Arthur Steainstreet's Obituary
Title
Arthur Steainstreet's Obituary
Description
A brief obituary of Arthur's service life. It includes his crew.
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
One printed sheet
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
MSteainstreetA186187-180313-11
Transcription
Arthur Steain-Street (186187)
[photograph]
Arthur Steainstreet was born in Rotherham in the third quarter of 1920. He was the first child of six children born to Arthur Steainstreet and his wife of one year Emily Baugh. The family lived at 94 Atlas Street, Rotherham. He was married in Rotherham in the second quarter of 1942 and a daughter was born early in 1945.
Arthur joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and was initially given the service number of 1454520. He trained as a pilot and on 7 October 1944 he was promoted from Flight Sergeant to Pilot Officer, and with this his service number changed to 186187. After training was completed the [sic] was posted to 170 Squadron of Bomber Command which flew the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber from Hemswell, Lincolnshire. On the night of 16/17 March 1945 Pilot Officer Steainstreet and his crew were part of the last heavy Bomber Command raid on the city of Nuremberg. A total of 293 aircraft (231 Lancasters of No. 1 Group and 46 Lancasters and 16 Mosquitoes of No 8 Group) were tasked with attacking the city. In addition Bomber Command sent 225 Lancasters and 11 Mosquitoes of No 5 Group to attacked [sic] Würzburg. Streainstreet was flying Avro Lancaster serial number ME496 with squadron markings of TC-K and was airborne from Hemswell at 17:31. The aircraft was hit in the rear turret, probably killing the rear gunner as a consequence. The order to bale out quickly followed, but only three managed to get away and were confined to hospital due [sic] injuries until they were liberated at the end of the war. The other four crew members, including Arthur Steainstreet, were killed. It was one of 24 Lancasters, all from No 1 Group, lost. Most of these losses were due to German night fighters, which found the bomber stream on its way to the target. Arthur was 24 years old and now lies [sic] Durnbach War Cemetery
[underlined] Note [/underlined]
The other crew members were:
Sgt Douglas S Cady – Injured
Sgt Robert Surtees 1603505 (navigator), aged 23 – KIA
Sgt J Burns (bomb aimer) – Injured
Sgt S W Kirk (wireless operator) – Injured
Sgt Ronald Charles Rayment 1047297 (air gunner), aged 24 – KIA
Sgt Cyril Edwards 1214188 (rear gunner), aged 23 – KIA
[photograph]
Arthur Steainstreet was born in Rotherham in the third quarter of 1920. He was the first child of six children born to Arthur Steainstreet and his wife of one year Emily Baugh. The family lived at 94 Atlas Street, Rotherham. He was married in Rotherham in the second quarter of 1942 and a daughter was born early in 1945.
Arthur joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and was initially given the service number of 1454520. He trained as a pilot and on 7 October 1944 he was promoted from Flight Sergeant to Pilot Officer, and with this his service number changed to 186187. After training was completed the [sic] was posted to 170 Squadron of Bomber Command which flew the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber from Hemswell, Lincolnshire. On the night of 16/17 March 1945 Pilot Officer Steainstreet and his crew were part of the last heavy Bomber Command raid on the city of Nuremberg. A total of 293 aircraft (231 Lancasters of No. 1 Group and 46 Lancasters and 16 Mosquitoes of No 8 Group) were tasked with attacking the city. In addition Bomber Command sent 225 Lancasters and 11 Mosquitoes of No 5 Group to attacked [sic] Würzburg. Streainstreet was flying Avro Lancaster serial number ME496 with squadron markings of TC-K and was airborne from Hemswell at 17:31. The aircraft was hit in the rear turret, probably killing the rear gunner as a consequence. The order to bale out quickly followed, but only three managed to get away and were confined to hospital due [sic] injuries until they were liberated at the end of the war. The other four crew members, including Arthur Steainstreet, were killed. It was one of 24 Lancasters, all from No 1 Group, lost. Most of these losses were due to German night fighters, which found the bomber stream on its way to the target. Arthur was 24 years old and now lies [sic] Durnbach War Cemetery
[underlined] Note [/underlined]
The other crew members were:
Sgt Douglas S Cady – Injured
Sgt Robert Surtees 1603505 (navigator), aged 23 – KIA
Sgt J Burns (bomb aimer) – Injured
Sgt S W Kirk (wireless operator) – Injured
Sgt Ronald Charles Rayment 1047297 (air gunner), aged 24 – KIA
Sgt Cyril Edwards 1214188 (rear gunner), aged 23 – KIA
Collection
Citation
“Arthur Steainstreet's Obituary,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 13, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/43308.