Guestbook Entries 1 ....Can You Help?

[K4KittyCrew]

Tigger from Wellington wrote ..........

Tigger25 (Wellington, New Zealand)
on 21/12/2010

I am trying to find any information on David Michael Turner Watts who was a Stirling Bomber navigator. Died 16 April 1943. He appears to be buried in Rheinberg war cemetery Coll grave 20 A13-14. Service number 1312572, 75th squadron.

[wayne]

Hi John,

I have Sgt M. J. Watts, Air Bomber (not navigator) as part of P/O K. F. Debenham's crew.
Stirling W7469 AA.T
Other crew were;
Navigator, W/O Barnes, R. J. RCAF
Wireless Operator, Sgt Pearson, P. B.
Flight Engineer, Sgt Wainwright, D.
Mid Upper Gunner, Sgt Marlow, J. L.
Rear Gunner, Sgt Davis, J. J.

Sorry, I don't have any other details.

Wayne.

[Bruno]

Hi,

As the pilot, Pilot Officer Kevin Frederick Debenham, was from New Zealand Tigger25 should contact Errol Martin at errol.martynATxtra.co.nz (replace AT with @).
According to Errol's book (For your Tomorrow, Volume 2) the operation was a raid on Ludwigshafen (in Bomber Command losses of Chorley it was a raid on Mannheim).
Also according to my files, Stirling W7469 had had the serial AA-'T' but she had an other serial when she crashed AA-'O'.
Regards.

Bruno

[wayne]

Hi Bruno,
Thats an interesting point about the target.
Norman Franks book "Forever Strong" also has the target as Ludwigshaven, but Bomber Command War Diaries by Middlebrook and Everitt list Mannheim.
I don't have the 75 squadron orb's for 1943, so can't check what their target was.

Wayne.

[smudgersmith218]

Gents,

No.3 Group attacked Mannheim.

Steve

[Uwe Benkel]

Hello,

the story about the crash and photographs of the recovery of Debenhams Stirling can be seen on our homepage. The aircraft crashed near Katzenbach/Germany.


Regards

Uwe Benkel
ARBEITSGRUPPE VERMISSTENFORSCHUNG
Homepage: www.flugzeugabstuerze-saarland.de (more photographs of the recovery of Debenhams aircraft)

[Oggie2620]

Hi Bruno,
Thats an interesting point about the target.
Norman Franks book "Forever Strong" also has the target as Ludwigshaven, but Bomber Command War Diaries by Middlebrook and Everitt list Mannheim.
I don't have the 75 squadron orb's for 1943, so can't check what their target was.

Wayne.

Hi Wayne
Glen has the ORBs for 1943. He went to the National Archives and took photos of every page... If he comes back to you then perhaps you can ask him about that one. As Dave from Wings over NZ says there are many errors in Norman Franks book. Errol is a much more accurate source. Hopefully when David Duxbury gets the new history of 75 finished it should all be "Sweet as".
Dee