Operation: Osnabrück

Date: 6/7th October 1942 (Tuesday/Wednesday)

Unit: No. 75 (NZ) Squadron (motto: Ake ake kia kaha - For ever and ever be strong)

Type: Wellington III

Serial: DF639

Code: AA-N

Base: RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk

Location: Schuinesloot, Netherlands

Pilot: Sgt. George William Rhodes 1331658 RAFVR Age 20. Killed

Obs: Sgt. Walter John Howes 1378338 RAFVR Age 29. Killed

Air/Bmr: Sgt. Geoffrey Slater 1287890 RAFVR  Age 22.  Killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Fl/Sgt. John Forman R/80334 RCAF  Age 22  Killed

Air/Gnr: Sgt. John Forbes 1314891 RAFVR Age 21 Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

The force: 237 aircraft took part: 101 Wellingtons, 68 Lancasters, 38 Stirlings and 30 Halifaxes. Fourteen of the Wellingtons came from 75 (NZ) Squadron at Mildenhall.

How it went: The Pathfinders used the Dümmer See, a large lake north-east of Osnabrück, as a reference point to find and mark the target. The main force bombed from 9,000 to 12,500 ft between 22:12 and 22:57. Crews reported two large fires and many scattered ones.

Damage on the ground: Bombing was concentrated on the town centre and southern districts.

• 149 houses were destroyed, 530 seriously damaged and 2,784 lightly damaged.
• 6 industrial buildings were destroyed and 14 damaged.
• 65 people were killed and 151 injured.

Losses: Six aircraft failed to return. Leutnant Hans Krause shot down two Wellingtons within 18 minutes:

• DF639 AA-N (75 Sqn) was hit at 23:04 and came down at Schuinesloot/Slagharen. Rhodes, Howes, Forman, Slater and Forbes were killed and are buried at Hardenberg.
• BK313 KO-B (115 Sqn) was hit at 23:22 and came down at Uelsen, just over the German border. Its crew were F/O Leonard Ian Smith RCAF (pilot), P/O Robert Albery, P/O Douglas Lennard, Sgt Robert Loombe and Sgt James Hockenhull. They are buried together in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.

The names recorded in Krause's logbook ("Loombe… Smith… Lennard… Albery… G. Slater") come from both crews. Slater is the only one from DF639; the other four were from BK313. The names were probably taken from identity discs recovered at the two crash sites. Slater's was the only disc found at Slagharen, which is why the rest of his crew were not named.

Burial details:

Sgt. George William Rhodes. Hardenberg Protestant Cemetery. Row A. Grave 13. Son of Richard Allen Rhodes and Annie Rhodes, of Wembley, Middlesex. Epitaph: "He Is Marching With His Comrades. In Loving Memory. Mum, Dad, Jean, Dora And May".

Sgt. Walter John Howes. Hardenberg Protestant Cemetery. Row A. Grave 14. Son of Victor and Annie Howes (née Paling), of Falconwood Avenue, Welling, Kent.

Sgt. Geoffrey Slater. Hardenberg Protestant Cemetery. Row A. Grave 15. Son of Harold and Ivy Marie Slater, of Sheffield. Epitaph: "'Tis Sweet To Remember One So Dear; Though Absent From Us He Is Always Near".

Fl/Sgt. John Forman. Hardenberg Protestant Cemetery. Row A. Grave 11. Son of James Clark Forman and Helen Forman (née Reilly), of Reston, Manitoba, Canada.

Sgt. John Forbes. Hardenberg Protestant Cemetery. Row A. Grave 12. Son of Edward Morris Forbes and Mabel Harriett Forbes, of Wandsworth, London. Epitaph: "Let Us Resolve, That War Shall Not Come Again So His Life Be Not Lost In Vain".

Above L-R: Sgt. Rhodes, Sgt. Howes, Sgt. Slater, Fl/Sgt, Forman and Sgt. Forbes

Sources and Acknowledgements

• Stichting Luchtoorlog Onderzoek Drenthe
• National Archives, Kew
• Kracker Luftwaffe Archive
• Paradie - Dutill RCAF Archives
• Aircrew Remembered Archives
• BBC Online, Yorkshire
• Norton Woodseats Cricket Club
• IBCC Losses Database

Cricket club in search for family of WW2 aviator

BBC Yorkshire, 5th June 2024 (Reporter: Victoria Scheer)

Norton Woodseats Cricket Club in Sheffield found a cloth cricket cap belonging to Sgt. Geoffrey Slater while clearing out its old ground at Graves Park, ahead of its move to Matthews Lane. The club hoped to trace members of his family and invite them to the club.

According to a description found with the cap, Geoffrey was born on 13th September 1920 and was 22 when he died. He lived at 1 Backmoor Crescent, Norton, attended High Storrs Grammar School and taught Sunday school at Greenhill Church. By coincidence, his old home is only about 200 yards from the club's new ground.

The full article is on the BBC News website: bbc.co.uk/news.

Supplement

1. The loss of DF639 in more detail

DF639 took off from Mildenhall at about 20:00 English time (the Aviation Safety Network gives 19:30), carrying 4,000 lb of conventional bombs plus incendiaries. It is not known whether the crew reached the target. At about 23:00 the Wellington was intercepted by a Dornier Do 217J night fighter of Stab I./Nachtjagdgeschwader 3, which had taken off from Rheine at 21:40. Its crew were Leutnant Johannes "Hans" Krause (pilot), Unteroffizier Otto Zinn (radio operator) and Unteroffizier Fritz Specht (flight engineer).

Flying at 3,100 metres, DF639 became Krause's first victory. None of the crew was able to leave the aircraft. On 8th October 1942 Krause was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class and the Front Flying Clasp.

The local constable at Hardenberg, Th. H. Schuurman, reported that the aircraft came down at about 23:30 on a potato field on the Troostenwijk at Slagharen, owned and farmed by Hendrik Euverman. Wreckage was spread over a radius of 400 to 500 metres. Only one identity disc was found ("G. Slater"). German troops from the aircraft observation post at Ane (Gramsbergen) guarded the site. The five airmen were placed in coffins on 7th October and buried at Hardenberg at 13:30 on Thursday 8th October 1942.

The Dutch loss register (SGLO) reference for this crash is T1872.

2. Operations flown

The crew probably formed up at No. 25 Operational Training Unit and joined 75 (NZ) Squadron on 15th September 1942. Rhodes first flew two operations as second pilot in Wellington BJ772: a "Gardening" (minelaying) sortie off St Nazaire on 18/19th September and Saarbrücken on 19/20th September. As a crew in DF639 they then flew:

• 30th September 1942 - Gardening, off Terschelling
• 2/3rd October 1942 - Krefeld
• 5/6th October 1942 - Aachen
• 6/7th October 1942 - Osnabrück (failed to return)

3. Crew backgrounds

Rhodes: son of a carpenter. Joined the RAF on 9th January 1941; No. 7 ITW (7th June 1941) and No. 12 SFTS (1st October 1941).

Howes: son of a coachbuilder, with a sister, Alice, and a younger brother, Victor. A local government officer before the war, he joined the RAF on 16th September 1940. He trained in Canada at No. 33 Air Navigation School, Hamilton, Ontario (from 24th July 1941) and No. 31 Bombing and Gunnery School, Picton, Ontario.

Slater: brother of Leslie, Betty and Barbara. A clerk with a local steel merchant, he volunteered for the RAF on 6th September 1940 and trained as an air gunner, including at No. 31 Gunnery School in Canada. He returned to England on 9th February 1942 and joined No. 25 OTU on 26th May 1942.

Forman: youngest of five children of parents who emigrated from Edinburgh in 1912; his mother died of tuberculosis in 1929. A farm worker who hoped to become a commercial pilot, he enlisted in the RCAF at Winnipeg on 21st November 1940 and sailed for Britain on 23rd October 1941. He enjoyed hockey, swimming, baseball, target shooting and building model aircraft.

Forbes: baptised at St Barnabas Church, Southfields, on 26th December 1920; had one sister, Mabel. A shop assistant before the war, he enlisted on 20th February 1941 and trained at No. 1 Air Armament School (16th December 1941) and No. 7 Air Gunnery School (10th May 1942), joining No. 25 OTU on 26th May 1942.

4. Memorials

• Hardenberg Protestant Cemetery - all five crew lie together in Row A, Graves 11-15. The cemetery holds 22 Commonwealth airmen of the Second World War and is on the east side of the town, about 500 yards north-west of the railway station.
• Canada - Fl/Sgt. John Forman is commemorated on page 74 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance (Peace Tower, Ottawa), on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall at Nanton, Alberta, and on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
• Slagharen - the local history museum, Het Oale Meestershuus (Herenstraat 24, Slagharen), has a small exhibition about George Rhodes, with photographs, letters and personal items donated by his family.
• Lincoln - as Bomber Command losses, all five are recorded in the International Bomber Command Centre Losses Database and on the IBCC Memorial walls.