Find Ancestors

Hi, If anyone has the above book would they be kind enough to let me know details of the entry for G-George lost 8th Jul 1944 near Envermeu (Seine-Maritime), France. Pilot Stanley Findlay. My Great Uncle Douglas Carter (Sergeant, 1819918, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 57 Sqdn) died in the crash. My understanding is that he was the rear gunner and that they were shot down by a night fighter on the way to bomb flying-bomb storage dumps at St Leu d'Esserent. I have information about the flight but I have never read the entry from the above volume, which should confirm the details I have and hopefully may add to them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You. Steven,

There's a link to a bookshop selling the W R Chorley books on e-bay. Janice

Hi, I have just returned home for my lunch and logged on straight away to see if anyone had been able to help with my query. I'll check out amazon, ebay and the National Archives info. Thank you for all of the replies and help. It is very much appreciated. Many Thanks, Steven.

Hi Sophie, Thanks for the help. I'll check out Amazon, and thank you for the National Archives & Commonwealth War Graves info, I'll check that out too. Thanks for your time and help. Steven.

There are quite a few copies of that book available at Abe Books. Just google 'abe books'. Prices average about $19 US.

Hello Steven - late to this thread and you may already have put it to bed, but :

1 don't forget good old paper - your local library may have it stock, and certainly can order it form a nearby branch.

2 www.lostbombers.co.uk is a cracking site and I heartily recommend it whenever I can. Using 8th July 1944 as the filter, It says : LM522 - Serial range LM301 - LM756 This aircraft was one of 350 Lancasters ordered from A.V.Roe (Yeadon) as Mk.111 except for the first ten as Mk.1 (LM301-310), delivered from Oct42 to Oct44. Mk.1s had Merlin 20 engines and Mk.111s Merlin 38 engines initially installed. LM522 was delivered to 57 Squadron Mar43. LM522 took part in the Key Raid against Wesseling 21/22Jun44. LM522 was one of three 57 Squadron Lancasters lost on this operation. See JB370; ME868. LM522 was the first production aircraft to have H2S installed. Airborne 2218 7Jul44 from East Kirkby to attack the flying-bomb storage facility in the caves at St.Leu'. Crashed between Envermeu (Seine-Maritime) and St.Nicolas d'aliermont, bothe villages being roughly 11 km SE of dieppe. P/O Findlay is buried in the Communal cemetery of the former, whilst his crew are buried in the French military plot at the latter. P/O S.Findlay KIA Sgt T.Spencer KIA Sgt R.K.Nixon KIA Sgt J.Horton KIA Sgt W.Clark KIA Sgt A.C.H.Baker KIA Sgt D.Carter KIA " This is pretty much the text of Chorley, I expect.

I was going to suggest worldwar2exraf.co.uk but I see you've been there !

There will be plenty of books about RAF East Kirkby, or about airfields in Yorkshire, and either may have greater detail of the Sqn, and photos.

www.rafcommands.com has some 57 Sqn history.

www.bomber-commands.com has a lot of info, including a nice Lancaster VII from East Kirkby on the home page - choose ENTER and then LANCASTER to open a wealth of info.

Have you applied for his records ? Its late and my wife is not leaving much in the bottle of wine downstairs so I need to disappear rapidly, so just google RAF records and that'll tell you how to access them if you can prove a relationship.

Hope some of this helps.

Charlie

Hello again steven - just surfing a bit wider. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/00/a4147300.shtml has a very good article by a chap who served in 57 Sqn a the time of your G Uncle. Aviationartprints.com has a nice picture. Given that LM522 was the first Lanc retro fitted with H2S (early radar navigation system) I suspect that a 'net search along the lines of "lancaster + H2S" would come up with lots of references that might be interesting. As you can tell, I'm into the aviation side more than the genealogy ! CNAPG.ORG has an enormous amount of information but is sometimes a bit tricky to navigate.

Charlie

I've got that book so I'll check it out this evening.

The mission details given by Lighning F6 correspond exactly to Chorley.

The only missing detail is the plane's Squadron id of DX-G