Flying Officer Douglas Chapman Dunn RAAF, known to
his crew as 'Billy', celebrated his 22nd birthday in the
middle of August 1943. After the war his bomb-aimer W/O Marshall
Smith paid tribute to his skipper in a letter to Dunn's family which
outlined what happened to Lancaster ED949 on the late evening of 30th
January 1944.
Despite a fault which had rendered the rear-turret
u/s F/O Dunn and crew pressed on with their sortie against the 'Big
City'.
ED949 was attacked by a night-fighter about ten minutes short
of Berlin, setting fire to the starboard wing and the bomb-bay.
Bale-out had been ordered and when F/Sgt Smith exited the aircraft
the Lancaster was in a shallow dive and conditions inside did not
seem critical. However, local residents witnessed the blazing
aircraft dive into the ground and explode on impact at Neuruppin
Aerodrome.
F/Sgt Smith was captured and taken to the aerodrome and
was 'profoundly shocked' to be informed that rear gunner 'Ned'
Gloster was critically ill and not likely to survive and the rest of
his crew-mates were dead. The officials refused permission for
Marshall Smith to see Gloster, who subsequently died.
F/O Douglas Chapman Dunn, RAAF 22yrs
Sgt. Frederick Adams 23yrs
F/O Frederick George Fidler 21yrs
Sgt. Andrew Leslie McConnell 23yrs
Sgt. Harry Deakin
and
F/Sgt. Edward Fitzgibbon Gloster, RAAF 20yrs
were buried in a communal grave in Neuruppin
cemetery with full military honours, a local evangelical parson
officiated.
'It was an awful feeling to be the only one left
and I often felt that I should have gone down with the rest, for the
best had gone and left only me' – the heart rending words of the
sole survivor from ED949 - W/O Marshall Smith – a Scotsman from
South College Street, Elgin, Morayshire.
A thread appeared on a
WW2 discussion forum in 2012 regarding this crew which prompted a
contact from Paul Francis, nephew of navigator F/O Frederick
Fidler. If Paul happens upon this piece, I would welcome anything he
can tell about his uncle or the crew.
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