Operation: Hamburg, Germany

Date: 31st March/1st April 1945 (Saturday/Sunday)

Unit No: 635 Squadron (Pathfinder Force (PFF)), 8 Group, Bomber Command

Type: Lancaster I

Serial: PB958

Code: F2:P

Base: RAF Downham Market, Norfolk, England

Location: Hamburg-Billstedt, Germany

Pilot: Fg Off. Arthur Lewis 422590 RAAF Age 22. KiA

Flt Eng: Sgt. Alex Philip Weir 2218761 RAFVR Age 33. KiA

Nav: Flt Sgt. Kevin George Clark 435185 RAAF Age 20. Murdered (1)

Bomb Aimer: Flt Sgt. Eric Chenoweth 437046 RAAF Age 20. KiA

WOp/Air Gnr: Flt Sgt. Colin Delaney 432545 RAAF Age 20. KiA

Air Gnr (Mid Upp): Fg Off. John James Kennelly 431320 RAAF Age 20. PoW No. 8109 * (2)

Air Gnr (Rear): Flt Sgt. Neville Edward Peters 433167 RAAF Age 20. KiA

* Stalag Luft 1 Barth-Vogelsang, today situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

Above left to right: Fg Off. Arthur Lewis, Flt Sgt. Kevin G. Clark, Flt Sgt. Eric Chenoweth (From their Service Records)

Above left to right: Fg Off. Colin Delaney, Fg Off. John J. Kennelly, Flt Sgt. Neville E. Peters (From their Service Records)

REASON FOR LOSS:

PB958 was one of thirteen (13) Lancasters that took off from RAF Downham Market at 06:49 hrs on the night of the 31st March/1st April 1945 detailed on a Pathfinder mission to mark the Blohm and Voss shipyards in Hamburg.

The Operations Summary Record described that the target was completely cloud covered on the approach and at 08:41 hrs the Master Bomber (MB) was heard broadcasting, instructing the Blind Sky Markers (BSM’s) to come in and mark the target.

The Master Bomber (MB) was Sqn Ldr. George C. Hitchcock DFC, 412006 RAFVR Lancaster I PB922 F2:U.

The first red smoke puffs were seen at 08:44 hrs quickly followed by two more groups in a fairly good concentration. The MB started instructing the Main Force (MF) at 08:45 hrs to "Bomb Red smoke puffs". In the early stages the MF bombing appeared to be about 3 km (1¾ mls) SE of the main concentration, but as the attack developed they appeared well on the red smoke puffs which were in good concentration. No results were observed until 08:50 hrs when cloud began to billow upwards over the target area. There was moderate predicted heavy Flak and fighter activity.

PB958 as a designated Supporter was reported to have been hit by Flak whilst in the target area and set ablaze. Fg Off. Kennelly later reported that he reported that an Me262 was on the starboard fine quarter and to corkscrew but received no reply from the pilot. A few seconds later the pilot screamed out “Get out Get out”. He was the only one of the crew who acknowledged the bale out order.

German documentation recorded that ten (10) Me262 pilots from I./JG-7 and II./JG-7 claimed a combined seventeen (17) Lancasters that day over Hamburg but it has not been possible to corroborate which pilot claimed PB958

The role of Supporter was usually delegated to the newest crews who flew in support of the rest of the Squadron with same timing, same target, and carried the same bomb load as the MF. Their first duty was to arrive at the target on time and then to support the early marker crews and help achieve saturation of the ground defences.

Multiple eyewitness accounts as reported by various media outlets and researchers concluded that the aircraft lost a wing and crashed into the garden at Öjendorfer Steinkamp 23, where it exploded. The detached wing and an engine came down south of the Möllner Landstraße. Only Flt Sgt. Clark and Fg Off. Kennelly managed to leave the stricken aircraft and the remaining five (5) crew members perished in the crash.

Fg Off. Kennelly landed safely and was eventually captured in the vicinity of Boberg which is about 5 km (3 mls) NW of where the aircraft crashed and spent the rest of the war as PoW.

(1) The fate of Flt Sgt. Clark was unknown until British forces occupied Hamburg and investigations were undertaken to locate missing RAF aircrew. In the course of the investigations the German nationals Heinrich Siemer, Heinrich Specht, Wilhelm Heinrich Bernicke, Franz Mercier and Hans Rosenkranz were arrested.

Siemer was a former member of the local Volkssturm (National militia) and the temporary Ortsgruppenleiter (Local Nazi group leader) of Glinde. Specht was the former Kompanieführer (Company leader) of the local Volkssturm. Bernicke was a former Oberst (Colonel) in the Wehrmacht and the commanding officer of the Armoury office in Glinde. Mercier and Rosenkranz were former members of the Volkssturm.

A Military Court was convened at the Curio-Haus in Hamburg on the 17th June 1946 where the five accused were charged that they at Oststeinbek near Glinde, on or about the 31st March 1945, in violation of the laws and usages of war, were concerned in the killing of an unknown British airman PoW, believed to be an Australian Flight-Serjeant.

The court narrative is mainly based on the article “Ostersamstag, der 31. März 1945. Der Mord a Flight-Sergeant Kevin George Clark“ (Easter Saturday, 31 March 1945. The Murder of Flight Sergeant Kevin George Clark) by Karlheinz Schmidt, published in the Jahrbuch für den Kreis Stormarn 2008.

The court heard that Flt Sgt. Clark’s parachute became entangled in the power lines near Oststeinbek which is about 6½ km (4 mls) NNW of where the aircraft crashed. The first on the scene was a Waldemar Eversen who was a Norwegian and a resident of Oststeinbek. He helped Flt Sgt. Clark to the ground. Two (2) other residents from Oststeinbek arrived and started to abuse the airman. When they threated violence Eversen knocked one of them down. Evenson escorted the airman to his house with the intention of holding him in the cellar because of ongoing air raid. En route they were attacked by several residents. In Oststeinbek they met a Paul Wilhelm Ohde, a Feuerschutzpolizei (Fireman), who took the airman into his custody. Together with the village Gendarme (policeman) Peter Beth, they took the airman to the community centre and locked him in a cell.

At midday a Willi Husen, the Ortsgruppenleiter and the Polizeimeister (Rural police sergeant) transferred Flt Sgt. Clark to the Wehrmacht Armoury office in Glinde, about 2½ km (1½ mls) east of Oststeinbek, into the custody of Oberst (Col) Bernicke. It was claimed that Bernicke intended to transfer the airman to Hamburg but Specht intervened and requested that the airman be left to him to which Bernicke agreed.

Specht then ordered his subordinate, Siemer, to shoot the airman during his transfer to Reinbek and provided him with a rifle and ammunition for the task. Siemer along with Mercier and Rosenkranz marched Flt Sgt. Clark toward Reinbek. About 25 mins along the route Siemer killed the airman with a shot to the back of the head from close range. He ordered Mercier and Rosenkranz to remain with the body whilst he reported back to Specht and Bernicke that the airman had been shot while attempting to escape. Flt Sgt. Clark’s body was later taken to the hospital in Reinbek where, upon the orders of Bernicke a doctor examined the body and found that Flt Sgt. Clark had suffered a gunshot wound to the back of his head which had been fired at close range. The airman was then buried at the old cemetery chapel in Bergedorf, Hamburg.

Three (3) days into the trial Siemer committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell.

At the end of the trial the court found Specht guilty of the charge and he was sentenced to ten (10) years in prison. Mercier, Rosenkranz and Bernicke were acquitted of the charge.

(2) After Fg Off. Kennelly had been captured he was driven to the Dulag at Pinneburg, near Hamburg that day.

He was then transferred to Stalag Luft 1 at Barth-Vogelsang arriving there on the 7th April 1945.

On the 30th April 1945, the prisoners were ordered to evacuate the camp in the face of the advancing Soviet Red Army, but the Senior American Officer (SAO), Col. Hubert Zemke, refused to give the order. After negotiations between Zemke and Commandant Oberst (Col) Gustav Warnstedt, it was agreed that to avoid useless bloodshed the guards would go, leaving the PoWs behind. The next day, the first Soviet troops arrived.

The Western Allied prisoners took over the camp into self-administration on the 1st May 1945. After protracted negotiations between the Western Allies and the Soviet leadership, the evacuation of the 8,498 inmates of Stalag Luft 1 finally took place between the 12th and 14th May 1945. The former PoWs had repaired a runway at the Barth Air Base and aircraft of the 8th Air Force undertook a massive airlift called "Operation Revival". Hundreds of PoWs had meanwhile made their own way west.

RAF PoWs were flown back to England and the American PoWs were flown to Camp Lucky Strike in Le Havre, France, where they were processed and waited for a liberty ship to return to the United States.

Fg Off. Kennelly was interviewed on the 11th May 1945.

John James Kennelly was born on the 20th March 1925 in Port Melbourne, Victoria. Prior to enlisting in the RAAF on the 18th June 1943 he was employed in the Electro plating industry. John passed away on the 11th September 1987 in Heidelberg, Victoria.

Above Courtesy of The Age, dated 14th September 1987

BURIAL DETAILS:

The crew, except for Flt Sgt. Clark, were initially buried at the civilian cemetery at Hamburg-Ohlsdorf in Plot 73, Row 45, Graves 12-14, 16 and 17 before being transferred to the Ohlsdorf War Cemetery.

Fg Off. Robert Leslie Martin DFC 175854, the Bomb Aimer from 156 Squadron Lancaster PB468 GT:B was buried in Grave 15.

Above to left to right: Grave markers for Fg Off. Arthur Lewis, Sgt. Alex P. Weir, Flt Sgt Kevin G. Clark (Credit: Tracey Goodwin Aka PupDawg – FindAGrave)

Fg Off. Arthur Lewis. Hamburg War Cemetery, Grave 5A.B.11. Inscription: “MEMORIES OF YOU WILL NEVER DIE. DUTY NOBLY DONE”. Born on the 23rd March 1923 in Cowra, New South Wales. Son of John Henry and Elizabeth Morgan Lewis of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.

Sgt. Alex Philip Weir. Hamburg War Cemetery, Grave 5A.B.9. Born on the 2nd April 1911 in Weston, Somerset, England. Son of Alexander Blackie and of Lilian Lucy (née Philips) Weir. Husband of Zena Rose (née Taylor) Weir, of Newcastleton, Roxburghshire, Scotland.

Flt Sgt. Kevin George Clark. Hamburg War Cemetery, Grave 6A.D.14. Inscription: “GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN". Born on the 1st February 1925 in Cloncurry, Queensland. Son of George Frederick and Clare Dorothea Clark of Ashgrove, Queensland, Australia.

Above to left to right: Grave markers for Flt Sgt. Eric Chenoweth, Fly Sgt. Colin Delaney, Flt Sgt. Neville E. Peters. (Credit: Tracey Goodwin Aka PupDawg – FindAGrave

Flt Sgt. Eric Chenoweth. Hamburg War Cemetery, Grave 5A.B.12. Inscription: “A TRUE MAN, EVER REMEMBERED”. Born on the 28th May 1924 in Rabaul, Territory of New Guinea. Son of the Revd. Ben and Sarah Ruby Chenoweth of Strathalbyn, South Australia.

Flt Sgt. Colin Delaney. Hamburg War Cemetery, Grave 5A.B.7. Inscription: “HIS DUTY FEARLESSLY AND NOBLY DONE. EVER REMEMBERED”. Born on the 4th April 1924 in Balmain, New South Wales. Son of Frederick and Veronica Delaney of Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia.

Flt Sgt. Neville Edward Peters. Hamburg War Cemetery, Grave 5A.B.8. Inscription: “HONOURED, SACRED MEMORIES. MUM, DAD, KEN, RAY, DOUG & JOY, OF RYDE, N.S.W.”. Born on the 29th November 1924 in Ryde, New South Wales. Son of Robert Edward and Lilian Peters of Ryde, New South Wales, Australia.

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to Traugott Vitz for his work on the ‘VitzArchive’ and for his valued research and advice in compiling this report (22nd Jan 2019). Thanks to John Jones for the PoW update (8th Jul 2021). Reviewed and updated with new information and images (30th Oct 2026)

Other sources listed below: