Operation: Noisy-le-Sec Railway Marshalling Yards

Date: 18/19th April 1944 (Tuesday/Wednesday)

Unit: 433 (Porcupine) Squadron, RCAF

Type: Halifax III

Serial: HX287

Code: BM-U

Base: RAF Skipton-on-Swale

Location: Noisy-le-Sec

Pilot: Flt.Sgt. William John Deblois Sturmy R/138996 RCAF Age 27. Killed

Flt.Eng: Sgt. Leonard Morgan 1801125 RAFVR Age? Killed

Nav: WO2. Glenford Herbert Taylor R/133342 RCAF Age 25. Killed

Air Bmr: Fg.Off. Arthur Ross Thrasher J/25068 RCAF Age 26. Killed

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. John Faulds Barron 1345933 RAFVR Age 25. Killed

Air Gnr: Sgt. Irvin Neil McInnis R/198002 RCAF Age 21. Killed

Air Gnr: Sgt. Sidney Wallace Follows R/204056 RCAF Age 19. Killed

Taking off at 20:39 hrs to bomb the marshalling yards at Noisy-le-Sec. Claimed by Flak of gem Flak Abt 344 at 00:01. Crashed onto the roof of a power plant in the station yards and was totally destroyed.

Also lost from the Squadron on this operation:

Halifax III LV971 BM-N - Flown by 24 year old, Flt.Lt. Gerald Boyd Edmonds J/5822 RCAF of Stratford, Ontario, Canada - killed with all 6 other crew in the same area after being hit by flak. (6 of the crew buried within the same cemetery, 1 remembered on the Runnymede Memorial.)

Plt.Off. William John Deblois Sturmy. Clichy Northern Cemetery. Plot 16. Row 16. Grave 5. Born in 1917. Son of Frederic Osborne Sturmy and Olive Sutherland Sturmy, of Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada. Grave inscription reads: "Beloved Son Of Fred And Olive Sturmy, Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada". Posthumously promoted to Plt.Off., service number J/85870.

Sgt. Leonard Morgan. Clichy Northern Cemetery. Plot 16. Row 7. Grave 14. No further details, are you able to assist?

Plt.Off. Glenford Herbert Taylor. Clichy Northern Cemetery. Plot 16. Row 7. Grave 15. Born in 1919 in Ontario. Son of William A. Taylor and Elizabeth L. Taylor, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Grave inscription reads: "The Lord Is My Shepherd". Posthumously promoted to Plt.Off., service number J/86442.

(Right: Initial Grave marker, from his service record) Fg.Off. Arthur Ross Thrasher. Clichy Northern Cemetery. Plot 16. Row 9. Grave 19. 16th December 1917 in Pembroke, Renfrew, Ontario. Son of Charles and Florence E. Thrasher, of Perth, Ontario, Canada. Grave inscription reads: "He Is Not Dead, Only Lost To Us For A Little While".

Sgt. John Faulds Barron. Clichy Northern Cemetery. Plot 16. Row 16. Coll. Grave 1-4. Son of John Faulds Barron and Christina Barron, of Springboig, Glasgow, Scotland. Grave inscription reads: "Pleasant Thoughts Of One So Dear, Are Oft Recalled With A Silent Tear".

(Left: From his service record) Plt.Off. Irvin Neil McInnis. Clichy Northern Cemetery. Plot 16. Row 16. Coll. Grave 1-4. Born 27th September 1923, Collins Inlet, Ontario. Son of Neil (His father predeceased him) and Mary Catherine (née Nadeau) McInnis of Ramsey, Ontario, Canada. Posthumously promoted to Plt.Off., service number J/91047.

Plt.Off. Sidney Wallace Follows. Clichy Northern Cemetery. Plot 16. Row 16. Coll. Grave 1-4. Born 25th August 1924, Ottawa, Ontario. Son of Elizabeth Maud McNamara, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Grave inscription reads: "Ever Remembered". Posthumously promoted to Plt.Off., service number J/89123.

For further details our thanks to the sources shown below. Also to Niles White who sponsored the page on behalf of his mother - June 2018. Thanks to John Jones for the aircraft loss information.

Message from the sponsor of this page:

Only up until very recently, I knew of Flt.Sgt. Sturmy as "Bim," which I believe was his nickname. If this is correct, then he is likely the man whom my mother, Miriam Wally Brown, described as the man she should have married.

My mother grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and was visiting Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia when her uncle, Lieutenant Colonel Earle C. Phinney, second in command of the Nova Scotia Highland Battalion in WWI, introduced her to Mr. Sturmy. Lt.Col. Phinney is my grand Uncle. I salute both gentlemen.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them. - Laurence Binyon
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