Help Wanted - Tracing Facts Of A Downed WW2 Aircrew Family Member For A Friend...

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Member for

5 years 9 months

Posts: 10

Hi there,

A friend at work has just showed me letters written by her Great Uncle to his Sister from Stalag Luft III in 1944 after he was shot down flying in a Lancaster (I believe).
Thankfully he survived his incarceration, but my friend knows little else about him but would love to know more!

All I can provide is his name: Eric Else

Position: Observer (Navigator/Bomb aimer)

Anything you can provide would be gratefully received - home base, squadron, serial number, crash site etc

Thanks in advance,

Nick

Original post

Member for

5 years 9 months

Posts: 10

Thanks Tony - I'm a complete novice at this type of thing.

Wish I could find out what aircraft (for certain) and serial number he was on board...

Member for

14 years

Posts: 1,788

Flight Sergeant Eric J Else 1392973 by the looks of it.

Member for

13 years 4 months

Posts: 218

Sgt E J Else. 61 Sqn. Lancaster ED314 on a 27/9/1943 op to Hanover, according to Oliver Clifton-Brock's book "Footprints on the Sands of Time".

Member for

13 years 4 months

Posts: 218

* Clutton-Brock.
Stupid auto-correct.

Member for

14 years 11 months

Posts: 1,755

Avro Lancaster Mk. I serial ED314 of 61 Squadron (at RAF Syerston), coded QR-Y.

I can only find the following on other crew members who flew with Else on this mission:
1024004 Sgt (Wop/Ag) J. Robson, PoW number 616. He was the Wireless operator/gunner, judging by his details
Flight Sergeant R W Mirfin, no known Commonwealth grave, so probably survived too.

Aircraft did not come down in the Netherlands, so lost most likely over Germany.

Raid details available online:
Hannover: 678 aircraft - 312 Lancasters, 231 Halifaxes, 111 Stirlings, 24 Wellingtons. 5 B-17s also took part. 38 Bomber Command aircraft - 17 Halifaxes, 10 Lancasters, 10 Stirlings, 1 Wellington - lost, 5.6 per cent of the force, and 1 B-17 also lost. The use by the Pathfinders of faulty forecast winds saved the centre of Hannover. The bombing was very concentrated but fell on an area 5 miles north of the city centre. No details are available from Germany but RAF photographic evidence showed that most of the bombs fell in open country or villages north of the city.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 246

Here is the full crew listing

PO E H Buckley
Sgt R J Wonnall
FSgt R W Mirfin RAAF
Sgt J A F Cooksey
Sgt J Robson
Sgt E J Else
Sgt E Fraser

All POW excepting Sgt Fraser who sadly died in the incident

Member for

5 years 9 months

Posts: 10

Fantastic results - thank you so much for the contributions so far - really appreciated. :)

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19 years 2 months

Posts: 1,317

It might give some backgound if you also research the other crew members who may have been prisoners together. We have all heard of the horrors of the concentration camps and the POW camps but I was unaware that the POWs also had forced movement between the various places.

EG. Flight Sgt Roy William Mirfin RAAF 61 Squadron No A425186 was born in Brisbane Queensland on 30th May 1923 and died in Queensland 28th August 1998. He was moved between POW camps see the description below, it's nasty reading. He was in Stalag Luft 4 in Sagan, Poland then Stalag Luft IIIA and VI Stalag XIB and 357 Fallingbostel

"As the Allies advanced further and further into Germany, the Germans became more determined to keep their prisoners out of Allied hands. The airmen, particularly valuable captives, were some of the first to be moved away from the advancing troops. The prisoners at Stalag Luft VI at Heydekrug (now in Lithuania) around 9,000 in number, Australians among them, were evacuated late in 1944 as the Russian armies advanced on Memel on the Baltic Sea coast. Forced into the holds of ships with only the food they were carrying and nothing but seawater to drink, the men spent three cramped nights crossing the Baltic to Swinemunde.They were force marched from Kiefheide, with many men being bayoneted or shot before they reached Stalag Luft IV in Gross Tychow. On arrival, they were handcuffed in pairs This march was one of the "Long Marches and ordered to quick march to the camp with their heavy packs. Many of the exhausted and sick men had to jettison their packs and others who stumbled were ‘clubbed with a rifle butt or savaged by dogs’. Early in February 1945 the men were moved again. They marched more than 500 kilometres to Fallingbostel, in Lower Saxony where they arrived on 22 March. It was only temporary and again many of them were moved towards the Elbe River. Hungry, exhausted and caught between opposing armies the men were attacked from Allied aircraft which mistook them for German troops. Finally, on 16 April 1945, the POWs, many of whom were Australians and New Zealanders, were rescued by units of the Second British Army. Stalag 357 in Oeerbke and Stalag XIb in Fallingbostel, were found by the British to be virtually uninhabitable and so the POWs were accommodated in tents for their last night in camp."