The story of Lancaster ED559 and her crew
The Second World War generated millions of stories; some are well-known, others much less so. Alas, many of the incidents are now forgotten or being lost as those who were there sadly pass away.
Among these stories are those of Bomber Command and the Allied air offensive against Nazi Germany and the countries occupied by the Nazis. This site tells the story of a single Lancaster bomber operation in March 1943. It is one mission amongst the hundreds of thousands that happened. It tells the story of Lancaster bomber ED559 and its crew of seven.
This operational sortie is now but an all-too-brief footnote in the history of the RAF during the Second World War. What little official information exists tells a relatively simple story; an operation to drop sea mines in the Gironde estuary in western France. And a bomber that never returned.
Onboard Lancaster B Mk. III ED559 JA-D her crew of seven took off from an aerodrome in northern Lincolnshire, and flew into danger over occupied Europe, never to return.
The crew were a mix of Aussies and Brits and some had already seen action together. They’d faced the terrors and dangers of flak and night fighters over the well-defended cities of Germany the previous year. Six months previously, four of the seven had baled out over Wiltshire from a crippled Wellington bomber which had been heavily damaged by flak over Essen.
Described here are details about the seven-man crew and what we know of their final mission aboard Lancaster bomber ED559 and what may have happened over France that winter night in 1943.
Among these stories are those of Bomber Command and the Allied air offensive against Nazi Germany and the countries occupied by the Nazis. This site tells the story of a single Lancaster bomber operation in March 1943. It is one mission amongst the hundreds of thousands that happened. It tells the story of Lancaster bomber ED559 and its crew of seven.
This operational sortie is now but an all-too-brief footnote in the history of the RAF during the Second World War. What little official information exists tells a relatively simple story; an operation to drop sea mines in the Gironde estuary in western France. And a bomber that never returned.
Onboard Lancaster B Mk. III ED559 JA-D her crew of seven took off from an aerodrome in northern Lincolnshire, and flew into danger over occupied Europe, never to return.
The crew were a mix of Aussies and Brits and some had already seen action together. They’d faced the terrors and dangers of flak and night fighters over the well-defended cities of Germany the previous year. Six months previously, four of the seven had baled out over Wiltshire from a crippled Wellington bomber which had been heavily damaged by flak over Essen.
Described here are details about the seven-man crew and what we know of their final mission aboard Lancaster bomber ED559 and what may have happened over France that winter night in 1943.
“Eastward they climb, black shapes against the grey
Of falling dusk, gone with the nodding day
From English fields...”
“Eastward they climb, black shapes against the grey
Of falling dusk, gone with the nodding day
From English fields...”
