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.

195 Squadron Crest
02.11.1944 195 Squadron Lancaster I HK663 A4:H Fg Off. Peter J. Funk

Operation: Homberg, Germany

Date: 2nd November 1944 (Wednesday)

Unit No: 195 Squadron

Type: Lancaster I

Serial: HK663

Code: A4:H

Base: RAF Witchford, Cambridgeshire

Location: Venray, Holland

Pilot: Fg Off. Peter J. Funk J8876 RCAF Age? Injured

Flt Eng: Sgt. Noel Price 1880863 RAFVR Age? PoW No: 1162 *

Nav: Fg Off. Bruce Clyde Lumsden 418753 RAAF Age 26. PoW No: 8709 ** (1)

Bomb Aimer: Fg Off. Frank Major J35774 RCAF Age 26. PoW No: 8719 ** (2)

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. Sydney Dudley 1480232 RAFVR Age 23. PoW No: 1135 * (3)

Air/Gnr (Mid Upp): Sgt. Gerald Walter Flower 1798759 RAFVR Age? PoW No: 1139 **

Air Gnr (Rear): Sgt. Gerald Patrick Kenny 1835809 RAFVR Age 37. KiA

* Stalag Luft 7 Bankau nr. Kreuzburg O.S." (O.S. standing for Oberschlesien, Upper Silesia). Today called Bąków nr. Kluczbork (Poland).

** Stalag Luft 3, Sagan-Silesia, Germany, now Żagań in Poland.

Above: 37 Year old, Sgt. Gerald Patrick Kenny, the only fatality from the crew.


We are indebted to Joop Hendrix of the Planehunters Recovery Team for the research they have undertaken on this loss - see links.


REASON FOR LOSS:

About 184 Lancasters from 3 Group were tasked against the oil plant at Homberg Germany. It was a daylight precision bombing mission, with the squadron taking off from RAF Whitchford at 11.18 AM.

They successfully attacked the oil plant, the result of the attack that day: 938 tons of H.E. from which 20.3 exploded on the target area, causing heavy damage to the generators, plants and other pipelines.

Crew of Lancaster HK633:

Rear left to right: Sgt. Gerald Kenny, Sgt. Noel Price , Fg Off. Peter Funk, Sgt. Gerald Flower; Front left to right: Fg Off. Frank Major, Fg Off. Bruce Lumsden and Sgt. Sydney Dudley

The crew bailed out and were taken PoW after the Lancaster was hit by heavy flak while over the target area. Fg Off. Funk crash landed the aircraft on the Allied 8th Corps Front and taken to a Canadian Field Hospital.

Description of the research of the loss as supplied by Joop Hendrix:

The City of Venray and surrounding little towns that now belong to Venray will mark their 70th anniversary of their liberation in September 2014. The idea was brought up by Mr. Bernard Ploegmakers to form a committee that would research what aircraft came down during WW2 in Venray. The crash information will then be displayed on 4 different locations in the towns.

The committee existed of about 7 people that all were involved with the history of WW2 in one or another way. There was a list of 53 possible crashes that came from two local researchers.'

On one of these crashes the information we had was: a Halifax bomber from 78 Sqn that crashed on 4th November 1944, just behind the nowadays German military cemetery. Within the committee Mr. Toon v/d Wetering from Volkel airbase doubted that it was a Halifax as he had supporting information on that particular Halifax. (Halifax III LK838 EY:E flown by 21 year old Fg Off. Edwin Albert Love J/27205 RCAF from Ontario, Canada. Killed with 5 other crew, 1 taken PoW.)

So I went out with my metal detector and found evidence from a crashed WW2 aircraft located just outside the fence of the German military cemetery. The small pieces I found were for sure from a WW2 aircraft, but no proof of the aircraft type.

Mr. Lei Potten who serves at the committee as well, arranged permission to search at the war cemetery.

There is about 40 yards of wooden area right at the fence on the inside. We found some small pieces of metal and when cleaning it 2 of these (shown above) were quite interesting. That was a part bearing the letters VACB 761 which means the aircraft was build at Vickers Armstrong in the Castle Bromwich factory. And second a type plate that reveals the number 683 which stands for the aircraft type, a Lancaster!! Yes we knew for sure the aircraft type now.

In the meantime Mr. Jan Strijbos copied all sorts of old documents from the city's archives and found a letter describing that the crashed airplane could be a Lancaster or a Halifax.

Above: Gerald W. Flower pictured in 2014 after being traced by Neil and Peter - see links)

I went through the missing aircrafts from the RAF in W.R.Chorley's list around the datum of 4-11-1944 and found out that on 2-11-1944 a Lancaster crashed in Holland but the location was not known. The aircraft mentioned the HK633 was build at Castle Bromwich and was on a mission to Homberg Germany which would have brought it close to the Ysselsteyn area.

I had a good feeling this was the aircraft we were looking for, furthermore 2 other Lancasters on the sane raid crashed in the neighbourhood that day and had already been identified.

But we did not have the final proof, that came a few days later when Mr. Lei Potten found out that Sgt G.B. Kenny, the tail gunner was brought in at the British field hospital located at the local school, wounded and died that same day. Also his name is on a memorial stone located in Ysselsteyn.

There are 2 mistakes made though, the first one is that the date on the memorial stone is 2nd October 1944 instead of 2nd November 1944 (see photo below) and secondly he is registered as a Canadian, but he has the nationality of British (Trinidad is part of the British Commonwealth)'


The group, assisted by Neil and Peter from 51 Squadron historical Society (see links) traced many of the crew or their surviving relatives:

Note: Serial Range HK553 - HK806 This aircraft was one of 200 Lancaster's ordered from Vickers Armstrong (Castle Bromwich) as B.II Sep 41 and changed to B.III Feb 43, but built as B.Is from Oct 43 to Feb 45. Up to HK773 had Merlin 22 engines initially installed, and all subsequent models had Merlin 24 engines.

HK663 was delivered to No.195 Sqn on the 6th October 1944. When lost this aircraft had a total of 18 recorded hours. HK663 was one of two Lancasters lost from 195 Sqn on this operation.

The other was Lancaster III LM743 A4:R flown by Fg Off. R. Palmer RNZAF PoW with 5 other members of his crew. The Flight Engineer, 33 year old Sgt Edward George Paradise RAFVR was killed. Buried at Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.

(1) Fg Off. Bruce Clyde Lumsden was born on the 23rd June 1917 in St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia. Prior to enlisting in the RAAF he was a teacher.

After the statuary visit to the Dulag Luft, transit camp Wetzlar, Oberursel he was then transferred to Stalag Luft 3 Sagan-Silesia arriving there on the 13th November 1944. He remained here until the 28th January 1945 when the camp was forced-marched to Stalag 3A, Luckenwalde arriving there on the 4th February 1945.

At this time some 1,000 PoWs from the Stalag 8C and Stalag Luft 3 were transported to Stalag 3A, along with PoWs from the Stalag 21C in Wolsztyn. Also at this time PoWs from Stalag 3B, Furstenberg were evacuated to Stalag 3A, adding to the already overcrowded and unhygienic conditions.

Finally, as the Russians approached the guards fled the camp leaving the PoWs to be liberated by the Red Army on the 22nd April 1945. He remained at the camp until the 20th May 1945 and was interviewed on the 25th May 1945.

(2) Fg Off. Frank Major was born on the 20th February 1918 in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. Prior to enlisting in the RCAF he was a farmer.

After the statuary visit to the Dulag Luft, transit camp Wetzlar, Oberursel he was then transferred to Stalag Luft 3 Sagan-Silesia arriving there on the 13th November 1944. He remained here until the 28th January 1945 when the camp was forced-marched to Stalag 3A, Luckenwalde arriving there on the 5th February 1945.

At this time some 1,000 PoWs from the Stalag 8C and Stalag Luft 3 were transported to Stalag 3A, along with PoWs from the Stalag 21C in Wolsztyn. Also at this time PoWs from Stalag 3B, Furstenberg were evacuated to Stalag 3A, adding to the already overcrowded and unhygienic conditions. Finally, as the Russians approached the guards fled the camp leaving the PoWs to be liberated by the Red Army on the 22nd April 1945. He was interviewed on the 15th May 1945.

(3) Flt Sgt. Sydney Dudley was born on the 1st June 1921 in Fairburn near Leeds in Yorkshire and prior to enlisting in the RAFVR he was employed in the farming sector.

After the statuary visit to the Dulag Luft, transit camp Wetzlar, Oberursel he was then transferred to Stalag Luft 7, Bankau nr. Kreuzburg arriving there on the 19th November 1944.

On the 19th January 1945, he was amongst the 1,500 prisoners marched out of camp in bitter cold. They crossed a bridge over the river Oder on 21st January, reached Goldberg on the 5th February, and were loaded onto a train. On the 3rd February they reached Stalag 3A located about 52 km (32 ml) south of Berlin near Luckenwalde, which already held 20,000 prisoners, consisting mainly of soldiers from Britain, Canada, the US and Russia.

As the Russians approached the guards fled the camp leaving the prisoners to be liberated by the Red Army on the 22nd April 1945. He was interviewed on the 15th May 1945.

It is with great sadness that we have been advised that Sgt. Sydney Dudley passed away on the 17th April 2015 age 93. Husband of Edith and father to Margaret in Riccall, York, England.


Above: Final entry in log book belonging to Sgt. Noel Price RAFVR


It is with great sadness that we have been advised that Sgt. Gerald Flower passed away quietly at his home in Vancouver, Canada on the 27th January 2017.

Above: Medals awarded to Sgt. Gerald W. Flower RAFVR.


Burial details:

Sgt. Gerald Patrick Kenny. Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery. Grave Son of Dr. Thomas Bernard Kenny MD,and Cecile De La Bastide from Trinidad. Brother of Sheilah,Viola,Marjorie,Louis,Barbara, and Dorothy.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to Joop Hendrix Planehunters Recovery Team, also to Neil and Peter of the 51 Historical Society for the assistance give to Joop on researching/tracing crew members, Research Committee: Bernard Ploegmakers, Jan Strijbos, Ruud Wildekamp, Toon v/d Wetering, Gerrit Kateman, Harry Strijbos, Lei Potten, Joop Hendrix. Also to Maya Speights who advised us of her Grandfather passing in January 2017. Reviewed and updated by Aircrew Remembered (Nov 2023).


Other sources listed below:

RS 12.11.2023 - Reviewed and updated with new information

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: 12 November 2023, 12:37

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