Post by groundhog on Sept 14, 2012 23:01:49 GMT
15th September is Battle of Britain Day. To mark the event this year I've compiled the list below of those Tipperary men who died in the RAF in World War 2, plus one who spent almost six years as a POW.
I've no doubt I missed some men who died and many survivors who served with greater luck than those mentioned here
AC1 Larry Slattery, from Thurles. 107 Squadron. Shot down and captured on 4th Sept 1939. 15 Blenheim medium bombers of 107 and 110 Sqdns flew a mission to attack German ships in Wilhemshaven that day. In conjunction with this raid 14 Wellingtons of 9 Sqdn attacked shipping in Brunsbuttel. Five planes from each raid turned back having failed to find their target. The remaining Blenheims, five from each squadron, carried out low-level attacks on the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer and on the cruiser Emden in Wilhelmshaven harbour. The Admiral Scheer was hit by three bombs which failed to explode while the Emden suffered minor damage when a 110 Sqdn Blenhiem- N6199 VE, crashed into it. Ironically that plane was flown by a Flying Officer Emden. All four crew died on this plane.
Of the five planes of 107 Squadron, four were shot down over Wilhelmshaven. The plane numbers were N6184 OM, N6188 OM, N6189 OM, N6240 OM. Ten men were killed and two survived, both in N6240. The two survivors were Sgt George Booth and AC1 Larry Slattery from Thurles. Both men were captured and spent the next six years as POWs in Germany, officially they were the first British POWs of WW2. Larry Slattery’s capture was reported in the Nenagh Guardian in September 1939. He was interviewed in a German radio show for broadcast to Britain as propaganda. In the interview he said he had broken his jaw when his plane crashed.
All the crew of the other planes died in the attack. All these planes were hit by flak from the ships they were attacking or the Admiral Hipper. The pilot of N6188 OM was Flying Officer Billy Murphy from Mitchelstown, Co. Cork. He is buried in Sage War Cemetery, Germany.
580583 Sgt Bill Mulally, from Mullinahone. 107 Squadron. KIA 19th April 1940. Bill Mullally was born in Clonmel 8th January 1919, son of John and Theresa nee Kennedy Mullally. His family were from Mullinahone. He was educated in Dublin and Galway and joined the RAF on 19th December 1938. He served in 82 Sqdn and 101 Sqdn before joining 107 Sqdn in January 1940. 107 Sqdn was operating Blenheim bombers.
On 19th April 1940 107 Squadron left Lossiemouth, Scotland to bomb an airfield at Sola, near Stavenger, Norway in support of the British Army. Of the nine aircraft sent on the mission, seven abandoned due to lack of cloud cover. Of the remaining two one bombed an airfield while Bill Mullally's aircraft disappearedover the North Sea. It is believed to have been shot down by Feldwebel Lothar Linke of ZG 76.
KIA were the Pilot Sgt Peter Chivers, age 19 from Purley, Surrey, W/OP/Gunner AC2 Henry Greggan, 18 from Bootle Lancashire and Bombardier/Navigator Sgt Bill Mullally age 21 from Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary. Their bodies were never recovered and they are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. Bill Mullally is commemorated on the family headstone in Mullinahone.
37712 Flying Officer Charles Bomford, from Ballycommon, Co. Tipperary. 107 Sqdn, Died 9th June 1940. 107 Sqdn was operating Bristol Blenheim light bombers in 1940. Bomford was the pilot of plane number L9323 which flew from Wattisham to bomb German armour reported near Poix.. The plane was shot down by flak at Torcy le Petit, 14 km south east of Dieppe. Bomford and one other crewman were killed. The third was wounded and captured. Bomford is buried in Torcy le Petit Communal Cemetery, France.
581126 Sgt Edmund Walsh, from Clogheen. 18 Squadron. Died 5th September 1940. He is buried in Fakenham Cemetery, Norfolk
970881 Sgt Michael Heaney, from Nenagh. 101 Sqdn. Died 16th December 1940. Sgt Heaney was a Wireless Operator/ Air Gunner flying Blenheim Light Bombers. He died along with the rest of his crew after a mission to bomb Mannheim. The aircraft was last heard from as it was flying over St. Quentin, France and was presumed lost in the sea. Sgt Heaney is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
978746 Sgt John O’Callaghan. He was from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary and he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, England. O'Callaghan was part of the crew of a Wellington bomber which they were delivering to Malta. They took off from Gibraltar on 2nd August 1941 but an engine cut and unable to maintain height the crew ditched in heavy seas off the coast 48 km east of Algiers. Five men died and one was rescued.
1382776 Sgt Thomas O’Shea, from Killenaule. 160 Sqdn. Died 1st June 1942. 160 Squadron was formed in early 1942 and intended for service in the Far East. It was equipped with Liberator Bombers. In May 1942 the squadron was based near Belfast and engaged on convoy escort duties. The squadron war diary notes that aircraft AL520 W.O. Adam and his crew, of which Sgt O’Shea was one of the gunners, carried out convoy escort. The aircraft was fired on by the convoy and Sgt. O'Shea was killed. He is buried in Glenavy RC Churchyard, Co. Antrim.
1511663 Sgt William Maher, from Clonmel. 419 Squadron. KIA 23rd Sept 1943. Sgt Maher was the Bomb Aimer of a Halifax bomber, JD457. Its squadron ID was VR-F. The crew were all RAF aircrew and flew on a mission to Mannheim that night. The night skies over the target were clear and there was a heavy toll to night fighter and Flak. Twenty planes were lost on the raid including two of 419 Squadron. Sgt Maher is buried in Rheinberg War Cemetery and is commemorated on his family headstone in St Patrick’s Cemetery, Clonmel.
www.419squadronbewarethemoose.com/JD457.html
55024 Flying Officer Desmond O’Brien from Clonmel. 166 Squadron. KIA 26th Nov 1943. 166 Sqdn flew Lancaster bombers out of Kirmington, Lincolnshire. FO O’Brien enlisted in the RAF in late 1935 and was commissioned in February 1943. His Lancaster, DV387, went missing on a raid to Berlin on the night in question. He is buried in Rheinberg War Cemetery and is commemorated on his family headstone in St Patrick’s Cemetery, Clonmel.
641119 Flight Sgt Denis McGrath, from Nenagh. 103 Sqdn. Died 16th December 1943 age 24. 103 was a Lancaster Bomber Squadron. It flew a mission to Berlin that night. 25 Lancaters were lost on the way to Berlin mainly to night fighters. 29 more crashed on their return to England due to low cloud over their airfields. Flt Sgt McGrath is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial so we can assume his plane was lost over the sea on the return journey.
916300 Flight Sgt Patrick O'Meara, From Tipperary Town. 550 Sqdn. Died 2nd January 1944. Flt Sgt O’Meara was posted to 550 Sqdn on squadron start-up from 100 Sqdn "C" Flight w.e.f. 25/11/43. He was Flight Engineer of Lancaster bomber No DV345. She was returning from a mission to Berlin on 2nd January 1944 when she caught fire in the air and crashed at Spalding, Lincolnshire. All nine crew members died. Unusually Flt Sgt O’Meara’s body was returned home for burial since he rests in St. Michael’s Cemetery, Tipperary.
1661466 Sgt Patrick Morrisey, from Cashel. 1667 Heavy Conversion Unit. Died 6th July 1944. Sgt Morrissey was part of the crew of a Halifax Bomber on a training mission out of Sandtoft. The crew comprised of instructor pilot, pupil, 4 flight engineers, navigator, wireless op/air gunner and bomb aimer. The plane lost control at 200 feet during 3-engine practice and crashed at 1315. F/L B.E McLaughlin DFC KIA, P/O E. Barley KIA, Sgt P. Morrissey DFM injured, Sgt T.E. Carr injured, Sgt I.H. Simmonds injured, (died of injuries shortly after the crash at Scunthorpe War Memorial hospital), Sgt G. Beedle KIA, F/S J.N. Bond RAAF KIA, Sgt H. Fryer KIA, F/S R.A. Wixted RAAF KIA.
Sgt Morrissey was a holder of the DFM so we can assume he had completed at least one operational tour and was now an instructor. He was a Flight Engineer. Unfortunately he died of his injuries the following day, July 6th 1944. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London and is also commemorated on the family headstone in St. John the Baptist Churchyard, Cashel.
www.aircrewremembrancesociety.com/raf1944/3/mclaughlinbenjamin.html
www.flickr.com/photos/highy/6341921390/
1521062 Flight Sgt William Thornton, From Cashel. 44 Sqdn. Died 7th March 1945 age 28. Flt Sgt Thornton was Flight Engineer of a Lancaster Bomber, NG396 which crashed in the Baltic Sea on the night of 6/7th March 1945 returning from a bombing mission over the port of Sassnitz. On 18th June 1946 a Danish fisherman pulled up his body in his fishing net between the islands of Mon and Bornholm. Flt Sgt Thornton was buried in Svino Cemetery, Denmark on 23rd June 1946. The rest of the crew of the bomber remain missing.
www.flensted.eu.com/1945020.shtml
1387869 Flt Sgt William Devins, 547 Sqdn, RAF was the son of Joseph and Jane Devins from Thurles , Co. Tipperary. He was KIA 5th May 1945 and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, England. Panel 270. The memorial commemorates those member of the RAF operating over Europe and killed in WW2 whose bodies were not recovered.
547 Squadron was an anti-shipping and anti-submarine warfare squadron that operated off the coast of Norway and the Baltic sea at this stage of the war. Devins’ Liberator bomber was one of a group that attacked three German Submarines in the Kattegat. As his plane was bombing U-534 it was shot down with the loss of all eleven crewmen.
www.airmen.dk/p433.htm
U534 is on display in Liverpool
www.u-boatstory.co.uk/news.aspx
1900445 Leading Aircraftman John McSweeney, from Kilmore, Co. Tipperary. Died 16th September 1945 age 25. Buried Maala Cemetery, Yemen.
190476 Flying Officer Charles Dillon, from Clonmel. 299 Squadron. Died 7th October 1945. 299 Squadron was a workhorse squadron equipped with Stirling Bombers. Much of its time was spent resupplying resistance groups in France as well as involvement in glider towing and dropping paratroopers on D Day. Afte the war the squadron took up transport duties.
On 7th October 1945 Stirling LJ668 299 Sqdn special transport flight carrying a crew of 6 and 20 passengers from Cairo to London. Airborne for 9 hours and with fuel supplies running low the crew attempted an emergency landing at Rennes airfield in France. Banking left over the airfield the aircraft hit the ground and was completely destroyed by fire. There were no survivors. The dead included six females and three married service couples. They are all buried in Rennes Communal Cemetery. Charles Dillon is commemoratedon the family headstone in St. Patrick's Cemetery, Clonmel.
1798606 AC1 Michael Hogan, from Borrisokane. Died 23rd December 1946 Age 27. Buried Ranchi War Cemetery, India.
I've no doubt I missed some men who died and many survivors who served with greater luck than those mentioned here
AC1 Larry Slattery, from Thurles. 107 Squadron. Shot down and captured on 4th Sept 1939. 15 Blenheim medium bombers of 107 and 110 Sqdns flew a mission to attack German ships in Wilhemshaven that day. In conjunction with this raid 14 Wellingtons of 9 Sqdn attacked shipping in Brunsbuttel. Five planes from each raid turned back having failed to find their target. The remaining Blenheims, five from each squadron, carried out low-level attacks on the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer and on the cruiser Emden in Wilhelmshaven harbour. The Admiral Scheer was hit by three bombs which failed to explode while the Emden suffered minor damage when a 110 Sqdn Blenhiem- N6199 VE, crashed into it. Ironically that plane was flown by a Flying Officer Emden. All four crew died on this plane.
Of the five planes of 107 Squadron, four were shot down over Wilhelmshaven. The plane numbers were N6184 OM, N6188 OM, N6189 OM, N6240 OM. Ten men were killed and two survived, both in N6240. The two survivors were Sgt George Booth and AC1 Larry Slattery from Thurles. Both men were captured and spent the next six years as POWs in Germany, officially they were the first British POWs of WW2. Larry Slattery’s capture was reported in the Nenagh Guardian in September 1939. He was interviewed in a German radio show for broadcast to Britain as propaganda. In the interview he said he had broken his jaw when his plane crashed.
All the crew of the other planes died in the attack. All these planes were hit by flak from the ships they were attacking or the Admiral Hipper. The pilot of N6188 OM was Flying Officer Billy Murphy from Mitchelstown, Co. Cork. He is buried in Sage War Cemetery, Germany.
580583 Sgt Bill Mulally, from Mullinahone. 107 Squadron. KIA 19th April 1940. Bill Mullally was born in Clonmel 8th January 1919, son of John and Theresa nee Kennedy Mullally. His family were from Mullinahone. He was educated in Dublin and Galway and joined the RAF on 19th December 1938. He served in 82 Sqdn and 101 Sqdn before joining 107 Sqdn in January 1940. 107 Sqdn was operating Blenheim bombers.
On 19th April 1940 107 Squadron left Lossiemouth, Scotland to bomb an airfield at Sola, near Stavenger, Norway in support of the British Army. Of the nine aircraft sent on the mission, seven abandoned due to lack of cloud cover. Of the remaining two one bombed an airfield while Bill Mullally's aircraft disappearedover the North Sea. It is believed to have been shot down by Feldwebel Lothar Linke of ZG 76.
KIA were the Pilot Sgt Peter Chivers, age 19 from Purley, Surrey, W/OP/Gunner AC2 Henry Greggan, 18 from Bootle Lancashire and Bombardier/Navigator Sgt Bill Mullally age 21 from Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary. Their bodies were never recovered and they are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. Bill Mullally is commemorated on the family headstone in Mullinahone.
37712 Flying Officer Charles Bomford, from Ballycommon, Co. Tipperary. 107 Sqdn, Died 9th June 1940. 107 Sqdn was operating Bristol Blenheim light bombers in 1940. Bomford was the pilot of plane number L9323 which flew from Wattisham to bomb German armour reported near Poix.. The plane was shot down by flak at Torcy le Petit, 14 km south east of Dieppe. Bomford and one other crewman were killed. The third was wounded and captured. Bomford is buried in Torcy le Petit Communal Cemetery, France.
581126 Sgt Edmund Walsh, from Clogheen. 18 Squadron. Died 5th September 1940. He is buried in Fakenham Cemetery, Norfolk
970881 Sgt Michael Heaney, from Nenagh. 101 Sqdn. Died 16th December 1940. Sgt Heaney was a Wireless Operator/ Air Gunner flying Blenheim Light Bombers. He died along with the rest of his crew after a mission to bomb Mannheim. The aircraft was last heard from as it was flying over St. Quentin, France and was presumed lost in the sea. Sgt Heaney is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
978746 Sgt John O’Callaghan. He was from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary and he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, England. O'Callaghan was part of the crew of a Wellington bomber which they were delivering to Malta. They took off from Gibraltar on 2nd August 1941 but an engine cut and unable to maintain height the crew ditched in heavy seas off the coast 48 km east of Algiers. Five men died and one was rescued.
1382776 Sgt Thomas O’Shea, from Killenaule. 160 Sqdn. Died 1st June 1942. 160 Squadron was formed in early 1942 and intended for service in the Far East. It was equipped with Liberator Bombers. In May 1942 the squadron was based near Belfast and engaged on convoy escort duties. The squadron war diary notes that aircraft AL520 W.O. Adam and his crew, of which Sgt O’Shea was one of the gunners, carried out convoy escort. The aircraft was fired on by the convoy and Sgt. O'Shea was killed. He is buried in Glenavy RC Churchyard, Co. Antrim.
1511663 Sgt William Maher, from Clonmel. 419 Squadron. KIA 23rd Sept 1943. Sgt Maher was the Bomb Aimer of a Halifax bomber, JD457. Its squadron ID was VR-F. The crew were all RAF aircrew and flew on a mission to Mannheim that night. The night skies over the target were clear and there was a heavy toll to night fighter and Flak. Twenty planes were lost on the raid including two of 419 Squadron. Sgt Maher is buried in Rheinberg War Cemetery and is commemorated on his family headstone in St Patrick’s Cemetery, Clonmel.
www.419squadronbewarethemoose.com/JD457.html
55024 Flying Officer Desmond O’Brien from Clonmel. 166 Squadron. KIA 26th Nov 1943. 166 Sqdn flew Lancaster bombers out of Kirmington, Lincolnshire. FO O’Brien enlisted in the RAF in late 1935 and was commissioned in February 1943. His Lancaster, DV387, went missing on a raid to Berlin on the night in question. He is buried in Rheinberg War Cemetery and is commemorated on his family headstone in St Patrick’s Cemetery, Clonmel.
641119 Flight Sgt Denis McGrath, from Nenagh. 103 Sqdn. Died 16th December 1943 age 24. 103 was a Lancaster Bomber Squadron. It flew a mission to Berlin that night. 25 Lancaters were lost on the way to Berlin mainly to night fighters. 29 more crashed on their return to England due to low cloud over their airfields. Flt Sgt McGrath is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial so we can assume his plane was lost over the sea on the return journey.
916300 Flight Sgt Patrick O'Meara, From Tipperary Town. 550 Sqdn. Died 2nd January 1944. Flt Sgt O’Meara was posted to 550 Sqdn on squadron start-up from 100 Sqdn "C" Flight w.e.f. 25/11/43. He was Flight Engineer of Lancaster bomber No DV345. She was returning from a mission to Berlin on 2nd January 1944 when she caught fire in the air and crashed at Spalding, Lincolnshire. All nine crew members died. Unusually Flt Sgt O’Meara’s body was returned home for burial since he rests in St. Michael’s Cemetery, Tipperary.
1661466 Sgt Patrick Morrisey, from Cashel. 1667 Heavy Conversion Unit. Died 6th July 1944. Sgt Morrissey was part of the crew of a Halifax Bomber on a training mission out of Sandtoft. The crew comprised of instructor pilot, pupil, 4 flight engineers, navigator, wireless op/air gunner and bomb aimer. The plane lost control at 200 feet during 3-engine practice and crashed at 1315. F/L B.E McLaughlin DFC KIA, P/O E. Barley KIA, Sgt P. Morrissey DFM injured, Sgt T.E. Carr injured, Sgt I.H. Simmonds injured, (died of injuries shortly after the crash at Scunthorpe War Memorial hospital), Sgt G. Beedle KIA, F/S J.N. Bond RAAF KIA, Sgt H. Fryer KIA, F/S R.A. Wixted RAAF KIA.
Sgt Morrissey was a holder of the DFM so we can assume he had completed at least one operational tour and was now an instructor. He was a Flight Engineer. Unfortunately he died of his injuries the following day, July 6th 1944. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London and is also commemorated on the family headstone in St. John the Baptist Churchyard, Cashel.
www.aircrewremembrancesociety.com/raf1944/3/mclaughlinbenjamin.html
www.flickr.com/photos/highy/6341921390/
1521062 Flight Sgt William Thornton, From Cashel. 44 Sqdn. Died 7th March 1945 age 28. Flt Sgt Thornton was Flight Engineer of a Lancaster Bomber, NG396 which crashed in the Baltic Sea on the night of 6/7th March 1945 returning from a bombing mission over the port of Sassnitz. On 18th June 1946 a Danish fisherman pulled up his body in his fishing net between the islands of Mon and Bornholm. Flt Sgt Thornton was buried in Svino Cemetery, Denmark on 23rd June 1946. The rest of the crew of the bomber remain missing.
www.flensted.eu.com/1945020.shtml
1387869 Flt Sgt William Devins, 547 Sqdn, RAF was the son of Joseph and Jane Devins from Thurles , Co. Tipperary. He was KIA 5th May 1945 and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, England. Panel 270. The memorial commemorates those member of the RAF operating over Europe and killed in WW2 whose bodies were not recovered.
547 Squadron was an anti-shipping and anti-submarine warfare squadron that operated off the coast of Norway and the Baltic sea at this stage of the war. Devins’ Liberator bomber was one of a group that attacked three German Submarines in the Kattegat. As his plane was bombing U-534 it was shot down with the loss of all eleven crewmen.
www.airmen.dk/p433.htm
U534 is on display in Liverpool
www.u-boatstory.co.uk/news.aspx
1900445 Leading Aircraftman John McSweeney, from Kilmore, Co. Tipperary. Died 16th September 1945 age 25. Buried Maala Cemetery, Yemen.
190476 Flying Officer Charles Dillon, from Clonmel. 299 Squadron. Died 7th October 1945. 299 Squadron was a workhorse squadron equipped with Stirling Bombers. Much of its time was spent resupplying resistance groups in France as well as involvement in glider towing and dropping paratroopers on D Day. Afte the war the squadron took up transport duties.
On 7th October 1945 Stirling LJ668 299 Sqdn special transport flight carrying a crew of 6 and 20 passengers from Cairo to London. Airborne for 9 hours and with fuel supplies running low the crew attempted an emergency landing at Rennes airfield in France. Banking left over the airfield the aircraft hit the ground and was completely destroyed by fire. There were no survivors. The dead included six females and three married service couples. They are all buried in Rennes Communal Cemetery. Charles Dillon is commemoratedon the family headstone in St. Patrick's Cemetery, Clonmel.
1798606 AC1 Michael Hogan, from Borrisokane. Died 23rd December 1946 Age 27. Buried Ranchi War Cemetery, India.