On the night of the 23rd May 1942, some three months after his 22nd birthday, Wally and the rest of the crew set off on the first operation of their tour of duty, bound for Dortmund. Not only was this their maiden flight, but it was also that of their aircraft a Lancaster Bomber ED995.
ED995 had only been delivered to Wickenby some four days earlier. Unbelievably Wally went on to complete the whole tour of 30 operations in this one plane!
The crew who had only come together as the seven last men standing when everybody else had ‘crewed up’ through self selection based on known experience or friendship.
So seven men, unknown to each other, all from different walks of life and from different parts of the UK, set off on a flight of just short of 6 hours, totally unaware that through trust, courage, teamwork and a large slice of luck six of them would survive the first tour of some 5 months and 200 flying hours ahead.
The only original crew member not to survive was Wireless Operator Sgt. T Routledge, who died of oxygen starvation on the second op, a night raid on Dusseldorf. Tom Routledge is buried in Pershore Cemetery Worcestershire. He was only 29 years old.
F/O F J WRIGHT,
F/O E V SAUNDERS,
Sgt D T HONE,
Sgt D R TATTERSALL,
Sgt B S HEATH,
Sgt G W SHRIMPTON,
Sgt W J SMITH
These brave young men were carried through their whole first tour of 30 operations in ED 995.The tour included bombing raids on Berlin, Hamburg, Milan, Turin and Peenemunde.(see Log Book)
Sgt D T Hone was replaced By Sgt R Edgeworth for the last 3 ops of the crew's tour. (Bob Edgeworth was killed in action during his second tour with 626 Squadron also based at Wickenby. He is buried in Marsal, France. He was only 18 years old)
Bob Edgeworth W/op on last 3 sorties of first tour
Tom Routledge and Bob Edgeworth were just two of the1,080 aircrew members who lost their lives flying from Wickenby in the three years the station was operational!
This crew completed their tour on the morning of 5th October 1943, grateful to the reliability and dependability of ED 995 (PH-X)
ED995’s next flight was to Hanover 3 days later. She never returned!
The first tour consisted of 30 operations. however, Wally completed 31. This was due to the fact that he was chosen to be the flight engineer to Wing Commander Craven on a night raid to Berlin on September 29th 1943.
It was common practice for the Station Commanders to do occasional operations to keep their hand in. To do this they usually chose experienced crew members. This was Wally's 28th op'.
For Wally the last few ops’ of his first tour were coming thick and fast. The very next day after his sortie with W/cm Craven he was back with his normal crew on a raid to Hagen.
This raid was completed in the early hours of 2nd September. Amazingly the crew flew on an raid lasting eight and a half hours to Munich that same night!
So in reality that for Wally was the completion of his first tour he could walk away with his head held high having survived the 30 operations he volunteered for earlier that year.
But such was the nature of this man he knew his crew and now close friends had only completed 29 ops’. So instead of walking away to a more normal life that morning he made the decision to do one more op’ so they could all finish their tour together.
Frankfurt was the destination, September 4th 1943 the date, when messes Wright, Saunders, Hone, Tattersall, Heath and Shrimpton along with Wally Smith set out on the last flight together.
There seems to be a myth that the last op’ was always a ‘milk run’ something steady and not very dangerous. Well, a night raid over Frankfurt with a full bomb load at the height of the war is certainly no milk run.
So what made Wally want to do this extra operation? He had done his Tour and survived horrendous odds and yet put himself back in the firing line!
Many years later he explained why. "How could I have lived with myself had they not returned," he said. "The thought of that was far worse than the possibility of not returning myself."
They landed back from Frankfurt in the early hours of September 5th 1943, for them all their first tour completed.
Lancaster Bomber ED995 code PH-X, nicknamed Sarah, had stood the crew in good stead and as the tour progressed they became increasingly superstitious about anyone else flying in her.
On the afternoon of 19th May 1943 at 15.40 hrs, they flew in her for the first time doing a 2 hour local flying stint. As the copy of the planes record at Wickenby shows it appears that they were the first to fly in her and little did the know that with both the great skills of the Flight Engineer and the craftsmanship of the manufacturers this plane would carry them for some 175 operational hours.
The crew only failed to reach their target once during their tour. ED995 suffered engine failure just after take off on the night of 8th July but the ground crew got her airworthy for the next sortie to Gelsenkirchen the very next night.
Three nights later with a full bomb load and only flying at 16,000 feet Sarah and the crew flew a 9hr 45 min op to Turin!
Probably the most infamous raid that the crew was to be involved in was the attack on the V1 and V2 rocket base at Peenemunde on the Baltic coast.
V1 Rocket more commonly known as a Doodle Bug
In the ever faithful JO-X at 21.20 hours on the evening of 17th August 1943 the crew took off from Wickenby and headed for Peenemunde carrying just short of a 5 ton bomb load (1 x 4000 lbs. 6 x 1000 lbs. and 2 x 500 lbs.) They successfully returned some 6 hours and 35 mins. later landing back at Wickenby at 3.55 in the morning.
Of the 270 heavy bombers that attacked the target 40 never returned (almost 15%) A total of 270 aircrew lost their lives that night!
On the completion of the first tour the crew went off for a well earned rest and just three days later ED 995 got a brand new crew for its next sotie. They must have felt really lucky to be in a plane that flew the previous crew through a whole tour, totally defying the odds.
ED995's last Operation
A copy of lost card above shows the names of the crew who were on their first and only flight on Lancaster ED995 that had served Wally and the rest of the crew so well.
They must have considered them selves fortunate in taking over a lucky plane having served the previous crew so well, however lady luck was not with them that night.
Pilot Sgt R A Collins Navigator Sgt W T Adamson Wireless Op. Sgt P M Adams Flight Engineer Sgt S B Watson M. U. Gunner Sgt E Mallin and Rear Gunner Flight Sgt J A O Strachan were tragically al killed when the plane went down in flames on the north bank of the River Wesser near Hamlyn.
Bomb aimer Sgt P J Bemrose managed to bail out of the burning Lancaster before she crashed into the ground on the East bank of the river Weser at Hameln just before 2am on the morning or 9th October 1943.
Sgt Bemrose was captured and eventually taken to a prisoner of war camp in Muhlberg, Stalag IVB.
Muhlberg-on-Elbe is a small inland port some 80 miles south of Berlin. Stalag is an abbreviation of the German word Stammlager which means base camp. There were hundreds of them in Germany IVB was designed to hold about 15,000 prisoners but often held nearer 30,000 in the filthy cold wooden huts which were infested with all kinds of vermin.
During his time here Sgt Bemrose contributed to an organization called the Muhlberg Motor Club. One of several organizations founded in Stalag IVB to raise morale.
The MMC produced magazines to keep fellow POW’s abreast of the motoring times. Using tea coffee and quinine tablets for ink and colour the magazine came complete with pictures.
Sgt. Bemrose contributed to the magazine by writing poems and providing illustrations.
The poem Reawakening is shown below and is written over a painting of the Wye Valley.
In 1945 when the fighting reached Muhlberg the camp was overrun by Cossacks of the First Ukrainian Army who, seeing the sentry boxes were empty, mounted a guard and held the prisoners for a further six weeks. Eventually they were all marched to Riesa where they were found by the Americans and from there were returned home.
All the members of the crew of ED995’s last operation killed in action are all buried at Hanover war cemetery Germany.
These young brave men were just six of the one thousand and eighty men who died whilst serving with 12 squadron at Wickenby between 1942 and 1945!