Gents: Time for PPRuNe Power!

[Icare9]

This is primarily aimed at those WW2 vets and families from US and Canada.

The story is:-
Halifax Mk V DK259 from 434 Squadron RCAF was shot down on 29 September 1943.

A Dutch researcher is now wanting to contact relatives of cew members. So far he has found the neice of 2nd Lt Clary. He still wants the UK family of Bertram Scudder as well as Stuart in US and Hastings and Hovey in Canada.

Rob Lantings has contacted the 434 RCAF Squadron website .
Here's what I have from there and also RAF Loss Card http://www.lancaster.../files/book.swf
Halifax Mk V DK259. Code WL-L. Equipped with Gee. Target Bochum. Take off 18:30
SCUDDER, BERTRAM THOMAS HENRY. Rank: Sergeant. Trade: Flt. Engr. Service No: 1582262. Date of Death: 29/09/1943. Age: 18
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. 434 (R.C.A.F.) Sqdn
Grave Reference: Grave 206. Cemetery: ENSCHEDE EASTERN GENERAL CEMETERY
Additional Information: Son of Bert Henry and Edith Maud Scudder, of Hadleigh, Essex.
(Loss Card notes as 2nd operation)

BELLINGER, WILLIAM GEORGE. Rank: Flying Officer. Trade: Nav. Service No: J/13120. Date of Death: 29/09/1943. Age: 21.
Regiment/Service: Royal Canadian Air Force. 434 Sqdn.
Grave Reference: Grave 207. Cemetery: ENSCHEDE EASTERN GENERAL CEMETERY
Additional Information: Son of Harold D. and Elvera L. Bellinger, of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
(Died in hospital of leg wounds) Loss Card shows him as bomb aimer, but crew member(s) say Navigator.

2nd Lt Jackson Temple Clary (pilot) USAAF Service Number O.885969; escaped; (18 operations)
Pilot Officer G V Hastings, Navigator, CAN/J17665; PoW;
Pilot Officer J A L Lockhart CAN/J18450; PoW;
Technical Sergeant R W Stuart USAAF; 10601019; (mid upper) PoW;
Pilot Officer C V Hovey CAN/J17408 (rear) PoW

K100: Outbound - fighter- crossed Dutch coast at 18,000 ft about 10m S of mark. Pilot wanted to change course but Nav persuaded him to wait for good Gee fix. Continued climbing and changed course at 19,500 ft flying straight and level at 145 mph IAS. Attacked about 1 minute later by enemy aircraft without warning, probably .................
............. starboard inner engine and wing bomb bay being hit. Bomb aimer wounded by cannon shell in legs and hip; Flight Engineer may have been killed or seriously wounded. Pilot put aircraft into a shallow dive and when he noticed fire gave the order to prepare to abandon. Damaged engine feathered and fire extinguished. Bombs jettisoned except those in starboard bay which was causing fire in the wing inboard of the inner engine. Both gunners were firing, rear gunner directed pilot to dive to port. Enemy aircraft put in a second big burst damaging tail unit and rudders. Navigator and bomb aimer baled out- more of aircraft doing sixty, stalled ship and go down rapidly in spin. Pilot landed near Enschede. Told that when aircraft crashed one wing broke off and fuselage broke in two aft of mainplanes. Wing and rear part of fuselage undamaged. Told bomb aimer died in hospital shortly after landing. Bellinger and Scudden.... of Halifax shot down 29.9.43. 61(?)10.43.
274B: Aircraft raked from front and rear by enemy fighter. Bomb aimer hit in body by cannon shell. Fire in starboard wing and in fuselage and when ... forward hatch jettisoned after second attack. W/Op assisted bomb aimer out, followed then they ... aircraft spinning .........and Nav floated down and apprehended.... Bomb aimer died in hospital a few minutes after we got here. F/Eng apparently unable to don his parachute.

Perhaps someone can make better sense of this...
I'm obviously interested as an ex Sarfender and hope the Southend Evening Echo may also be willing to publish details, now we have something of the crew details and circumstances of the loss.

Stan50: By all means pass this info on to Rob, he may not have all of it...
Good luck!

EDIT: Also found this link, with crew photo....
http://ww2airforce.j...lifax-v-dk259-l

Might be worth contacting if they know more... (although the reference to staying onboard as he was scared may be unkind if he had already been mortally wounded during the fighter attack). Also Bellingham link has details that he was caught in a tree and rescued, but died of wounds, including the loss of part of his foot.

and yet more here, http://www.ww2f.com/...can-in-the-raf/

Name: Bertram T H Scudder. Mother's Maiden Surname: Pullen. Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1925
Registration District: London City, Greater London. Volume: 1c. Page: 2

I'm fairly certain that the Scudder family had at least two branches in Dawes Heath, Hadleigh and Thundersley areas on the outskirts of Southend.

What I don't have are the skills to seek out the relatives in US and Canada, so can YOU help in time for the 70th anniversary?

I am responding to BBC Essex with info so far, but I'm hoping that the power of PPRuNe can get things moving (like the pun?) on the far side of the pond.

If any of you can help, please do your bit. If this is meant to be, then you might just be the one to help.

Thanks in advance and God Speed!

[SASless]

Aid to Allied Airmen | WWII Netherlands Escape Lines


American in the RAF ? - Information Requests - WWII Forums


Saw this when I googled the American name.

2nd Lt. Temple Clary

[Icare9]

Cheers, SASless
From the RAF PoW index I've located the 3 Canadians, but Stuart as an American isn't recorded. He may still have been at Luft 3 with a similar number...
Camp PoW No
L3 2621 Hovey C Y J/17106 RCAF
L3 2616 Hastings G V J/17665 RCAF
L3 2624 Lockhart I A L J/18450 RCAF

Note that Hovey is shown as C Y, not C V.
There was an eminent C Y Hovey in the mid fifties involved in some learned research on insects.... could be one and the same. (I didn't follow up because I was looking for a CV Hovey, but noted the similarity.....

Also Lockhart is shown as I A L, not J A L, but it was JAL on the Loss Card so it may just be a transcription error, or we need to look for an Ian or Isaac or similar!

Now to crack the other side of the pond!
Over to our Canadian friends...
The 434 Squadron Association have been contacted but no luck thus far....

[SASless]

Clary has passed on.

Married a British Wife and took her to the States. He evaded capture for two months, made it back to the UK via Spain.



The Paul D. Clary 111's of San Rafael, California:Information about Jackson Temple Clary