Operation: Homberg

Date: 20/21 July 1944 (Thursday/Friday)

Unit: No. 90 Squadron (motto: 'Celer' - 'Swift')

Type: Avro Lancaster I

Serial: LM183

Code: WP-L

Base: RAF Tuddenham, Suffolk

Location: Mijlstraat, Boxtel, Noord-Brabant, Holland

Pilot: Fl/Lt. Philip John Rossington, RAFVR, 85791, Age 32 - Killed

Fl/Eng: Sgt. Jeremiah Francis Dineen, 2202492, RAFVR, Age 20 - Killed

Nav: F/O. Harold Francis Sargent Best, J/29515, RCAF, Age 22 - Killed

Air/Bmr: F/O. Hugo Hysert Borchardt, J/21171, RCAF, Age 30 - Killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: W/O. James William Butterworth, 1379184, RAFVR, Age 30 - Killed

Air/Gnr: Sgt. Harry Richard Stuart Hunnisett, 1897209, RAFVR, Age not recorded - Killed

Air/Gnr: Sgt. Spencer Christopher John Butcher, 1877190, RAFVR, Age 23 - Killed

REASON FOR LOSS

On the night of 20/21 July 1944, 147 Lancasters and 11 Mosquitos took off to attack the Fischer-Tropsch synthetic oil refinery and aviation fuel plant at Homberg. Although the raid was considered a relative success, it came at a heavy price: while the ground anti-aircraft defences were as expected, German Nachtjagd night fighters were merciless in their assault on the approaching bomber stream, catching the formation of Lancasters by surprise. Twenty aircraft failed to return.

LM183 took off from its base at RAF Tuddenham, Suffolk, at 23:13 hrs. It successfully bombed the target and was on the homeward-bound leg when it is thought to have been intercepted and shot down by Hauptmann Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer of Stab IV./NJG 1, flying a Bf 109, crashing into the suburbs of Boxtel.

Two other Lancasters of 90 Squadron were also lost on this raid: LM185 WP-D, piloted by Fl/Sgt. William Lane, in which all seven of the crew were killed, and LM189 WP-U, flown by F/O. Frank McGlone, whose crew of six were also all killed.

Above the crew, sadly, we have not been able to lace names - are you able to assist?

BURIAL DETAILS

Fl/Lt. Philip John Rossington. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Son of Herbert John Rossington (died 1957, age 83) and Florence (Hayhurst) Rossington, of Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. Brother of Maurice Herbert Rossington, Norah Margaret (Rossington) Allen and Celia Mary Rossington.

Sgt. Jeremiah Francis Dineen. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot KK. Joint grave 104-105. Son of Jeremiah and Johana Mary Dineen, of Openshaw, Manchester. Epitaph: 'Rest In Peace, Jerry. Sadly Missed By Your Mam, Dad, Sisters And Brothers.'

F/O. Harold Francis Sargent Best. Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery. Grave XVI. D. 1. Son of Harry John and Helen Carrie Best, of Toronto, Ontario. Epitaph: 'He Is Safe In That Happy Land, Just A Prayer Away For Evermore.'

F/O. Hugo Hysert Borchardt. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot KK. Joint grave 104-103. Son of Max Paul Hugo Borchardt (died 1952, age 73) and Mary A. Hysert Borchardt (née Hysert - died 1966, age 83), of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada; husband of Violet Constance Mary Borchardt (née Shand, later MacDonald - died 2012, age 96), of Petrolia, Ontario. See obituary below. Epitaph: 'He Did What He Could.'

W/O. James William Butterworth. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot KK. Joint grave 104-105. Son of William Rhodes Butterworth and Mary Butterworth, of Rochdale, Lancashire; husband of Teresa Butterworth, of Rochdale. Epitaph: 'You Dwell In A Land Of Glory. Always Remembered By Your Loving Wife And Son'. 

Sgt. Harry Richard Stuart Hunnisett. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot KK. Joint grave 103. Son of Harry Stuart Hunnisett and Alice Woodhouse Hunnisett (died 1952), of Selsey Bill; husband of Sheila Emily Hunnisett, of Selsey Bill, West Sussex, England.

Sgt. Spencer Christopher John Butcher. Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Plot KK. Joint grave 104-101 (next of kin details not available - are you able to contribute?).

Notes

(1) 90 SQUADRON

The squadron had an unusually troubled, multi-phase war within Bomber Command. At the outbreak of war it was a training unit, teaching Blenheim crews, and disbanded in April 1940 into No. 17 OTU. It reformed in May 1941 at RAF Watton as Bomber Command's only squadron flying the American Boeing Fortress I - its first mission was to Wilhelmshaven on 8 July 1941. The Fortress experiment was a failure: of 51 sorties flown, half were aborted due to aircraft faults, and of 50 tons of bombs dropped only about one ton hit the intended targets. The squadron gave up its Fortresses in February 1942 and disbanded again that month.

It reformed a third time in November 1942 at RAF Bottesford as a night bomber squadron in No. 3 Group, equipped with the Short Stirling. It flew Stirlings through the brutal Battle of the Ruhr and raids on heavily defended targets including Berlin, taking heavy losses. In mid-1944 it converted to the Avro Lancaster, which it flew for the rest of the war. Its last raid was against Bremen on 22 April 1945. Over the course of the war it flew 4,613 operational sorties and lost 86 aircraft.

EINDHOVEN (WOENSEL) GENERAL 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 on the return flight from Germany, between 1941 and 1944. Men of the land forces buried here died between September 1944 and May 1945; the 79th and 86th British General Hospitals were based at Eindhoven for almost all of that period. There are now nearly 700 casualties of the 1939-45 war commemorated at this site, and every year the people of Woensel place a candle on each of the 678 war graves.

Sources and Acknowledgements

• Selby Historian Ruth C Mariner
• Paradie RCAF Archives
• 90 Squadron (RAF) during the Second World War
• Kracker Luftwaffe Archives
• Aviation Safety Network
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• International Bomber Command Centre
• Aircrew Remembered Archives