Operation: Massy-Palaiseau rail yards

Date: 7th/8th June 1944 (Wednesday/Thursday)

Unit: 514 Squadron (motto: Nil Obstare Potest - 'Nothing can withstand')

Type: Lancaster II

Serial: DS822

Code: JI:T

Base: RAF Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire

Location: La Celle-Les-Bordes

Pilot: Plt Off William Lachlan McGown 174120 RAFVR Age 28. Evaded capture

Flt Eng: Sgt Jack Clarke 1581581 RAFVR Age? PoW, Unknown camp (1)

Nav: WO Archibald Norman Durham 413305 RAAF Age 24. Evaded capture, no other details

Air Bmr: Plt Off Lyndon Warwick Clive Lewis 173388 RAFVR Age? PoW No: 5860, Stalag Luft Barth Vogelsang (2)

WOp/Air Gnr: Plt Off. Kenneth Edward Bryan 410529 RAAF Age 21. Killed

Air Gnr: Flt Sgt John George Shepherd Boanson 1873573 RAFVR Age 21. Killed

Air Gnr: Flt Sgt Robert Calder Guy 156396 RAFVR Age 21 Killed (3)

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off at 00:37 hrs from RAF Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire to bomb the rail facilities at Massy-Palaiseau

DS822 was claimed by CUffz Kurt Stockbauer 4./NJG4 – Limours/Bretigny area (BE): 1,000m at 02:15. (Nachtjagd Combat Archives 1944 Part 3 - Theo Boiten). Four of the crew managed to bale out of the aircraft after the pilot issued orders to abandon.

One other aircraft was lost from the squadron during this operation:

Lancaster II LL727 JI:C2 Flown by Fg Off Louis Greenburgh DFC. 49803 RAFVR Evaded capture with 4 others from the crew, 3 made PoW with the only casualty, 19 year old, Flt Sgt Gordon Henry Stromberg 1386539 RAFVR from Watford in Hertfordshire. Killed, buried in St. Pierre Cemetery, Amiens: Plot 7, Row E, Grave 13. Grave inscription reads: “Our Youngest And Dearest, Loved By All; Proudly We Remember, Sadly We Miss”.

(1) Under an agreement signed with West Germany in June 1964, one million pounds became available to British victims of Nazi persecution. The British KLB (Konzentrationlager Buchenwald) airmen received a basic compensation payment of 183.50 pounds for their time spent in Buchenwald. Some of the former airmen gave media interviews at the time... John Clark from Leicestershire was able to receive a little more money from the compensation fund. 'I was in Buchenwald for three months and doctors say my health is permanently affected. It seems I had TB when I was in the camp. Even now if I get a cold I just collapse. I've had more from the fund than many of the others. I've had £1.100, but I think this may be because I've never had any disability allowance. Compared with some of the other lads in Buchenwald, I've been lucky.' (information - see credits)

(2) Flt Sgt Lyndon Warwick Clive Lewis: commissioned and promoted on the 3rd March 1944 as 173388 Plt Off Lewis and following repatriation from Germany in May 1945, ceased being a Bomb Aimer and transferred to the RAF Police Provost Branch. He retired from the RAF on 1st Dec 1969 as a Wg Cdr and died on the 13th March 2007. (information - see credits)

(3) Sadly his twin brother, Charles Mathieson Guy also serving within the same squadron was lost on the 30th July 1944 whilst aboard Lancaster II LL733 JI:S.

Burial details:

The bodies of Plt Off. Kenneth Bryan and Flt Sgt Robert Guy were found on the day of the crash and buried on the 10th June,. That of Flt Sgt John Boanson found on the 16th June and buried on the 17th.

Plt Off. Kenneth Edward Bryan. La Celle-Les-Bordes Communal Cemetery. Grave 1. Born on the 13th July 1922 at Camberwell, the son of Ronald Ernest and Mamie Albertha Bryan, of Geelong East, Victoria, Australia. Epitaph reads: “DEATH IS NOT THE END; THERE IS NO DEATH”.

Flt Sgt John George Shepherd Boanson. La Celle-Les-Bordes Communal Cemetery. Grave 2. Born on the 22nd June 1922, the son of Thomas William and Florence Boanson, of Ivinghoe Aston, Buckinghamshire, England. Epitaph reads: “IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR DEAR SON GEORGE ALWAYS IN OUR THOUGHTS. MAM, DAD AND TOM”.

Flt Sgt Robert Calder Guy. La Celle-Les-Bordes Communal Cemetery. Grave 3. Born on the 15th September 1922 at Cambuslang, the son of Colin Calder Guy and Margaret Park Mathieson Guy, of Glasgow, Scotland. Epitaph reads: “HIS BROTHER CHARLES, SERGEANT, RAF WAS KILLED ON THE 30TH JULY 1944, BURIED AT SEA”.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to Roger Guernon for his great research and photographs supplied to Aircrew Remembered - September 2017. With thanks to Col. Bruggy and Norman Hood of the RAF Commands Forum for information (Jan 2019). Thanks to Roger Guernon for pointing out the misspelling of Plt.Off. McGown's name (Jun 2019). Thanks to John Jones for the German night-fighter claim details (Mar 2021). Other sources as quoted below.