'The best had gone and left only me'.

Flying Officer Douglas Chapman Dunn RAAF, known to his crew as 'Billy', celebrated his 22^nd 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 30^th 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.

His duty, fearlessly and nobly done.

On the night of 30^th January 1944 P/O Norman Joseph Lyford RAAF, twenty-two year old pilot of 44 Squadron Lancaster ND514, was last seen by his crew-mates holding the aircraft steady to enable them to bale-out after being attacked by a night-fighter about 15 minutes short of Berlin.

In the early hours of the previous morning (29^th January) accredited photographers had visited RAF Dunholme Lodge to record F/Lt A Moore and 'the crew of “C – Charlie” on their return from their ninth time to “The Big City”.....Berlin, to complete their tour of operations in Lancaster ND514. The photograph appeared on the front page of the London Sunday Graphic newspaper on 30^th January.

Also appearing in that issue of the Sunday Graphic was a photograph of two young men standing beside the aircraft in which they had thankfully returned from a sortie to the German capital the previous night/ earlier that morning, having landed at 8.26hrs. P/O Norman Lyford RAAF, his B/A F/Sgt Owen and their crew-mates were fortunate to have survived a very near miss from a flak shell which caused significant damage to LM434 – serial-F.

Squadron records noted - 'Damage to aircraft caused by heavy flak. Port wing tip shot off. Port fin damaged. Holes in starboard mainplane, port mainplane, port inner engine cowling and starboard elevator trimming tab.'

P/O Lyford looks as though he'd prefer to be anywhere other than in the limelight. Having arrived back at Dunholme Lodge around breakfast time crews were thankful for a stand-down that (Saturday) evening.

Norman Lyford's account - 'We were rather badly shot up by flak over the target, but this did not affect the mission.'

LM434 was u/s for the next operation on Sunday evening, 30^th January and the Lyford crew took ND514, no longer required by F/Lt Bert Wright and crew.

About fifty miles from the 'Big City' on the way in, ND514 sustained an attack from a night-fighter causing such damage that P/O Lyford ordered his crew to bale-out. None of the crew members were injured during the attack.

The standard tactic for Luftwaffe night-fighters with conventional, forward-firing cannon and machine-guns was to attack a bomber from below and behind -‘von unten hinten’, firing at the fuselage to disable the gunners and other crew members. That some night-fighters were equipped with ‘schrage-muzik’ upward-firing cannon was still unknown at this time. Their method of attack was from underneath, aiming to hit a Lancaster’s wing tanks between the two starboard engines ‘and pull away immediately without firing at the crew at all’.

So it is possible that ND514 suffered a 'schrage-muzik' attack from below into the wing area housing the fuel tanks, causing a wing and engine fire.

Lyford held the aircraft under control long enough for his six crew-mates to safely exit the Lancaster.

Wreckage of ND514 came down at Geisenhorst, a tiny rural hamlet, SW of the settlement of Dreetz just south of the Rhinkanal-in-Dreetz, some 44 miles from Berlin, about 12 minutes Lancaster flying time. Norman Lyford's remains were recovered and buried in the parish cemetery at Dreetz on 4^th February.

Local witnesses considered the wreckage to have been that of a twin-engine aircraft, the RAF Investigation Unit's later interpretation - possibly a Mosquito. Were only two engines and scattered wreckage found in the vicinity of Geisenhorst? A likely explanation – a catastrophic explosion of fuel in the wing-tanks, and the bomb-load. Official findings suggested that the nature of the loss of ND514 was such that P/O Lyford's death would have been instantaneous.

Whatever happened, gallant Norman Lyford had again looked after his crew, ordering them out and staying at his post until they had made their escape from the stricken aircraft. All six of his crew-mates survived to become Prisoners of War. 

 

F/E               Sgt. A. Semple

Nav              Sgt. J.R. Tijou

B/A               F/Sgt. G. Owen

W/op A/g      Sgt. R.G. Keen

M/u               Sgt. H. Marrs

R/g               Sgt. J.A. Wainwright

Norman Joseph Lyford, from Pymble, Sydney, New South Wales