Personnel Index - Detail
Image via Ed Norman
21/22 May, 1944; DUISBURG - KIEL BAY:
A total of 19 aircraft was detailed for operations on the 21st; 7 were required to attack Duisburg and 12 for minelaying in Kiel Bay.
The Main Force attack on Duisburg involved 510 Lancasters and 22 Mosquitoes. Because of the cloud cover, Oboe sky-marking was used and the southern areas of the city did sustain damage, but crews returning to Fiskerton were highly critical of the 'insufficient and disturbing marking'. The cost was high, with 29 Lancasters failing to return - sadly one of the missing Lancasters came from 49 Squadron; P/O Henry Carrington RAAF (from Kalgoorlie, Western Australia) and crew were brought down over Holland. The only other Australian crew member, F/Sgt Silver, was the sole survivor. P/O Carrington is buried alongside his crew in Roosendaal en Nispen Cemetery, Holland. Sgt Robert Berry of East Ham, the crew’s mid-upper gunner, was just 19 years old.
Lancaster LM539 (EA-D)
P/O H.J. Carrington RAAF Pilot (Killed)
Sgt R.F. Coleman F/E (Killed)
Sgt J.H.E. Hales NAV (Killed)
Sgt R.C. Hill W/AG (Killed)
Sgt R.W. Berry A/G (Killed)
F/S S.A. Silver RAAF B/A (P.o.W.)
Sgt L. Foulkes A/G (Killed)
Crew on their 7th operation.
In a later POW report F/Sgt Silver (the only survivor) stated:
"Attacked by fighter and ordered to bale out. Aircraft on fire and in steep dive. Presume I was first to bale out and believe others still in aircraft. Injured in descent. Arrived farmhouse. Doctor accompanied by police. A/c crashed about 30 miles from Duisburg."
Research by Colin Cripps:
Shot down by Obstlt Günther Radusch, or Lt. Hermann Leube of 4./NJG3.