Lancaster Bomber 514 Squadron

Here is my latest find. Your father had not arrived at Freteval yet when this story happened, but he may have heard about it from his friends who arrived between april and June. Somebody at Freteval must have heard or seen these fights around the Cloyes bridge. On June 22nd, a USAAF flight went on a mission to Cloyes (Freteval) in order to destroy the bridge there. The mission took place in the evening. However the Germans day fighters were still in the air and got to Cloyes only seconds after a first straffing. Still a young U.S fighter started a dog fight with a ME109 and they had a frontal shooting , the german exploded and wreckage hit the wing of the P47. Both crashed. There were no survivors because of the low altitude fight which made bailing out impossible.

 

Erich, Skipper and others, I came across this JU 88 video on Youtube, I believe the narrative is Spanish. It looks like an armourers training video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5XgXQrBTi0
Do you know of any other JU 88 videos out there?

Wayne

 

It's an excellent video. Too bad it's an early version of the Ju88. The film is very good quality and the Spanish accent not too difficult to understand.

 

Good Morning,

The mosaic of images that are used to create Google Earth include some interesting events. This site, with an image capture from Google Earth, shows one of the last flying Lancasters, in flight, over Huntingdon England:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/09/google_lancaster/

Google Earth Community thread:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=228987

Wayne

 

An excellent image. I saw a Lancaster fly past in Ludford Magna in 2005. I even filmed it but I can't find the copy. I will try to sort my cd's out and find it for you. We were suposed to gather at a certain place but we missed it so we were in the middle of nowhere when it flew by. We waved , the crew saw us and made an extra circle for us, so in fact we saw it three times instead of one. The noise of the engines was poweful....

 

Mosquito crash in early'44. During a ground school class at Chipping Warden a loud thump drew my attention to the window. Hurtling above the roof tops was a 3-bladed prop with the blades curled back like a lily. Seconds later a tremendous whump and explosion told us a plane had crashed. No exact date for this event. Likely between 1st and 20th Jan/44. The grass field (no snow) displayed a strip of turf with telling slice marks for a short distance.From behind a few trees some 300 yards away came heavy black smoke,a mute reminder of a lesson too late for some and hopefully not wasted for others. I believe one of the fliers was Australian. Bordering one side of the field was a row of "married quarters" housing. Are there any listings for "mossie" losses?
Hopefully- Alex Campbell Have been enjoying the wealth of interesting posts throughout this forum and the new format. Congratulations.

 

Could this be the one ? January 7th 1944.
1655 MTU MOSQUITO IV DZ356. Took off 14.45 from Marsham for a standard day trainig exercise. F/L K F jolly F/O W D Langworthy DFC RAAF . 45 minutes after take off , with the Mosquito near the Welsch border, an explosion rent the air and debris were scattered around the village of Llangarron, some 13 miles from Hereford. The pilot was blown from the aircraft, less his parachute. He was laid to rest on Jan 12th in St Albans Cemetery, his funeral service was attended by airmen from 1519 Beam approach Training Flight, which until recently had been commanded by F/L Jolly . The day previous F/O Langworthy was buried in bath (Haycombe) Cemetery with padre Sands from the RAAF overseas Headquarters. Previously he had flown Lancasters with 97 Squadron. The primary cause of the crash was traced to a flame trap nut, or screw becoming enbedded between a valve and its seating. This permitted hot gasses to burn on the seating, which caused violent backfires and failure of the supercharger. (Source W. R. Chorley)

 

Interesting item Skipper but not the one yet. My time frame there should include up to Mar 25/44. This could be a puzzler. Sorry about that. Alex Campbell

 

It is a puzzler, I must admit. The problem is that it could be a non operationnal, sortie which I have not listed. I have a couple other ones but they do not fit, either nationalities or places etc... I assume the two airmen died in the crash, or did they survive? Also was it in the afternoon?

 

Bruce Johnston was a Canadian pilot and friend of Dad's. He kept a diary while enlisted in the RCAF, his sons have published his diary on the Internet. It is an amazing document.

On July 30, 1944 he learned that dad had failed to return from the raid on Stuttgart.
His diary entry "Red Campbell went for a Burton" is here:
http://www.lancasterdiary.net/July 1944/july_30_1944.php

The "Burton" reference is interesting, refers to a brand of British beer, the reference is explained in a sidebar at the site.

The full document is here: http://www.lancasterdiary.net/diary_home.php
This is another important historical resource.

Wayne

 

Bruce Johnston's diary has the details about the Mosquito crash at Chipping Warden! Apparently he was there the same time as dad (E.A. Campbell)
His entry of January 6, 1944 -
http://www.lancasterdiary.net/January 1944/january_06_1944.php

"There was a big prang today – a Mossie was doing a beat up of the field (ex BAT flight instructor) and he went in too low! Tore a hole in the roof of the BAT flt after bouncing off the field itself. The tail was torn off and rammed into a hangar and hung there. The rest of the plane bounced over the CGI block where I was and landed two hundred yards away in a field across the road. Nothing left at all. When it exploded on landing pieces flew all over the place and I got one. There was ammo exploding for three quarters of an hour and clouds of black smoke. An example of what not to do!"

 

Skipper- Like your classy new signature. Glad Wayne found Johnston's diary to enlarge on the mossie crash at Chipping Warden. I'll try to get more info on a mustang crash we witnessed in that vicinity and time span. Excellent work you are doing here and throughout the Forum. Cheers Alex Campbell

 

By reading Glad Wayne's diary, I found out an intersting detail that may be obvious but important here. If I am correct the Red is a nickname because of the colour of your hair. The lady who did not remember the names, might remember redhaired flyer. I'll ask her, you never know.

 

Skipper that was a remarkable idea about the red hair. No wonder you come up with so much information all through the Forum. Another point. While en route to Freteval on foot we were overtaken by a single horse and buggy with three occupants. The middle one turned partially and gave us a sly wink of recognition it was our rear gunner Sam Harvey. Walking with me was our mid upper gunner Jonesy pushing and sometimes coasting on a bicycle. I believe the buggy had but two wheels. The date was likely July31st or Aug1st (Mon or Tues) as we stayed only 2 or 3 days at the Arthurs. Bye for now. EA Campbell

 

Skipper, one of Bruce Johnson's sons contacted me requesting permission to use your image of Bob Giffin's grave on his Dad's website. Is that OK? http://www.lancasterdiary.net/
Any other information you may have about the grave site would be appreciated.
There is a guestbook at the site, you can also leave a message there.

Wayne

 

It would be a pleasure to share this picture. If it helps to find Bob Giffin's family it would be even better. I will be going to Vendôme for work on April 13th. I won't have time to stop long this time, but I'll take a few pictures from the town and from the Moisy crossroad where the Nightfighters landed in July 44. I wrote to Saint Cloud a few weeks ago requesting information, but I haven't had an answer so far. As soon as I have some more information, I will forward this. I will also ask local farmers for the name of the buggy. I know they have aspecial name.

 

A nice coincidence today. I talked to a lady who helped airmen during the war. She mentionned a man who was a Mustang pilot and crashed near Beauvais in June 1944. His name was Heyward Spinks. It rang a bell as a realised he was a Freteval evader!.Therefore I had a look in my notes and found out that he crashed on June 20th 1944 at a place called EVE after having been shot down by Flak. Spinks was and Lt from 357 FG and 364 sq . His Mustang . His Mustang 436935 was called "Hurry Home Honey". Spinks was from LA GRANGE California. Spinks was helped by a resistant fighter called Charpentier. His network called "Bourgogne" took him to Paris. He was supposed to go down to Gibraltar, but as he arrived near Freteval it was decided that this place would be the best hiding place for him.
I don't think most Freteval searchers have this info so don't hesitate to pas it to those who are interested. I don't know whether you remember him.

 

Thanks for the detailed account of Spinks. Yes I knew him but have been unable to find any mail we had exchanged at one time. I have another search from my OTU days, a Mustang fatality. While on a training exercise in a Welligton we saw a Mustang overtaking a Stirling from behind. The Mustang dived below and then came up in front of the Stirling intending to complete a huge loop. He disappeared into the overcast and then reappeared in an inverted spin behind the Stirling. We followed the agonizing attempts at recovery till the inevitable crash occurred. The time would be again between Jan 1st and Mar 25th/44 in the vicinity of Chipping Warden. Unlike the Mossie crash there was a thin layer of snow on the ground I believe. The ceiling was about 3000ft. a tad too low. Just what we need- another search with no details. Cheers to all Alex Campbell

 

Spinks was flying ace Pete Petersons Hurry home honey, P-51B coded C5-T.

obviously Pete got another P-51 and had it named the same as it was worn on his later war P-51D

 

Erich good to hear from you again. Can't keep up with all your detailed information, it's awesome. Feel I know you people better all the time especially from the "Gallery". Cheers Alex Campbell