I raised a glass as promised, and to Roy, Doug and all the others who never made it back.
I don't know if this is much of a present, and you may already know of this website, but as several buildings are captioned as "unidentified" then you might be able to help. I hope the memories are not painful....
Yorkshire. RAF Snaith.
Rodger: I hope the following early answers are of assistance. Mention is made that only family relatives are usually given access to these records, so I will leave it to you to decide to take it down these routes. If you need help getting email addresses, shout, either by PM or on this thread, as no doubt others can help.
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Icare9 Join Date: May 2009 Location: London W4 Posts: 1
Help 51 Sqdn Halifax HR732 loss
Hello, my first post, trying to help find any details regarding the loss of Halifax HR732 on early morning of 4th December 1943.
Background: I'm a participant on the PPRuNe website and one thread has a WW2 contributor from 51 Sqdn C Flight. He's now been contacted by the nephew of Sgt D W Milliken RCAF, the rear gunner. Sgt Milliken's twin brother has recently died so the family are trying to piece together their wartime service history. The HR732 crew have no known graves and are on the Runnymede Memorial.
The reason why I'm posting is that the widow of the pilot, P.O. AJ Salvage had his wedding ring returned 3 years after the war ended. That implies that his remains were found with sufficient identification to enable the ring to be returned (blackened but still recognisable).
The implication therefore is that this crew may be buried "somewhere" as unknown, but if the report of the aircraft crew that may have claimed the Halifax that early morning could be discovered, then the crash site might be traced and hopefully the crew remains might be able to be located.
Sorry it's long, but I hope you can help after all these years uncover what happened that day and help the families have somewhere to visit.
Thanks in advance, check out the site if you think you can help.
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...t-ww11-37.html
#2 7th May 2009, 23:57 Andy Saunders Posts: 427
There will be a Casualty File still held by the Ministry of Defence on each man and this may well hold vital clues that could, today, be followed up. These files are held in a central repository at Hayes, Middlesex but are "closed". Details will, sometimes, be extracted via the Air Historical Branch on request - but not always - and whatever comes back will probably be quite limited. However, a glimmer of hope here is that Doug Milliken is a Canadian. His casualty file will (probably) have been copied to Canada and the Canadians are much more likely to provide copies - as do the Australians, for example.
A good read is Stuart Hadaway's "Missing Believed Killed" (Pen & Sword) which details the work of the Missing Research & Enquiry Unit in their postwar searches. This crew will have been one of the MREU cases, but it clearly went unsolved and the case left open. I wouldn't mind betting that there will be some glimmer of a clue, somewhere, as to what happened to this crew.
If you wish to PM me I can probably help further.
#3 8th May 2009, 08:40 Chris Goss Posts: 2,141
To add to what Andy says, you will have to be related to the deceased to have any chance of help from the AHB-casual queries are not encouraged. If the file exists, they might have something on the loss, as on a number of occasions, the Casualty Files have proven that an aircraft listed as missing was in fact discovered. For example, a friend's uncle was listed as missing but the Bomber Command Loss Card gave a location and the Cas File stated that his Uncle's body and that of the pilot had been discovered but the location of the cemetery was lost as it, and the records, were in Berlin and destroyed during the Soviet offensive. Hence he is missing
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If I get any more relevant responses I'll post, but don't want to distract from this thread, so will PM unless you (and the Moderators) say it's OK.
My comment about HR782 would be a guess that as they were shown one after the other, then that is probably the sequence in which they took off. I would imagine that 3 minutes gap would be sensible just in case the one in front crashed on take off, but reg will no doubt add the definitive answer.
Cliff: I think you may be your usual discreet self and not "intruding" but it's been more than 3 days without a posting - are you there, mother??!!!
And see Nightbomber an hour long video on Aviation History & Nostalgia sub forum - RAF Hemswell .....
Readers: Am I spoiling the thread with this info, if so I'll update by PM, and my apologies...
Edited to curekt speelin and link to Nightbomber...