Help please finding military service record / information about Thomas Brocklehurst, RAF, servive nu

can any one please help me find out any information about my wife's uncle war service from 1938 to 1944 ?

name - THOMAS BROCKLEHURST
rank - sergeant
Unit - 49th squadron RAF.
date of death - 18/08/1943.
military number- 517587 ?
place of birth Holmfirth west Yorkshire ?
remembered on a war memorial at Holmfirth hospital west yorkshire

can anyone find his service record, a old photo of him, war record etc please

thank you

also can anyone trace the military service record of a

name - THOMAS HENRY BROOKES
rank - unknown - possibly ground crew ?
Unit - unknown - believed to have been in the RAF - gunner or ground crew ?
military number - unknown
place of birth - believed to be Birmingham / aston ?

 

Details of the above loss....

17-18 August 1943

49 Squadron
Lancaster III ED805
Op. Peenemunde

Took off from Fiskerton at 2153 hours. Crashed in the Baltic.

Crew.

S/L. R N. Todd-White +
Sgt. A. Purrington +
P/O. H O. Batchelor +
P/O. F. Plant +
P/O. B. James +
Sgt. G. Hamble +
Sgt. T. Brocklehurst +

Source - RAF Bomber Command Losses Vol.4 - W R. Chorley

During the course of 1943 RAF Bomber Command visited Peenemunde just once 597 aircraft were dispatched with 571 attacking the target which consisted of a Research Establishment (Crossbow) 1641 tons of HE along with 297 tons of incendiaries were dropped. 40 aircraft were missing or lost.

 

A few possibilities for THOMAS HENRY BROOKES in AIR 78 Air Ministry and Ministry of Defence: Department of the Air Member for Personnel: Index to Airmen and Airwomen

One of them appears to be a pre-war number but the other two fall firmly in the frame for: 1475000 to 1550000 enlistments after April 1941 at Padgate

1489015 / 1513091

(I don't seem to be able to attach the document)

 

More here, including photo fro Thomas Brocklehurst
http://www.49squadron.co.uk/personnel_index/detail/ToddWhite_RN

Sadly, it does seem as if Thomas's body WAS recovered and buried at Peenemunde, but the cemetery was completely destroyed either deliberately or during intense fighting by the Russians in Spring 1945. His body was not found or able to be identified despite intensive efforts and he is therefore commemorated at Runnymede. (RAF Loss Cards)
BROCKLEHURST, THOMAS. Rank: Sergeant. Service No: 517587. Date of Death: 18/08/1943.
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force 49 Sqdn.
Panel Reference: Panel 289. Memorial: RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL

 

According to Martin Middlebrook's publication The Peenemunde Raid,Lancaster ED 805 was the 16th down,one of 27 Lancasters lost in the target area.The aircraft appears to have been brought down in the sea north or east of Peenemunde as it left the northern tip of the Island of Rugen which suggests that it was lost on the run in to the target.

The response from Hitler to the raid was to remove the Wehrmacht from the management of the rocket weapon programme and put Himmler and the SS in charge.A new location was found at at Nordhausen in the Harz Mountains, on a site which had tunnels previously thought to have been used for the extraction of gypsum.....the new camp known as Dora under the SS Mittelwerk was unknown to inmates drawn from concentration camps such as Buchenwald, and the Allies alike.The camp retained its secrets until it was overrun by US forces in April 1945.

The raid was the first time that the Master Bomber technique had been used,Group Captain John Searby leading the attack had been assessed for the job on a trip to Turin a week or so previously.

A few years ago,there was a documentary covering the relatives of a missing airmen from the Peenemunde raid on a quest to find his grave in the Pennemunde area....cannot remember how it concluded but the outcome appeared to bring relief to the relatives.

Being in the former GDR and with Peenemunde having an important military airfield it was very difficult for the investigation of war graves to receive GDR official permission postwar.

Per Ardua Ad Astra