Looking For Info On 115 Squadron Raf

Hi All,
My Grandmothers Brother served with the 115 squadron of the RAF during the early part of WWII he was tragically killed after crashing while trying to land after a mission on 9th September 1940. His Name is Sergeant Air gunner Reginald Brown he was from New Zealand. He is buried in LLANTWIT MAJOR CEMETERY in Wales. My Grandmother unfortunatly knows very little about him.

I was wondering if anyone could help me locate some information on Where 115 Sqn was based at the time and where their missions were. All information will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your help.

 

Hi Andy,

Try this site: http://www.rafweb.org

Regards
Arthur

 

Andy,
Here is an account of what happened.

Bomber Command War Diaries: 8th/9th December 1940.Dusseldorf; Bordeaux; Lorient, Airfields: 90 aircraft; many crews reported good bombing. 1 Hampden and I Wellington lost.

Bomber Command Losses 1940:

At 17:15 hours on 8th December 1940. Wellington Type IC Serial Nº. T2520 KO-A took off from Marham, Norfolk to take part in Operation Bordeaux.

At 03:12 hours on 9th December the Wellington strayed from track on the return flight and crashed into a hillside at Cefn-y-strad near Tredegar, Glamorganshire, Wales. There were no survivors.
Three of the crew, including the pilot, are buried in the Llantwit Major Cemetery, while the rest were conveyed to their home towns for burial.

Crew:
Pilot Officer A Tindall.
Sgt. D. Mills.
Sgt. H. D. Ellis.
Sgt. S.G. Howard.
Sgt. R. Brown.
Sgt. D.E. Wallace.

Regards
Arthur

 

Thank you very very much Arthur That is exactly what I am looking for. Are those dates correct? He was killed on 9th September 1940.
Thank you for your help.

 

Andy,
All the main references to this man and squadron gave the date of 9th December 1940.

When I initially started looking for this man under the date that you gave [9th September 1940] I found no imformation at all on the name or the squadron [115].
It was only by tracking him down through the C.W.G.C. site that I found the information that I gave.

Regards
Arthur

 

Jeepers Arthur, I can't beleive how stupid I am. I apoligize. I just re-read my sources and it does say 9th of December for some reason I kept telling myself it was the 9th of september. I feel like a real dipstick. :P

 

Hi Andy,
I am glad that you got it sorted.

All the best.
Arthur

 

Once again Thank you very much for your help Arthur. My Grandmother will be very pleased. I am going to work in England for 6 months next year and visiting my Great uncles grave is one of my top priorities.

 

Andy, welcome to the boards, and thank you for your great-uncle's service and sacrifice for Crown and Country. You'll enjoy it here, and have a good time in England. As for me, I miss New Zealand.

 

The Mountain
Cefn-Yr-Ystrad in the Black Mountains where the Wellington crashed just above the quarry around 2,000ft on that cold December day

Wellington T2520 of 115 Squadron coded `KO-A` Apple Took off from RAF Marham in Norfolk at 17.15 hrs on 8th December 1940 for a night bombing raid to Bordeux evans,having completed their mission the crew were returning to Marham in poor weather,however despite this other aircraft managed to make base and none were lost on operations, T2520 though somehow managed to drift way off track and crossing the Bristol Channel in the early hours of the ninth,were headed straight for the Black Mountains above Tredegar,Glamorgan where at 03.12 hrs it collided with Cefn-Yr-Ystrad above the old quarry workings and immediately broke up and burst into flames killing all on board. The Wellington continued to burn through the small hours and workers arriving at the quarry around 6 am saw the flames on the mountain and rushed to the scene, alas on arrival though they soon realised nothing could be done for the six unfortunate souls, and all they could do was help bring the bodies down to the quarry and wait for the authorities to arrive. Three of the crew, Tindall,Brown and Howard were buried in Llantwit Major Cemetery, while others were buried in their hometowns. __________________________________________________________________________ PILOT: P/O ALBERT TINDALL.RAF. Co-PILOT: SGT DAVID MILLS. RAFVR. OBS: HYLTON DANIEL ELLIS. RAF. W/AG: SGT STANLEY GORDON HOWARD. RAFVR. A/G: SGT REGINALD BROWN.RNZAF. A/G: SGT DAVID ERNEST WALLACE. RAFVR.

I have only today just taken photos of this Grave to go into a short booklet on the lives of the men, I also have a photo of Sgt Reginald Brown

 

Russell,
Thank you very very much for that account, it means alot to me. How would one go about procuring a copy of the booklet? as my Grandmother would love something tangible about her brother, and it would be great for the family archives.

 

Looking for information on a family member: p/o Alexander John Roberts PATE DFC, RAFVR 79171, killed in action 30 oct 1940. Commonwealth Graves site shows he served in 115 squadron

flyingshottsman

 

Hello and welcome to the forum.

The following comes from RAF Bomber Command Losses Vol.1 - W R. Chorley

29-30 October 1940

115 Squadron
Wellington IC T2613 KO-R.
Op. Ferry / Delivery Flight.

The aircraft took off from Marham enroute for Luqa, Malta and crashed at 0100 hrs after flying into a balloon barrage cable near Iver Buckinghamshire.

Crew.

P/O. A J R. Pate DFC +
Sgt. W V. Jaggs +
Sgt. W E. Elliott +
Sgt. E. Fisher +
Sgt. K R. Draper +

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/remembering-today/49167-remembering-today-30-10-40-sergeant-k-r-draper-751327-a.html

 

Thanks Peter. I've been doing Family genealogy for the last 40 odd years and I started putting together a list of members of all the familes I'm researching and came up with 8 who died in the service of the R.A.F. I have 2 left that I can't get anything on, I wonder if you can direct me to where I might look next.

Sgt Frederick David BRISTOW RCAF R/197789---can only find mention of him on The Runnymead Memorial and nowhere else. I don't even have a Squadron No. Death is listed as 31st Naug 1944.

F/O William McGillivary of No 61 Squadron, no service number. Killed in action over Dusseldorf 3rd NOV 1944. Have a copy of a letter to family from his Navigator F/O Douglas W Wright indicating they were attacked on the return leg of the mission and lost their starboard engines. Bill ordered the crew to bale out and he remained at the controls. Doug Wright parachuted into a wooded area near Aachen which was held by the American. They mounted a search but never found the aircraft or Bill.

Regards SAM GIBSON California

 

Sgt Frederick David BRISTOW RCAF R/197789---can only find mention of him on The Runnymead Memorial and nowhere else. I don't even have a Squadron No. Death is listed as 31st Naug 1944.

Regards SAM GIBSON California

Hi Sam, re Sgt. Bristow, the following comes from RAF Bomber Command Losses Vol.7 - W R. Chorley

31 August 1944

22 OTU
Wellington III DF737
Op. Training.

Took off from Gaydon for a night navigation exercise that involved the crew with flying part of the route over the North Sea. The aircraft was lost without trace. All are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Crew.

F/O. W C. Miller RCAF +
F/O. J K. Reid RCAF +
Sgt. F D. Bristow RCAF +
F/O. N E P. Douglas RCAF +
Sgt. D. McLean RCAF +
Sgt. C. Jutzi RCAF +
Sgt. M G. Casey RCAF +

 

F/O William McGillivary of No 61 Squadron, no service number. Killed in action over Dusseldorf 3rd NOV 1944. Have a copy of a letter to family from his Navigator F/O Douglas W Wright indicating they were attacked on the return leg of the mission and lost their starboard engines. Bill ordered the crew to bale out and he remained at the controls. Doug Wright parachuted into a wooded area near Aachen which was held by the American. They mounted a search but never found the aircraft or Bill.

Re the loss of F/O William McGillivray

From RAF Bomber Command Losses Vol.5 - W R. Chorley

2-3 November 1944

61 Squadron (5 Group Bomber Command)
Lancaster I PD199 QR-C
Op. Dusseldorf.

Took off from Skellingthorpe at 1630 hrs. Believed to have come down in Allied held territory. The two officers who died were taken to Henri-Chapelle in Belgium since when their bodies have been transferred to Hotton War Cemetery.

Crew.

F/O. W. McGillivray. + CWGC - Casualty Details
Sgt. W. Powell
F/O. B W. Wright
F/O. A E A. Howe
F/O. A. Wilson RAAF
F/O. J. Hoyland + CWGC - Casualty Details
P/O. W. MacKay

The Dusseldorf raid of 2-3 November 1944

992 aircraft - 561 Lancasters, 400 Halifaxes, 31 Mosquitos - dispatched to Düsseldorf. 11 Halifaxes and 8 Lancasters were lost, 4 of the losses being crashes behind Allied lines in France and Belgium. This heavy attack fell mainly on the northern half of Düsseldorf. More than 5,000 houses were destroyed or badly damaged. 7 industrial premises were destroyed and 18 were seriously damaged, including some important steel firms. This was the last major Bomber Command raid of the war on Düsseldorf.

Source - The Bomber Command War Diaries - M. Middlebrook / C. Everitt

 

Thanks Peter for all your help.

Sam

 

Besides the deaths of Flying Officer McGILLIVRAY, WILLIAM 150505 RAF & Flying Officer HOYLAND, JOHN 174139 RAF it is possible to identify the Aussie on board.

He was ARTHUR WILSON 20524 RAAF and he was discharged in October 1945 as a Flight Lieutenant. Like the vast majority of RAAF personnel involved in the loss of an aircraft, he has a casualty file stored at the National Archives of Australia (Homepage – National Archives of Australia).

That file has been scanned and is available to be read on-line, it might not offer much directly on your relative but it does contain a nice letter of commiseration written to Wilson's family by the CO of the unit when his status was still unknown. I am sure that McGillivray's NoK would have received something similar.

It also covers the injuries that Wilson sustained in surviving the loss of the aircraft.

 

Thanks Dave, I'm finding out a lot from you guys than the family members appeared to have been told officially back in the day and I'm finding I have to change my stories I pass on to younger members of the family about what their relatives did in the war.

Thanks again

 

Dave,

I have copies of the letter from the CO to Bill McGillivary's parents along with a letter from Doug WRIGHT, who had been his navigator. Doug had been the first of the survivors to get back to Britain and he knew about the others who had survived, they followed about a week later, picked up in a different area. From his position in the plane, he had only seen 3 others exit the plane ahead of himself, Bill was still at the controls trying to keep the plane stable on only its 2 port engines. There is still a great nephew of Bills still living in INVERNESS that I'll pass the info on to.

SAM