Stuart Grogan; Canadian pilot Clyde James Royal, 31; and Flt Sgt James Anthony Fell, 21.


cheers
PeteS
https://630squadron.wordpress.com/

[PeteS]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36030575
and
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36140400

Published 12 and 27 April 2016

Members of the crew of Lancaster JB640 of 156 Squadron - 2/3 January 1944 and Halifax LK709 of 77 Squadron - 28 January 1944

New headstones were carved to replace those which previously had no names. Four of the Halifax crew already had known graves.

The men of Lancaster JB640 156 Squadron
Pilot Officer John Donald Range Cromarty (aged 23) - from Liverpool.
Flt Sgt Dennis Frederick Burtenshaw (20) - from Sydney, Australia. Later lived in south London.
Flt Sgt Leonard Norman Lapthorne (21) - from Birmingham.
Flt Sgt Reginald Joseph Collens (31) - from Croydon, south London.
Flt Sgt Kenneth Sidney James Chapman (20) - from Westbury, Wiltshire.
Sgt Frederick Edwin Woolven (23) - from Arundel, Sussex.
Sgt Norman Henry Colebatch (20) - from Walsall.

The men of Halifax LK709 77 Squadron
Pilot Officer William Proffitt White (23) - from Shotteswell, Warwickshire.
Flt Sgt Norman Thompson Steele (21) - from Ashington, Northumberland.
Flt Sgt Arthur Binnie Walker (21) - from Glasgow.
Sgt Thomas Ernest Edwards (22) - from Durham.
Sgt Leslie Raymond Bright (22) - from London.
Sgt Kenneth Bray (21) - from Grimsby.
Sgt David Winston Jenkins (22) - from Swansea.

[PeteS]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41488057

Published 3 Oct 2017

Human remains have been found during an operation to recover a World War Two Lancaster bomber submerged in a lake. The Avro Lancaster of 61 Squadron - R5682 crashed during the night 4-5 September 1942 near Warten in Alde Feanen, now a national park, in northern Holland. It is thought the remains of Canadian tailgunner F.J. Cooper were inside the crashed aircraft.


cheers
PeteS
https://630squadron.wordpress.com/

[PeteS]

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/stirlin...land-1-6486162

Published 28 Jan 2020

The remains of 218 Squadron Short Stirling BK716 have been found in Lake Markermeer, near Amsterdam. Bodies of its crew members are believed to remain on board the aircraft. FTR March 29, 1943.

cheers
PeteS
https://630squadron.wordpress.com/

[alieneyes]

The missing men were Ronald Barton, 34; Flt Lt Douglas Stewart, 29; Flt Sgt George Bowering Kirby, 22; wireless operator Gordon Stuart Grogan; Canadian pilot Clyde James Royal, 31; and Flt Sgt James Anthony Fell, 21.

cheers
PeteS
https://630squadron.wordpress.com/

Hi Pete,

Despite the media at the time being told, repeatedly, they failed to correct the name and position of the Canadian member of this crew.

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/c...,-clyde-james/

His trade was Air Bomber. Lost on his 28th operation.

Regards,

Dave

[PeteS]

Thanks Dave
Let's record his name correct;y here - Pilot Officer Clyde James Service RCAF

[PeteS]

A Spitfire just found on the Dutch coast

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...tch-beach.html

[PeteS]

I just read this

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/124...age-in-germany

Sergeant (A/Gnr) Henry Pullar RNZAF of Otautau, NZ. 75 Sqdn, Stirlings

[PeteS]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57428067

Wellington T2990 311 (Czech) Sqdn

The Wellington's pilot, Flight Sgt Vilem Bufka, parachuted out of the burning plane, broke a leg on landing and was captured by the Germans. He was imprisoned in Colditz Castle, returned to Czechoslovakia in August 1945. He wrote a memoir - Bomber T2990 Gone Silent - and died in 1967.

PeteS
https://630squadron.wordpress.com/