Flying Officer Gwynne Thomas in RAAF in working dress, Filey, Yorkshire, March 1944.

            The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is to hold a funeral service in Germany in September 2005 for four World War Two RAAF Lancaster bomber crew.
The men were killed on 6 December 1944 when their aircraft, No. 463 Squadron Lancaster PB290 JO-K, was shot down during a night raid on the German city of Geissen, 40km north of Frankfurt.
The service will be held at the Hanover War Cemetery in Germany on 13 September 2005. 
In 2004 German historians found part of the Lancaster’s wreckage with some human remains in a forest near Geissen.
Forensic tests identified the remains of Flying Officers Alan Bond, the aircraft navigator, Gwynne Thomas, the wireless operator, and Flight Sergeant Joslyn "Len" Henderson, the rear gunner. 
From this information, unidentified remains in the Hanover War Cemetery were identified as Flight Sergeant Richard Hawthorn, the mid-upper gunner.
The Lancaster took off on its mission from RAF Base Waddington on 6 December. Its crew comprised six Australians and one British Royal Air Force crew member. 
Over Geissen, a German night fighter shot down the Lancaster. It crashed into woods about 3km north-east of the town. 
At the time of the crash, the bodies of Flying Officers Richard Young, the aircraft captain, and Henry MacMeikan, the bomb aimer, Flight Sergeant Hawthorn and Sergeant Phillip Gwynne, RAF, the engineer, were recovered and buried in Geissen local cemetery.
At the time, the remains of Flight Sergeant Hawthorn could not be identified, but were buried with the others. Later, all remains of the bomber crew were reinterred in the Hanover War Cemetery. 
No. 463 Squadron was formed at RAF Base Waddington on November 25, 1943.  It fought extensively in the battle of the Ruhr and subsequent bombing raids against Germany, including operations over Omaha Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944.  The squadron was disbanded in September 1945.
   

Taken on: September 2, 2005

Tags:

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Filey

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Sets appears in: • Aircraft B & W

Groups appears in: • World War II Vintage Photos • WW II more » • WW2 • World war photos • WWII Militaria • WW2 photos • Australian Military • WorldWar • WWII: History at its Finest. • WWII Related Images You Want To Share « less

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