100 Sqn Lancaster WW2 crew information

[jamesman]

All,

I am wondering if I may request some assistance on trying to find out further information on a distant relative lost in WW2. The information I have so far is as follows:

Flying Officer Francis Martin Connolly (Navigator)
Service No: 133730
DoB 18/12/20
DoD 23/12/43

Lancaster Serial Number JB 594
100 Squadron
XID HW-O
This aircraft Failed to Return, crash site unknown
On 23rd - 24th Dec 1943

I looked from another perspective and found out that a certain Luftwaffe ace, Karl-Heinz Scherfling (Oberfeldwebel) was credited with 33 victories. All his victories were recorded at night.
I am absoultelutely not sure if this is the same incident, but there are some similarities.

No:26
24.12.1943
6:34
Lancaster
12./NJG1
Off Alkmaar


Ofw. Karl-Heinz Scherfling: 25
12./NJG1
Lancaster
Sea 50 km West
Callantsoog:6,400m.
06.34
100 Squadron Lancaster JB594


There is another crew member I know who was onboard, a Sergeant Robert Smith from Oldham.

So in sum I am trying to find out anything more that I can, be it further crew members, a photo of the aircraft, but to find a crew photo and what actually happened would be the golden egg!

Thank you in advance for anything you may have.

Jamesman

[Duplo]

Hi, try the 100 Sqn Association website and contact them.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Try researching the F540 (Sqn Ops Book) at Kew (National Records Office). This proved useful for a 101 Sqn crew member I was researching for a friend.
You can join and reserve documents for your visit online; all very efficient.

[Wensleydale]

Luftwaffe pilots claimed 12 Lancasters that night including 2 by Scherfling. A further 2 Halifaxes and 3 unidentified "4 Motor" s were claimed. Bomber Command list their losses at just 16 Lancasters of the 364 Lancasters, 7 Halifaxes and 8 Mosquitoes that took part in the raid (this list would not include accidents on return).


Chorley lists the 100 Sqn crew as:


FS DB Jameson
Sgt W Phillips
F/O FM Connolly
Sgt JR Jones RCAF
Sgt R Smith
Sgt VDP Brown
Sgt AB Burke


AB: 0014 from RAF Grimsby. Lost without trace. All crew missing believed KIA.


Another 100 Sqn Lancaster was also lost that night.

[Hangarshuffle]

Was the target Berlin? A very poignant list of young names, its very sad. I hope you find your answers, Jamesman.
Must have been beyond belief for the crew, take off at 14 minutes past midnight, flying at night.. in the deepest part of Winter, presumably shot down and killed at what, 0634? On their way back, over the sea?
What's that line from Bomber?...they rarely saw a sergeant at High Wycombe, just wiped them off the blackboard every morning by the hundred.

[Wensleydale]

The target was indeed Berlin. It was a poor night for the night fighters - the German controller was seduced by the Mosquito diversionary raid to Leipzig and the night fighters did not catch the bulk of the bomber stream. Details of the raid are, as always, contained in the "Bomber Command War Diaries" by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt.

[GW844]

I will ask my Father in Law for a steer as he used to do a lot on the sqn history when on 100 Sqn in the 80s.

[rolling20]

You can try the RAF Disclosures Section at Cranwell. They will give you his service record, although you may have to prove your relationship to the person you are trying to get info on. Hope you succeed. As an aside a few nights earlier on Dec 16/17th ( Black Thursday) , 100 Squadron lost their CO W/C David Holford DSO DFC, who had already completed two tours. Holford was a remarkable man, having been the youngest ever to hold that rank at just 21 in Feb 43. He was also one of two Operational Bomber Command men who attended a conference at High Wycombe in 1942 to decide on the standard tour of 30 ops. He features in Don Charlwoods book 'No Moon Tonight' ,who describes him as one of the most remarkable men he met in the RAF. Not as well known to the public as Gibson or Cheshire, but a leader of the highest calibre, who left a widow and young son.

[November4]

Fg OFF Connolly is recorded on the RAF Memorial, Panel 123

http://www.rafmams.co.uk/123.jpg

[November4]

The full entry from The Bomber Command War Diaries by Middlebook, M and Everitt, C. as mentioned by Wensleydale

23/24 Dec 1943
Berlin
379 Aircraft - 364 Lancasters, 8 Mosquitoes, 7 Halifaxes. The bomber casualties were not as heavy as on recent raids,, partly because German fighters encountered difficulties with the weather and partly because the German controller was temporarily deceived by the Mosquito diversion at Leipzig. The main force of fighters only appeared in the target area at the end of the raid and could not catch the main bomber stream. 16 Lancasters were lost, 4.2 percent of the force.

The Berlin area was covered by cloud and more than half of the Pathfinder aircraft had trouble with their H2S sets. The markers were scattered and sparse. The Berlin report shows that only the south-eastern suburbs of Kopenick and Treptow received any serious number of bombs. 287 houses and other mixed property were destroyed. 1 canal cargo ship was sunk and 3 seriously damaged. 178 people were killed, 157 civilians, 11 police and soldier, 10 foreign workers.