Personnel Index - Detail
Flew two operations in November 1943........following a crash, see below, he was transferred to 153Sqn.
Sgt Finlayson was killed on 17th March 1945 whilst with 153 Squadron.
He is buried at the Durnbach War Cemetery in southern Germany.
Photographed by the McEneaney family.
Image via Ashley Hales.
Extract is from Bill Chorley's Bomber Command Losses
Earlier he was F/E on JB229 when it crashed on the beach at Chapel St Leonards in November 1943.
SEASIDE SORTIE:
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
Further details of the incident are recored in May Hill's WW2 diary (opens in a new window).