AR banner
Search Tips Advanced Search
Back to Top

Info LogoAdd to or correct this story with a few clicks.
Archive Report: Allied Forces

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.
Check our Research databases: Database List

.

We seek additional information and photographs. Please contact us via the Helpdesk.

37 Squadron Crest
27/28.01.1944 No. 37 Squadron Wellington X HE898 LF--P Fl/Sgt. Brodrick

Operation: Arezzo Rail yards

Date: 27/28th January 1944 (Thursday/Friday)

Unit: No. 37 Squadron

Type: Wellington X

Serial: HE898

Code: LF-P

Base: Tortella, Foggia, Italy

Location: Lost without trace

Pilot: Fl/Sgt. Noel George Brodrick AUS/415611 RAAF Age 20. Missing believed killed

Nav: Sgt. John Frederick Street 1390547 RAFVR Age ? Missing believed killed

Nav: Fl/Lt. Basil Graham Walsh 106046 RAFAVR Age 23. Missing believed killed

Air/Bmr: F/O. Leslie Wallace Creasey 51107 RAF Age ? Missing believed killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. John Henry Adams 1412902 RAFVR Age ? Missing believed killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Fl/Sgt. Frederick Thomas Lovegrove NZ/412889 RNZAF Age 27. Missing believed killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off at 18:12 hrs on an operation to bomb the marshalling yards at Arezzo in Italy.Petrol carried 750 gallons, 7 X 300 lb. bombs, 2 x 300 lb long delay bombs - 1 x 6 hour and 1 x 12 hour.

Aircraft is described as lost without trace off the coast of northern Italy.

At least two search operations took place to locate the crew or aircraft with no success.

It is thought that Fl/Sgt. Frederick Thomas Lovegrove survived an earlier incident whilst with 214 Squadron. On Stirling I EF362 BU-N - Pilot killed but all the remaining crew escaped injury - we would appreciate confirmation that this is in fact the same rear gunner.

Burial details:

Fl/Sgt. Noel George Brodrick. Malta Memorial. Panel 16. Column 2. Born on the 28th February 1923, the son of George Leslie and Eileen Catherine Brodrick, of 58 Claremont Avenue, Claremont, Perth, Western Australia.

Fl/Lt. Basil Graham Walsh. Malta Memorial. Panel 13. Column 1. Born on the 31st March 1920, the son of Walter Graham and Winifred Mary Walsh (née Stroud), of 81 King William Street, London EC4, England.

Sgt. John Frederick Street. Malta Memorial. Panel 15. Column 2. Husband of Mrs C. Street, 6 Liverpool Terrace, Worthing, West Sussex, England. Son of Mrs. A.M. Street, 36 Brighton Road, Shoreham By Sea, Sussex, England.

F/O. Leslie Wallace Creasey. Malta Memorial. Panel 13. Column 2. Husband of Mrs. L.W. Creasey, 110 Westaway, Bournemouth, England.

Sgt. John Henry Adams. Malta Memorial. Panel 14. Column 2. Son of George Thomas Adams and Mary Eliza Adams, of 63 Prendergast, Haverfordwest, West Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Fl/Sgt. Frederick Thomas Lovegrove. Malta Memorial. Panel 17. Column 2. Son of Orient Ishmael Lovegrove and Dorothy Amy Lovegrove and husband of Pearl Lovegrove 24 Albany Road, Ponsonby, New Zealand.

For further details our thanks to the following sources:

KTY - 06.03.2018

Pages of Outstanding Interest
History Airborne Forces •  Soviet Night Witches •  Bomber Command Memories •  Abbreviations •  Gardening Codenames
CWGC: Your Relative's Grave Explained •  USA Flygirls •  Axis Awards Descriptions •  'Lack Of Moral Fibre'
Concept of Colonial Discrimination  •  Unauthorised First Long Range Mustang Attack
RAAF Bomb Aimer Evades with Maquis •  SOE Heroine Nancy Wake •  Fane: Motor Racing PRU Legend
Acknowledgements
Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and MWO François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Stan D. Bishop, John A. Hey MBE, Gerrie Franken and Maco Cillessen - Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vols 1-6, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiton - Nachtjagd Combat Archives, Vols 1-13. Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
Click any image to enlarge it

Click to add your info via ticket on Helpdesk •Click to let us know via ticket on Helpdesk• Click to buy research books from Amazon •Click to explore the entire site
If you would like to comment on this page, please do so via our Helpdesk. Use the Submit a Ticket option to send your comments. After review, our Editors will publish your comment below with your first name, but not your email address.

A word from the Editor: your contribution is important. We welcome your comments and information. Thanks in advance.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them. - Laurence Binyon
All site material (except as noted elsewhere) is owned or managed by Aircrew Remembered and should not be used without prior permission.
© Aircrew Remembered 2012 - 2024
Last Modified: 02 April 2021, 10:04

Monitor Additions/Changes?Click to be informed of changes to this page. Create account for first monitor only, thereafter very fast. Click to close without creating monitor