Personnel Index - Detail
12/13 October, 1942; WISMAR:
The scheduled 'Dixon Exercise' automatically cancelled when Group came on the 'blower' requesting 10 aircraft for an attack on Wismar town and the Dornier factory. The squadron climbed away from Scampton to join other 5 Group Lancasters en route for Wismar. Despite the very dark night and bad visibility this moderate force started several fires within the target area. Two crews failed to return, and one was the unfortunate 49 Squadron crew piloted by 21 year-old F/O Richard Elliott (W4116). Their Lancaster came down in the sea, and sadly the crews bodies were never recovered; they are remembered on the Runnymede Memorial.
Lancaster W4116
F/O R.F. Elliott Pilot (Missing)
Sgt A.R. Hendrie RAF F/E (Missing)
P/O G.L. Laidlaw RAAF NAV (Missing)
F/S W.C.H. Ross RAAF W/OP (Missing)
Sgt G. Hodge A/G (Missing)
F/S J.K. Cullen RAAF A/B (Missing)
F/O J.W.B. Horne A/G (Missing)
F/S Ross was on his 23rd operation.
Cause of loss:.......Nachtjagd Combat Archives - The Early Years Part 3 - Theo Boiten........via John Jones.
Hit by 3/Vers Battery F.A.S. Rerik and 7/Lehr Battery F.A.S. Rerik.
Crashed in Lübecker Bight near Rerik at 21:56hrs.
(FAS = Flak Artrilllerie Schule......based at Rerik, west of Rostock)
The postings that led F/S Ross to 49Sqn.
He died almost exactly two years after his initial enlistment.