Personnel Index - Detail

Name
HARDY
First Names
William Edgar
Rank
Sgt
Service
RAF
Service Number
1321865
Crew Position
Wireless Operator
Age
22
Date of Death
16/03/1944
Cemetery

 

Photographed by Malcolm Brooke
 

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Image courtesy of Syndey F Hardy (via Louise Jennings-Hoole)
 

15/16 March, 1944 -STUTTGART:

A large force of 863 bombers flew across France, almost to the Swiss border before turning north to approach Stuttgart.
High winds over the target caused many problems for the PFF and despite clear conditions the markers and bombing were well scattered, much falling in open countryside. In the early hours of Thursday morning the first returning squadron Lancaster called up 'Passout' control for permission to land. During the next hour, villagers throughout Lincolnshire would have their slumber disturbed by scores of Merlin engines, as hundreds of Lancasters returned home. Fierce combats with night-fighters around the target had accounted for many of the 37 bombers that failed to return.
Back at Fiskerton, the new crew of P/O Thomas Waugh was sadly posted as missing. The 23 year-old pilot and crew are buried in a collective grave at the Durnbach War Cemetery.
 

Lancaster ND474 (EA-T)
P/O T.W. Waugh Pilot (Killed)
Sgt R. Hoole F/E (Killed)
F/S T.C. McEneaney NAV (Killed)
Sgt W.E. Hardy WOP (Killed)
Sgt D.B. Birbeck A/G (Killed)
F/O J.J. Knowles A/B (Killed)
Sgt J.G. Wise A/G (Killed)

Crew on their 1st operation

The aircraft was intercepted 6200m above Bolstern by a night-fighter captained by Oblt Gunther Koberich (VI/NJG2) and shot down for his 11th Abschusse.

This crew is remembered on a memorial in the German village of Bolstern.

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Sgts W.E.Hardy, T.C. NcEneaney, W.T.Waugh, J.G. Wise
(Image courtesy of Gordon Harvey via Louise Jennings-Hoole and Mandy Stieber)
 

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All documents courtesy of the Hardy family and via Louise Jennings-Hoole



The crew of ND474 were remembered on the 73 anniversary of their loss by the villagers of Bolstern in Southern Germany. 
A prayer service of remembrance, attended by the Parish Priest and many of the villagers, was held at the memorial that was placed at the crash site in 2014.