Germans honour Lancaster crew
Title
Germans honour Lancaster crew
Description
Ministry of Defence news release. Account of memorial to Lancaster bomber crew who crashed near Michelbach on 28 January 1945. Tells of inspiration and building of monument by local man and unveiling along with representatives of the RAF and Federal German Air Force. Lists crew. Note at the bottom states this news release was the first time the family heard about the memorial. Relates how they got the news.
Date
1974-10-11
Language
Type
Format
One page printed document and printed note mounted on an album page
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.
Contributor
Identifier
SJenkinsonPR1826262v10041
Transcription
[RAF Crest] ROYAL AIR FORCE
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE NEWS RELEASE
105/74
October 11, 1974
GERMANS HONOUR LANCASTER CREW
The seven members of a Lancaster bomber who died in an attack in 1945 are to be honoured by the German community of Michelbach, near Heidleberg, at a ceremony beside a new memorial to their memory.
The crew - a flying officer and six flight sergeants of No 153 Squadron - perished in an attack on Stuttgart on January 28, 1945. Their aircraft crashed at Michelbach and after the war they were reinterred in the military cemetery at Durnbach.
Now a local sculptor has erected a sandstone memorial at the point where the Lancaster crashed. An official remembrance ceremony is to be held at the memorial on Sunday (October 13).
Air Commodore L G P Martin, British Air Attache in Bonn, will attend the ceremony at which contingents of the RAF and the Federal German Air Force will also be present. As part of the simple ceremony, Air Commodore Martin will lay a wreath “from the Royal Air Force” on the spot. Others will be laid by the burgomeister of Aglasterhausen, by the local German Air Force Commander and by the British Consul in Stuttgart, Mr H E J Hale.
The crew who died were Flying Officer Owen Meredith Clement Jones [inserted] DFC [/inserted] (pilot) whose wife lived in Oxford and whose sister lived in Selly Oak, Birmingham; Flight Sergeant John Francis Dormer of Bexley Heat, Kent; Flight Sergeant Edward Walter Fletcher of Preston, Lancs; Flight Sergeant Peter Raeburn Jenkinson [inserted] DFM [/inserted] of Ottery St Mary, Devon; Flight Sergeant John Wilson Milburn of Blythe, Northumberland; Flight Sergeant Harold Ferguson of Manchester; Flight Sergeant James Coles of Bradford. Invitations to the ceremony were extended to their next of kin and the parents of Flight Sergeant Milburn are expected to spend the weekend in Michelbach.
Issued by: Public Relations (RAF) Ministry of Defence Main Building Whitehall London SW1
01-218-8253/3254
[ink stamp]
[inserted] Charles Worrell 21 - - 7955 [/inserted]
[inserted] R.A.F. News Release gave the family the first information that a memorial to Peter and his crew had been built. It came too late for the family to attend the ceremony.
A colleague at HQ Royal Observer Corps telephoned Lieutenant Commander Geoff Paine (Husband of Evelyn) who was stationed at No.2 Group ROC, Horsham, to tell him of the news. [/inserted]
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE NEWS RELEASE
105/74
October 11, 1974
GERMANS HONOUR LANCASTER CREW
The seven members of a Lancaster bomber who died in an attack in 1945 are to be honoured by the German community of Michelbach, near Heidleberg, at a ceremony beside a new memorial to their memory.
The crew - a flying officer and six flight sergeants of No 153 Squadron - perished in an attack on Stuttgart on January 28, 1945. Their aircraft crashed at Michelbach and after the war they were reinterred in the military cemetery at Durnbach.
Now a local sculptor has erected a sandstone memorial at the point where the Lancaster crashed. An official remembrance ceremony is to be held at the memorial on Sunday (October 13).
Air Commodore L G P Martin, British Air Attache in Bonn, will attend the ceremony at which contingents of the RAF and the Federal German Air Force will also be present. As part of the simple ceremony, Air Commodore Martin will lay a wreath “from the Royal Air Force” on the spot. Others will be laid by the burgomeister of Aglasterhausen, by the local German Air Force Commander and by the British Consul in Stuttgart, Mr H E J Hale.
The crew who died were Flying Officer Owen Meredith Clement Jones [inserted] DFC [/inserted] (pilot) whose wife lived in Oxford and whose sister lived in Selly Oak, Birmingham; Flight Sergeant John Francis Dormer of Bexley Heat, Kent; Flight Sergeant Edward Walter Fletcher of Preston, Lancs; Flight Sergeant Peter Raeburn Jenkinson [inserted] DFM [/inserted] of Ottery St Mary, Devon; Flight Sergeant John Wilson Milburn of Blythe, Northumberland; Flight Sergeant Harold Ferguson of Manchester; Flight Sergeant James Coles of Bradford. Invitations to the ceremony were extended to their next of kin and the parents of Flight Sergeant Milburn are expected to spend the weekend in Michelbach.
Issued by: Public Relations (RAF) Ministry of Defence Main Building Whitehall London SW1
01-218-8253/3254
[ink stamp]
[inserted] Charles Worrell 21 - - 7955 [/inserted]
[inserted] R.A.F. News Release gave the family the first information that a memorial to Peter and his crew had been built. It came too late for the family to attend the ceremony.
A colleague at HQ Royal Observer Corps telephoned Lieutenant Commander Geoff Paine (Husband of Evelyn) who was stationed at No.2 Group ROC, Horsham, to tell him of the news. [/inserted]
Collection
Citation
Public Relations Ministry of Defence, “Germans honour Lancaster crew,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed July 22, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/30690.
Item Relations
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