Personnel Index - Detail

Name
PETTIT
First Names
Norman George Valentine
Rank
Sgt
Service
RAF
Service Number
1627623
Crew Position
Flight Engineer
Age
20
Date of Death
22/06/1944
Cemetery

 

Photographed by Malcolm Brooke
Part of the panel at Runnymede
 

The Runnymede image was created by artist Paul Reid using photographs taken by Jo Cockburn and Malcolm Brooke
 

21/22 June, 1944; WESSELING:

P/O Bert Shinn DFC and crew are known to have come down in the sea off the Dutch coast. P/O Shinn's body was washed ashore near Brouwershaven on 11 July, 1944; he is now buried at Bergan op Zoom. The body of F/Sgt Stanley Hawes was recovered from the beach at Wassenaar also on 11 July, 1944; he is buried in The Hague (Westduin) Cemetery. F/O John Stanley's body was recovered from the sea on 17 July, 1944; he rests with his skipper in Bergen op Zoom Cemetery.

That fateful morning at Fiskerton, as the station slowly stirred into life, those fresh from sleep found the whole situation incredulous; six empty dispersals. A bomber base becomes hardened, perhaps almost immune to a steady loss of crews, but on that Thursday morning, at Fiskerton, Dunholme, East Kirkby and Spilsby, all were totally stunned.
The total casualty list from the operation was 37 aircraft missing, representing 27.8 per centof the Lancaster force.

Lancaster ND683 (EA-K)
P/O A.W. Shinn DFC Pilot (Killed)
Sgt N.G.V. Pettit F/E (Missing)
F/O J.B. Stanley NAV (Killed)
F/S S. Hawes W/AG (Killed)
Sgt A.E. Dicken A/G (Killed)
P/O V.C. Cully RCAF B/A (Missing)
Sgt A. Armstrong A/G (Missing)

Crew on their 10th opeartion