43 (Wednesday/Thursday)

Unit: No. 77 Squadron (motto: Esse potius quam videri - To be, rather than seem)

Type: Halifax II

Serial: JD321

Code: KN-G

Base: RAF Elvington, Yorkshire

Location: Helvoirt, Vught, Netherlands

Pilot: P/O. Robert John Jones, 159052, RAFVR, Age 23 - Killed

2nd Pilot: Sgt. Peter Henry Potter, 1322696, RAFVR, Age 20 - Killed

Fl/Eng: Sgt. Ronald Victor Woods, 1337097, RAFVR, Age 20 - Killed

Nav: Fl/Sgt. Ronald Walton, 1336410, RAFVR, Age 21 - Killed

Air/Bmr: Sgt. George Herbert Casebourne Wade, 1393987, RAFVR, Age 22 - Killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. William Shaw, 1451308, RAFVR, Age 21 - Killed

Air/Gnr: Sgt. Thomas Raymond Oxley, 1412229, RAFVR, Age 22 - Killed

Air/Gnr: W/O.1 Gerald Frederick McKinnon, R/62913, RCAF, Age 33 - Killed

Reason for Loss

589 aircraft - 344 Lancasters, 233 Halifaxes and 12 Mosquitos - were dispatched to Düsseldorf. 18 aircraft - 11 Lancasters and 7 Halifaxes - were lost, 3.1 per cent of the force. The main weight of the raid fell on the centre and south of the city, causing extensive damage to housing and industrial premises.

38 Lancaster IIs of Nos. 3 and 5 Groups took part in the first large-scale test of the Gee-H blind-bombing device, attempting to bomb the Mannesmann tubular-steel works on the northern outskirts of Düsseldorf while the main raid was in progress. Five aircraft returned early and two more were lost; the equipment in a further 16 aircraft failed to function, leaving only 15 to bomb the factory using G-H. The device later became a valuable blind-bombing aid once it had been fitted to a major part of Bomber Command.

52 Lancasters and 10 Mosquitos of No. 8 Group carried out a diversionary raid on Cologne without loss.

Other operations that night included 13 Oboe Mosquitos against a Krupp foundry at Rheinhausen and 2 Mosquitos to Dortmund, 23 aircraft of No. 3 Group minelaying in the Frisians, and 27 OTU sorties, of which one Whitley was lost.

H2S was used for the first time to assist the minelaying force, marking the start of its introduction to Main Force squadrons.

A Victoria Cross was awarded this night for an action during the Düsseldorf raid. The Lancaster of Flight Lieutenant William Reid, No. 61 Squadron, was attacked twice by night fighters before the target was reached. The aircraft suffered extensive damage, which put most of its guns out of action; the navigator was killed and the wireless operator fatally injured. Flight Lieutenant Reid was wounded in both attacks and his flight engineer was also hurt, but Reid pressed on for the remaining 200 miles to the target, and his bomb aimer, Sergeant L. G. Rolton, obtained an aiming-point photograph. The return flight was fraught with difficulty: the cockpit windscreen was shattered and the oxygen supply failed. The pilot lapsed into semi-consciousness and the injured flight engineer, Sergeant J. W. Norris, had to take over some of the flying. Flight Lieutenant Reid recovered in time to carry out an emergency landing in misty conditions at Shipdham, Norfolk, despite being unable to see properly for blood running into his eyes from a head wound. One leg of the Lancaster's undercarriage collapsed, but the landing was otherwise successful. Flight Lieutenant Reid was awarded the Victoria Cross; the squadron Operations Record Book does not record whether other crew members were decorated.

William Reid was born in Baillieston, Glasgow, Scotland, on 21 December 1921. He died on 28 November 2001, aged 79. He and his wife, Violet Campbell Gallagher (daughter of William Gallagher, sports editor of the Glasgow Daily Record in 1952; she was reportedly unaware that he was a VC holder until they married), who died on 25 September 2019 aged 92, are buried in Ford Road Cemetery, Crieff, Scotland.

After taking off at 17:20 hrs, JD321, piloted by P/O. Robert John Jones, was intercepted over Holland by Hauptmann Manfred Meurer of Stab I./NJG 1, flying a He 219 A-0 from Venlo airfield.

Crew

Rear L-R: Sgt. William Shaw, P/O. Robert John Jones, WO1 Gerald Frederick McKinnon.

Front: Sgt. George Herbert Casebourne Wade, Fl/Sgt. Ronald Walton, Sgt. Ronald Victor Woods.

(Almost certainly taken while with an Operational Training Unit, March 1943 - missing from image: Sgt. Peter Henry Potter, who was attached to this crew prior to taking command of his own crew, and Sgt. Thomas Raymond Oxley, who joined them later in June 1943 when the crew trained at 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit, RAF Riccall, Yorkshire.)

After taking off at 17:20 hrs, JD321, piloted by P/O. Robert John Jones, was intercepted over Holland by Hauptmann Manfred Meurer of Stab I./NJG 1, flying a He 219 A-0 from Venlo airfield.

Burial Details

P/O. Robert John Jones. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot EE. Grave 116-120 (Coll.). Born 1920 at Llandyrnog, Denbighshire, Wales. Son of John Parry Jones and Elizabeth Jones, of Llandyrnog, Denbighshire. Epitaph: 'At Duty's Call His Life He Gave And Now He Sleeps Amongst The Brave'.

Sgt. Peter Henry Potter. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot EE. Grave 116-120 (Coll.). Born 1923 in Southampton, Hampshire, England. Son of Henry and Caroline Potter, of Bitterne Park, Southampton. Epitaph: 'Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That A Man Lay Down His Life For His Friends'.

Sgt. Ronald Victor Woods. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot EE. Grave 116-120 (Coll.). Born 1923 in Colchester, Essex, England. Son of Count Eric Woods (died 1953, age 57) and Mary Magdalen Woods (died 1952, age 65), of Colchester, Essex. Epitaph: 'Deep In Our Hearts Your Memory Is Kept, We Who Loved You Will Never Forget For Evermore: Stories Of The Fallen'.

Fl/Sgt. Ronald Walton. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot EE. Grave 116-120 (Coll.). Born November 1922, Niagara Falls, New York, USA. No further details currently held.

Sgt. George Herbert Casebourne Wade. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot EE. Grave 116-120 (Coll.). Born 20 April 1921 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. Son of Herbert and Grace E. Wade, of North End, Portsmouth. Epitaph: 'For Evermore: Stories Of The Fallen'.

Sgt. William Shaw. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot EE. Grave 116-120 (Coll.). Born 1922 in Retford, Nottinghamshire, England. Son of William and Lily Shaw, of Retford, Nottinghamshire. Epitaph: 'He Sacrificed His Life That We Might Live. Let It Not Be In Vain, It Was So Much To Give For Evermore: Stories Of The Fallen'.

Sgt. Thomas Raymond Oxley. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot EE. Grave 116-120 (Coll.). Born 5 June 1921 in Ardsley, South Yorkshire, England. Son of Stanley Oxley (died 1961, age 65) and Lilian Oxley (died 1980, age 83), of Ardsley, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England.

W/O.1 Gerald Frederick McKinnon. Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery. Grave XVI. D. 2. Born 22 December 1908 in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada. Son of John Angus McKinnon (died 1945, age 65) and Florence May McKinnon (née Burke, died 1954, age 75), of 15 Murro Street, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Cemetery Notes

Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery lies within the municipal cemetery 'Begraafplaats Woensel' in Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands, on Baffinlaan. The Commonwealth war graves form a dedicated plot within this larger civilian cemetery.

Almost four-fifths of the men buried here belonged to the air forces, and lost their lives in raids over this part of Holland or in returning from Germany, between 1941 and 1944. Men of the land forces who are buried here died between September 1944 and May 1945; the 79th and 86th British General Hospitals were stationed at Eindhoven during almost all of that period, accounting for many of the ground-forces burials from the Market Garden period onward.

The Commonwealth plot holds 686 war graves in total, the great majority British, with Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South African, Dutch and Polish graves also present, reflecting the multinational character of Bomber Command losses in this corridor of Holland. Eindhoven lay on the return track of many Bomber Command aircraft after raids on the Ruhr and other German targets, and the surrounding area was a common interception zone for Luftwaffe night fighters operating from Dutch bases such as Venlo
(note: every Remembrance Day the fantastic local Dutch people place a candle on every grave)

Sources and Acknowledgements

• Paradie-Dutil RCAF Archives
• National Archives, Kew
• 77 Squadron Association
• Aviation Safety Network
• Kracker Luftwaffe Archive
• Aircrew Remembered Archives