Date: 7th/8th June 1944 .
Unit: No. 115 Squadron.
Type: Lancaster I.
Serial: LL864.
Coded: A4 -H.
Location: Giverny, France.
Pilot: Pilot Officer, Ronald Peter Maude 174531 R.A.F.V.R. Age 21. Killed.
Flt. Engr: Sergeant, Alan Herbert Anderson 1590890 R.A.F.V.R. Age ? Killed.
Navigator: Flying Officer, Ronald William Tovey 55041 R.A.F Killed.
Air Bomber: Pilot Officer, Harold Arthur Foster 177401 R.A.F. Age 31. Killed.
W.Op/Air Gnr: Sergeant, Jack Leslie Fyfe 1340922 R.A.F.V.R. Age 22. Killed.
Air Gnr: Sergeant, Robert Donald John Sutherland1567609 R.A.F.V.R. Age 20. Killed.
Air Gnr: Sergeant, Kenneth Penton 1607978 R.A.F.V.R. Age 20. Killed.
REASON FOR LOSS:
Took-off at 0027 hrs from Witchford to bomb communications. Shot down by a Night-fighter and crashed between 150 and 200 metres off the Giverny to Vernon road, France.
This aircraft was just one of six lost by 115 Squadron this night on the op to Chevreusse, from these six aircraft,HK548, HK552, LL864, ND760, ND761 and ND790, 42 aircrew were lost. 5 from HK548 evd, 1 from HK552 pow, 36 killed. All aircraft lost to Night-fighters.
Crew of LL864 seen here with another 115 Sqdn Lancaster LL695, on return from another operation. (Back row) Maude, Anderson, Tovey, Foster. (Front row) Fyfe, Sutherland, Penton.
(Note re Lancaster in photo LL695.)
LL695 was a Lancaster Mk II, the Mk II unlike other Mks was fitted with Bristol Hercules engines. This aircraft served with 115 Squadron but was later transferd to 514 Squadron. It was lost on a raid to Duisburg 22nd May 1944, the aircraft crashed at Geldrop, 6km east south east from Eindhoven, shot down by the Night-fighter of III/NJG1 Ace, Hptm. Martin Drewes. 3 of the crew were killed, 2 became pow, and 2 evaded capture.
The crews collective grave and memorial at Giverny Churchyard.
(Photographs of the grave kindly submitted by Roger and Amanda Perkins, Norwich, England who visited the Giverny Churchyard in 2007)
Burial Details:
GIVERNY CHURCHYARD. Giverny is a village about 3 kilometres south-east of Vernon. The church is north of the village. In the north-western part of the churchyard, a few yards from the western wall and 20 yards from the northern wall which divides it from its extension, is the collective grave of the seven aircrew from Lancaster LL864.
Pilot Officer, Ronald Peter Maude 174531 R.A.F.V.R.
Son of Edgar Ringrose Maude and Elsie Boyfield Maude, of Gloucester.
Sergeant, Alan Herbert Anderson 1590890 R.A.F.V.R.
Son of Herbert and Florence Hilda Anderson, of North Shields, Northumberland.
Flying Officer, Ronald William Tovey 55041 R.A.F
Pilot Officer, Harold Arthur Foster 177401 R.A.F.
Son of Arthur and Alice Lily Foster; husband of Joan Rosamund Foster, of Coventry.
Sergeant, Jack Leslie Fyfe 1340922 R.A.F.V.R.
Son of William and Isabella Leslie Fyfe, of Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire.
Sergeant, Robert Donald John Sutherland1567609 R.A.F.V.R.
Son of John Macpherson Sutherland and Helen Sutherland, of Golspie, Sutherlandshire.
Sergeant, Kenneth Penton 1607978 R.A.F.V.R.
Son of Charles and Evelyn Penton, of Southampton.
With thanks to the following: Bill Chorley - "Bomber Command Losses Vol 3", Theo Boiten - "German Nightfighter War Diaries Vol 2", Martin Middlebrook "Bomber Command War Diaries". The Commonwealth Graves Commission
