Date: 21/22nd June 1944
Unit: No. 207 Squadron
Type: Lancaster I
Serial: ME827
Coded: EM-I
Location: Moesstraatsebaan, Bergen op Zoom
Pilot: Fl/Lt. Frederick Wooten Gallagher D.S.O. 157083 R.A.F.V.R. Age 32. Killed
Nav: W/O. A. Young R.A.F.V.R. P.O.W. (Camp L7. (Stalag Luft Bankau-Kreulberg) P.O.W No: 378)
Fl/Eng: Sgt. Maxwell Benjamin Millward 178237 R.A.F.V.R. Age 33. Killed
Nav(2): Sgt. Raymond William Lloyd 1399625 R.A.F.V.R. Age 22. Killed
Air/Bmr: Fl/Sgt. Ronald Parson Scott 1553209 R.A.F.V.R. Age 22. Killed
W/Op/Air/Gnr: F/O. Peter William Ball 169125 R.A.F.V.R. Age 22. Killed
Air/Gnr: Sgt. Kenneth Waddington 1622511 R.A.F.V.R. Age ? Killed
Air/Gnr: Fl/Sgt. Murray Sherman R/144206 R.C.A.F. Age 20. Killed
REASON FOR LOSS:
Took off from Spilsby, Lincolnshire at 23.32hrs as part of a 133 Lancaster and a 6 Mosquito force to attack the synthetic oil plant at Wesseling. 37 Lancasters were lost this night and only slight damage was caused to the oil refinery with 20 people killed on the ground.
ME827 has been claimed to have been shot down by either Hptm Adolf Breves Stab IV./NJG1 or Lt Manfred Scheunpflug Stab 1./NJG1 - Hptm Adolf Breves became an ace and survived the war with 18 kills, Lt Manfred Scheunpflug managed 4 kills before he himself was killed on the 13/14th January 1945 in a crash at Grove airfield on take-off for ops sortie - maybe due to pilot error.
Left to right: P/O. Frederick Wooton Gallagher, W/O. Alfred Young, Fl/Sgt. Ronald Parson Scott, Sgt. Selwyn Fawcett, Fl/Sgt. Charles E.D. Stewart, Sgt. Kenneth Waddington, Sgt. Murray Sherman - pictured here on an earlier crash landing this loss year.
Flight Engineer, Sgt. Maxwell Millward / grave
Burial Details:
Frederick Wooten Gallagher Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Collective grave 6. E. 2-7
Son of Frederick Daniel and Alice Louise Gallagher; husband of Edna May Gallagher, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England
Maxwell Benjamin Millward Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Collective grave 6. E. 2-7
Son of Benjamin and Lilian Millward; husband of Lydia Joyce Millward, of Leatherhead, Surrey, England
Raymond William Lloyd Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Collective grave 6. E. 2-7
Son of William and Lizzie Harriott Lloyd, of Edmonton, Middlesex, England
Ronald Parson Scott Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Collective grave 6. E. 2-7
Son of Alexander Main and Ada Julia, of North Shields, Northumberland, England, husband of Marjorie of North Shields
Peter William Ball Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Collective grave 6. E. 2-7
Son of William George and Mabel Alice Ball, of Goodmayes, Essex, England
Kenneth Waddington Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Collective grave 6. E. 2-7
Son of Wilfred and Hilda Waddington, of Intake, Sheffield, England
Murray Sherman Bergen-op-Zoom Canadian War Cemetery Grave 6. E. 1
Son of David and Edna Sherman, of Toronto, Ontario
Researched by Kelvin T. Youngs and David King (Aircrew Remembrance Society,March 2009)
With further information supplied by Mike Harrison. (With thanks to Theo Bolton for the information supplied from the Nightfighter war diaries, the Commonwealth Graves Commission for burial details and of course to Bill Chorley - Bomber Command Losses)
