Another little piece in the jigsaw….

Joyce and Roy’s reception outside No. 9 on 1st July, 1944. Roy is stood to the right of Joyce, with Alan Galletly stood to the right of Roy. On the far right is Roy’s younger brother Cyril Leslie Wells ATC. In the front row, Maureen Snook, a daughter of a neighbor and to her right a rather young, but smart looking Michael (Mike) Wells.
© Mike Wells

After being contacted by Alan, about his uncle, another Alan (Galletly), I passed his details onto Mike, whose own uncle, Roy Wells was Alan’s Air Bomber……

I was so pleased to hear back from Mike the other night regarding the final identification of one of the attendees of Roy and Joyce’s wedding reception – Alan. Up until Alan’s contact, Mike had no idea who any of the airmen in the photograph were.

I never cease to be touched by the many connections that relatives of these boys are now making through the site and I hope it continues.

Frederick Arthur Henry ‘Peter’ Grace – Air Bomber

Many thanks to Kevin KIng, Chairman of the UK Friends of 75(NZ) Squadron Association for passing on this image after this post was published.
L to R Beryl Eccles ( who was a WAAF driver on 75(NZ) ) Dick Lempriere, Ralf Jeffery and David Lewis, taken about 5 years ago.

I was contacted last week by Roger, with a query about Frederick Grace.

Roger and Peter (as Fred was then known), worked together for about 20 years as Oil Reps with Shell Mex and BP, in East Anglia. Roger was aware that Peter had flown in 75(NZ) Squadron from Mepal during the war, but beyond the briefest of details, it was clear that Peter, like so many others did not want to or had little interest in talking about the war. Roger recollects Peter telling him that he spent his 21st birthday over Berlin and when taking part in a ‘Manna’ flight seeing a Dutch lady of capacious proportions waving an equally capacious pair of bloomers at the passing aircraft………

Peter passed away about 15 years ago and Roger would simply like to know a little more about his old friend.

Available information lists Fred’s crew as;
F/O Robert Elliot RNZAF (NZ4211949) Pilot.
W/O David Lewis RAFVR (1812698) Navigator.
F/Sgt Frederick Arthur Henry ‘Peter’ Grace RAFVR Air Bomber – also listed as flying with Bill Turnbull (RNZAF).
F/Sgt Ralph Jeffery RAFVR (1868869) Wireless Operator.
F/Sgt W ‘Jock’ Thain RAFVR Flight Engineer.
F/Sgt Hugh William Lempriere  RNZAF (NZ4210519) Mid Upper Gunner. Later W/O, awarded Order of Freedom (Netherlands).
F/Sgt Clive Melvyn Prince RNZAF. (NZ4213422) Rear Gunner.

Given their date of arrival in the Squadron, they had quite a short operational career;

13/4/45 – Kiel. Robert Elliot has his first operational flight with Wing Commander Baigent before taking his crew on operational sorties.
14/4/45 – Potsadam
20/4/45 War Ops – Regensberg.
24/4/45 War Ops – Bad Oldsloe (last bombing op for the Squadron).
30/4/45 Supply dropping – Rotterdam .
23/5/45 Viewing the Effects of the Bombing – with 3 passengers.
25/5/45 Repatriation of Belgian Refugees.

9/6/45 Viewing the Effects of the Bombing – Fred flew with the Turnbull crew.

Regarding Fred celebrating his 21st birthday over Berlin – he didn’t fly to Berlin with 75(NZ), but he might have flown an Op or 2 prior to gaining ‘operational’ status when they were completing their training at Conversion Unit, or even Operational Training Unit, though I have no way of verifying this. The logbook would be the ‘smoking gun’ as it were, but I guess thats long gone.

As always, any light that can be shed on Fred or his crew would be gladly received…….

Alan Galletly – Pilot

P/O Alan Russell Galletly RNZAF (NZ427481) Pilot.
© Alan Galletly

Many thanks to Alan, nephew of Alan Galletly for contacting me and supplying this wonderful picture of his uncle.

Alan’s son Ben was the first of the Galletly family to visit Alan’s grave . He was teaching in England at the time and made the trip over for Alan. Since then a cousin has also visited. Alan’s father died 30 years ago  not knowing where his brother was buried which was sad but he didn’t have the advantage of the computer. Alan had a brother in the N.Z Army who was captured on Crete and spent the rest of the war as a POW .

Alan would love to see a crew photo of the boys – if one exists. So as always, if you have or know of one, please contact me………

All the crew were lost when they collided with another Lancaster from 115 Squadron – the more ironic, given that despite the collision taking place over Wolsfeld, Kries Bitburg, north west of Trier, 115 Squadron were based at Witchford, some 3 miles from Mepal were 75(NZ) flew from. Fascinatingly, this information is noted in pencil handwriting at the bottom of page 268 of the 1944 Operational Record Book.

The annotation also notes that the crew were initially buried in Wulsfield churchyard, before being moved to the British military cemetery at Rheinberg on the 25th November 1946.

P/O Alan Russell Galletly RNZAF (NZ427481) Pilot. Died Thursday 5th October 1944, age 33. Buried Rheinberg War Cemetery,

F/Sgt Stuart Edwin Mosely RNZAF (NZ426106) Navigator. Died Thursday 5th October 1944, age 29. Buried Rheinberg War Cemetery Germany.

Sgt Roy Albert Wells RAFVR (1802473) Air Bomber. Died Thursday 5th October 1944, age 21. Buried Rheinberg War Cemetery Germany.

Sgt Reginald Samuel Hond RAFVR Wireless Operator. Died Thursday 5th October 1944, age 23. Buried Rheinberg War Cemetery, Germany.

Sgt Peter Eric Tuthill, RAFVR (2211929) Flight Engineer. Died Thursday 5th October 1944, age 21. Buried Rheinberg Cemetery Germany.

Sgt Arthur Kitchener Sutton, RAFVR (1816276) Mid Upper Gunner. Died Thursday 5 October 1944. Buried Rheinberg War Cemetery Germany.

Sgt John Peter Cooke RAFVR (1816385) Rear Gunner. Died Thursday 5th October 1944, age 22. Buried Rheinberg

In a strange twist of fate, I have  discovered in ‘Lancaster – The Definitive History‘ by Harry Holmes and also ‘3 Group Bomber Command – an operational record‘ by Chris Ward and Steve Smith, that the 75(NZ) Lancaster ND904 actually came to the squadron FROM 115 Squadron – it’s designator code whilst with 115 was KO-M – the same designator letter that PD344 was flying under that day…….

Please bare with me……………

I am now at the point of the year where my days get long and time becomes very short. I work in the School of Design at the University of Central Lancashire, teaching Product Design. The 1st and 2nd year students have just finished, which means a pile of work to assess and the final year students are currently finishing off their projects, which for me means long hours in the workshop and spray booth helping to build and finish models of their designs. Once the work is finished, all this will need to be assessed, the Degree Show Exhibition planned and arrangements for the work to be exhibited in London at the beginning of July.

I guess all that was a long winded way of saying, you might not get a response to an email straight away at the moment. Please keep contacting me, either with new information or a question – I will always try to help, it’s just at the moment It might take a little longer than usual to hear something back from me.

Normal service will be resumed as quickly as possible……..

Simon

Thank you to everyone – 20,000+ visits.

When I decided to start this blog, as I have said to many of you, it was really going to just be a stop gap until I had time to sit down and look at doing a ‘proper’ website. I had absolutely no idea whatsoever that barely 6 months after making my first post I would be looking at a visit counter that now reads over 20,000.

I would like to thank everybody that has contributed information to the blog, all of you who have offered extra information to posts and all of you who have become regular visitors to these pages.

I began my personal research journey after realising that it was important for me to find out something about Bob and the boys he flew with. I have been humbled and made proud to discover that I am not the only one who has the interest and belief that the memories of the boys of 75(NZ) Squadron RAF should be shared, understood and talked about.

Here’s to the next 20,000 visits, the gathering of more information and the new connections and stories that I know we will make.

Again, many thanks to you all

Simon