Originally Posted by
India Four Two
Thanks PN. After looking up Hopgood's crew, I see there were two Canadians, the Nav, F/O Kenneth Earnshaw, who was killed and the Bomb Aimer, F/O John William Fraser, who survived the war as a POW. I presume this is the reason for the choice of the aircraft's code letter.
One of the many facts of the Dambuster's mission not generally known (as its not covered in the film of the same name) is that Flt Lt John Vere Hopgood DFC, (M – Mother), #2 in the attack on the Möhne and shot down during his attack run, had suffered significant damage on the very low-level transit to the target. The port outer engine was hit and feathered, the front gunner (Gregory) was probably killed in this early engagement as nothing more was heard from him for the rest of the mission. The wireless operator (Minchin) reported being ‘hit in the leg’; it was actually nearly severed, but that was not known about until sometime later when the rear gunner (Burcher) found him crawling up the fuselage and assisted him to abandon the aircraft. During the intervening time Minchin never uttered any complaint.
Burcher, too, had been hit in the groin and stomach, which must have stung just a wee bit. Hopgood himself was badly hit in the head and continued to fly with the Engineer (Brennan) holding a pocket handkerchief to the head wound in an effort to staunch the serious blood loss. Remember, these guys were at a max height of about 100' and routinely flying UNDER electricity cables – in the dark. Despite these serious setbacks and wounds, Hopgood continued to the target, with Gibson and Martin, without a murmur and attacked unhesitatingly when ordered to do so.
On only 3 engines, with no suppressive fire from the front turret, he flew an accurate attack into the now thoroughly alerted defences and paid the price of being '2nd in'. The aircraft was badly hit in the port wing again and the other engine on that side was also put out of action; the petrol tanks were hit, ruptured, and burst into flames. However, even then, Hopgood’s heroism knew no bounds and he remained in control of a now blazing, fully asymmetric, aircraft while he tried to gain height and encouraging his crew to abandon the mortally hit Lancaster.
Due to Hopgood’s gallant efforts, 3 of his crew DID get out, although the seriously injured Minchin did not survive the very low-level abandonment despite the equally gallant efforts of Burcher; if you see pictures of the inside the Lanc's fuselage, imagine crawling along the fuselage with your leg hanging off, especially if you had to negotiate the infamous main spar from the wireless operator’s position to the rear escape door.
Bomb aimer Fraser and rear gunner Burcher did get away with it to become POWs, Burcher with a broken back after hitting the tailplane, having previously bailed out Minchin through the side door. They both only survived because they had the presence of mind to pull their ‘chutes INSIDE the aircraft and feed the canopy into the slipstream and be dragged out by it.; in the case of Burcher, he may have been assisted by being blown out of the aircraft as it exploded.
The whole episode probably took less time in actuality than the time you've spent reading this.
Finally, Dave Shannon recalled during the gut-tightening time between kitting-out and getting airborne, sharing a cigarette with Hopgood ‘round the back of the hangar’, where Hopgood confessed that he didn’t think that he would return; he’d reasoned - logically - that being number 2 ‘in’ was the poisoned chalice as the element of surprise would have gone and the defences would not have been degraded to any degree yet. And so it proved; but he went anyway. Heroism personified and Hopgood, too, should have been awarded a (posthumous) VC, IMHO.