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.

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21/22.06.1944 No. 207 Squadron Lancaster I ME827 Fl/Lt. Frederick W. Gallagher DSO

Operation: Wesseling, (Synthetic Oil Plant) Germany.

Date: 21/22nd June 1944 (Wednesday/Thursday)

Unit: No. 207 Squadron

Type: Lancaster I

Serial: ME827

Code: EM-I

Base: RAF Spilsby, Lincolnshire

Location: Moesstraatsebaan, Bergen op Zoom

Pilot: Fl/Lt. Frederick Wooten Gallagher DSO 157083 RAFVR Age 32. Killed

Nav: W/O. A. Young 54932 RAFVR PoW No: 378 Camp: Stalag Luft Bankau-Kreuzburg (Klucsbork, Poland)

Fl/Eng: Sgt. Maxwell Benjamin Millward 178237 RAFVR Age 33. Killed

Nav(2): Sgt. Raymond William Lloyd 1399625 RAFVR Age 22. Killed

Air/Bmr: Fl/Sgt. Ronald Parson Scott 1553209 RAFVR Age 22. Killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: F/O. Peter William Ball 169125 RAFVR Age 22. Killed

Air/Gnr: Sgt. Kenneth Waddington 1622511 RAFVR Age ? Killed

Air/Gnr: Fl/Sgt. Murray Sherman R/144206 RCAF Age 20. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Took off from Spilsby, Lincolnshire at 23:32hrs as part of a 133 Lancaster and a 6 Mosquito force to attack the synthetic oil plant at Wesseling. 37 Lancasters were lost this night and only slight damage was caused to the oil refinery with 20 people killed on the ground.

ME827 has been claimed to have been shot down by either Hptm Adolf Breves Stab IV./NJG1 or Lt Manfred Scheunpflug Stab 1./NJG1 - Hptm Adolf Breves became an ace and survived the war with 18 kills.

Lt Manfred Scheunpflug managed 4 kills before he himself was killed on the 13/14th January 1945 in a crash at Grove airfield on take-off for ops sortie - maybe due to pilot error.

Left to right: P/O. Frederick Wooton Gallagher, W/O. Alfred Young, Fl/Sgt. Ronald Parson Scott, Sgt. Selwyn Fawcett, Fl/Sgt. Charles E.D. Stewart, Sgt. Kenneth Waddington, Sgt. Murray Sherman - pictured here on an earlier crash landing this loss year on Lancaster EE197 EM-N

Flight Engineer, Sgt. Maxwell Millward and grave (courtesy Mike Harrison)

Burial Details:

Frederick Wooten Gallagher DSO. Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery. Collective grave 6. E. 2-7. Son of Frederick Daniel and Alice Louise Gallagher; husband of Edna May Gallagher, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England.

Maxwell Benjamin Millward. Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Collective grave 6. E. 2-7. Son of Benjamin and Lilian Millward, husband of Lydia Joyce Millward, of Leatherhead, Surrey, England.

Raymond William Lloyd. Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Collective grave 6. E. 2-7. Son of William and Lizzie Harriott Lloyd, of Edmonton, Middlesex, England.

Ronald Parson Scott. Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Collective grave 6. E. 2-7. Son of Alexander Main and Ada Julia, of North Shields, Northumberland, England, husband of Marjorie of North Shields, England.

Peter William Ball. Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Collective grave 6. E. 2-7.Son of William George and Mabel Alice Ball, of Goodmayes, Essex, England.

Kenneth Waddington. Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Collective grave 6. E. 2-7. Son of Wilfred and Hilda Waddington, of Intake, Sheffield, England.

Murray Sherman. Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Grave 6. E. 1. Son of David and Edna Sherman, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

With further information supplied by Mike Harrison. With thanks to other sources as quoted below.

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