Roll of Honour

Name	NIGHTINGALE
First names	Linton Henry
Rank	Sgt
Service	RAF
Service number	1386933
Crew position	Wireless operator/Air Gunner
Age	22
Date of death	22/03/44
Cemetery	Reichswald Forest cemetery Kleve Germany

A picture of Linton Nightingale taken circa1930. He is in the centre holding the trophy as they had just won a cricket competition

A picture of Linton from the early part of WW2. This is when he was serving as a messenger boy, in the early part of the war, with the London Fire Brigade. He was stationed at Clapham Common Fire Station 86Z.

A picture taken during aircrew training

An extract from Linton's service record
Click the image to view a larger version (in a new window)
SEASIDE SORTIE (November 1943) F/O Don Turner (JB229) and crew were returning over the North Sea on track, with 1,000ft showing on the altimeter. The conditions were misty, so the pilot decided to let down a little in order to determine landfall. Just as he did the Lancaster suddenly struck the sea and then moments later it was careering up a beach towards sand dunes. A startled but intact crew clambered out into waist high freezing sea water! S-Sugar had in fact come ashore at Chapel-St-Leonards on the Lincolnshire coast 5 miles north of Skegness. The freezing cold crew found much to their displeasure, that the Lincolnshire seaside, whilst perhaps popular with pre-war summertime holiday makers, was not so alluring in the middle of November 1943. The crew spent the next few days recovering in Scampton sick bay. Pilot........F/O D G Turner F/E..........Sgt J Finlayson Nav........ Sgt J N Hughes B/A.........F/O W Pearce WOp......Sgt L Nightingale MUG......Sgt T D Horne RG.........Sgt J N E Bennett 22/23 March, 1944; FRANKFURT: Frankfurt again, and 49 Squadron managed to get 19 airborne. The accurate PFF marking and bombing by over 800 aircraft ensured that Frankfurt suffered yet another heavy blow. Diversions had confused the Germans, who at first forecast Hannover as the target, but a few night-fighters did manage to find the bomber stream and 26 Lancasters and 7 Halifaxes failed to return. Again Fiskerton had suffered losses when two crews were posted missing; F/O Donald Turner (survivor of Chapel-St-Leonards beach crash Nov 43) and crew (except Sgt Velasco A/G who became a PoW) were sadly all killed. Lancaster ND672 (EA-U) F/O D.G. Turner Pilot (Killed) Sgt E. Lee F/E (Killed) F/S S.J. Upton NAV (Killed) Sgt L.H. Nightingale W/AG (Killed) Sgt P. Velasco A/G (P.o.W.) F/O W. Pearce A/B (Killed) F/S J.N.E. Bennett RCAF A/G (Killed) Crew on their 4th operation
This document (which opens in a new window) is a postwar letter from Sgt Velasco to the brother of Sgt Linton Nightingale and is reproduced by kind permission of Ashley Hales who is Sgt Nightingale's nephew.
A letter from the Air Historical Branch to the brother of Linton Nightingale (opens in a new window)