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On Thursday 1st February 1945 at 15.44 hrs, Avro Lancaster C for Charlie of 101 Squadron RAF, took off from the Lincolnshire Bomber Command base of Ludford Magna, near Louth. On board was its crew of 8, Captained by Flight Lieutenant Robert Harrison, on his 20th mission. My uncle, Jack Squire, aged 20, was rear gunner that night, flying as a stand-in for a sick member of Flt Lt Harrisons regular crew. 13 minutes behind them, Lancaster K for Kilo with Captain Robert Boyd at the controls, climbed into the dusk. Just over 3 hours later, the two aircraft and 16 young men were destined to meet again in the sky over northern France.

C for Charlie was one of 25 101 Squadron Lancasters that night, on their way to bomb Luwigshafen in Germany. H hour was 19.15 hours. By the time they had all reached the necessary height and settled on course, darkness had fallen. Unseen, in the pitch black night around them, hundreds of other blacked out Lancasters from Nos 1 and 6 Groups converged into a bomber stream, all heading for the same target, the idea being to get as many of them across the target in the shortest possible time. All had the same aiming point, adjusted only by the Master Bomber, who would circle the area giving instructions over the radio as he watched the bombs explode far below.

Like all Bomber Command aircrew, Sergeant Jack Squire was a volunteer. One of 13 children from Hammersmith West London, he had already completed over 20 missions with his regular crew, mainly as mid-upper gunner. Tonight’s raid, as tail end Charlie, would be his last.

101 Squadron was a Special Duties Squadron operating top secret radio jamming and communication equipment. They carried an additional crew member, a German speaking Special Duties operator whose job it was to confuse the German night fighter defences by giving false orders over the radio, and interrupting their broadcasts. However, this meant that the Squadron flew an above average number of missions.

At approximately 19.00 hours and 14,000ft, with 10/10 cloud at 5-6000ft, whilst the aircraft was climbing headed approximately south east, Flt Lt Harrison saw another Lancaster at the same height, about 100 yards to starboard on a course directly at right angles to 101C. At that moment a shout was heard and the aircraft went into a steep dive which Captain Harrison could not control. He was rolled over, his face forced against something, and his helmet ripped off. The next instant he was falling, and pulling the ripcord on his seat type parachute, landed safely in a field near the village of Bezang-Le-Grand. During his descent, whilst above cloud, the Captain saw two large flashes from below cloud, followed by the sound and shock of explosions, and pieces of aircraft falling around him.

At the time of the collision, Sergeant Robert Whiteford the Wireless Operator, was out of communication with the rest of the crew, as he was tuning in to the Master Bomber to receive any orders concerning bombing procedure. As he did so, he heard a shout from a member of the crew and the aircraft went into a steep dive. Sgt Whiteford hit his head on the fuselage roof, and vaguely remembers several miscellaneous articles swirling around inside the aircraft. There was a large fire which appeared to come from the pilots position, where there was also a large hole directly in front of the pilot.

Although the Captain had his parachute attached to his seat, the rest of the crew were unable to wear theirs. The gunners would hang them up outside the doors of their gun turret due to lack of space. By chance, Sgt Whiteford saw a parachute swirling around with all the books etc and, hanging on with one hand, managed to catch it and put it on against the rush of air through the hole in the nose of the Lancaster. He jumped, and made a safe landing in a ploughed field about 5 miles from where Captain Harrison had landed.

The two fortunate crew members were picked up by an advance party of the US Army and taken to their Divisional HQ. Whilst there various articles were brought in, together with a list of four names, two of which the Captain recognized as being members of 101 squadron.

Eventually Flt Lt Harrison and Sgt Whiteford were returned to the UK, and went on to safely complete their tours of duty. I made contact with Robert Harrison, who finished his RAF time as a Squadron Leader, in 1983, and also with Robert Whiteford, in 1993. I am indebted to them for taking the trouble to write to me then, with such memories as they could recall of what happened that night.

My uncle Jack is buried, along with most of the other crew from the two aircraft, in Choloy War Cemetary, about 3 miles from the city of Toul in north eastern France. I was able to visit the graves in 1997.

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