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Sgt. Jack Liddell -
RAFVR |
| Sergeant Jack Liddell
was serving as Rear Gunner on board Lancaster Mk.III ED-927 coded
AJ-E during Operation Chastise on
May 16/17, 1943. The aircraft's target was the Sorpe Dam as part of
the second wave, it was hit by
flak and flew into some high tension wires
causing the aircraft to lose control and crash, the entire crew
was killed. The other
crewmembers were:
|
Name |
Service |
Trade |
Hometown |
Age |
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F/L Robert
Barlow - DFC |
RAAF |
Pilot |
Carlton,
Victoria |
32 |
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P/O Alan
Gillespie - DFM |
RAFVR |
Bomb Aimer |
Carlisle,
Cumbria |
20 |
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P/O Phillip
Burgess |
RAFVR |
Navigator |
- |
20 |
|
P/O Samuel
Whillis |
RAFVR |
Flight
Engineer |
Fenham,
Newcastle on Tyne |
31 |
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F/O Charles
Williams - DFC |
RAAF |
W/Op/AG |
Torrens Creek,
Queensland |
34 |
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F/O Harvey
Glinz |
RCAF |
Front Gunner |
Winnipeg,
Manitoba |
22 |
All of the crew lie in
Reichswald Forest War Cemetary.
Sergeant Jack Liddell RAFVR, was
18 years old at the time of his death. His parents were Robert
and Winnifred Liddell of Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset. Jack
enlisted on May 30th 1941 when he was only 17 and and qualified
as an air gunner
achieving a personal goal of
becoming an airman. He sadly was the youngest fatality of this
operation.
All of the crew had previously
flown with 61 Squadron. The awards for the crew were
published, in descending order of crew, on 14th May 1943 and
20th July 1945.
In 1993,Eric Fry wrote an
account of F/O Williams RAAF service under the title "An
Airman Far away". This was published in Australia by
Kangaroo Press Pty and distributed in the U.K. by Gazelle Book
Services Ltd.
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Photos courtesy of
Eric Rundle, research by Linda Ibrom.
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