French Tribute to Lancaster Crew
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in the soil. I am happy that my
father is buried with his crew and
that his resting place is protected
by friends he never met.”
It has never been confirmed who
shot down JB701, but 49 Squadron
Association researcher, Colin
Cripps, suggests ace Hauptmann
Heinz-Horst Hißbach of 5./NJG 2
was responsible. He claimed to
have downed a heavy bomber over
Sens just before 1am that night.
He was killed by ground fire in April
1945, having claimed 30 kills –
26 at night. ∎Alan Turing to be
Honoured on £50 Note
ON JULY 28, 1944 the seven-strong
crew of Lancaster JB701 EA-G lifted
off from their base at Fiskerton,
Lincolnshire. Aiming for targets
in Stuttgart, JB701 was one of a
dozen No.49 Squadron aircraft
involved and part of a force of
more than 500 RAF bombers
allocated to the raid.Among those attending was
Bob Kirkpatrick, 76, whose father
George was killed on JB701 when
Bob was just 18 months old. Bob
travelled to the unveiling with his
wife and two nieces, he said:
“My father and many others gave
their lives so that we could all be
free. For the past 75 years this
French village community has
honoured my family by tending
his grave, ensuring his sacrifice is
remembered. This part of France,
like many others, will remain
connected to Britain by the bloodThe aircraft was piloted by F/L
William Powell and crewed by Sgt
John West; the flight engineer, F/O
Geoffrey Franklin; the navigator,
Sgt Donald Stephens; the wireless
operator, F/O Albert Cole; the
bomb aimer, and two air gunners,
Sgts George Kirkpatrick and
Thomas Moore.
With recent sorties against
Stuttgart thwarted by bad weather,
it was hoped this latest raid would
benefit from good conditions.
However, operating on a bright,
moonlit night had its dangers
and the raiders met with disaster.
Night fighters claimed 39 bombers
that night, including Powell’s.
All seven aboard JB701 were
killed. They crashed near Sens,
75 miles south of Paris, and were
buried in a nearby cemetery at St
Martin-sur-Oreuse. Three-quarters
of a century later, they have been
honoured by the unveiling of a new
memorial sited in the field where
the Lancaster crashed. The site
had previously been cared for by
local children and the ceremony
was organised by Jean-Luc Prieur,
who has spent much of the
last 15 years searching for the
descendants of the seven dead.CODEBREAKING GENIUS and
artificial intelligence pioneer
Alan Turing OBE FRS has been
selected as the face of the new
£50 note, the Bank of England
announced. Turing was selected
by the governor of the bank,
Mark Carney, over 11 others on a
shortlist which had been whittled
down from 989 eligible figures
nominated by 227,000 people.
He said: “Alan Turing was an
outstanding mathematician whose
work has had an enormous
impact... As the father of
computer science and AI, as well
as war hero, Turing’s contributions
were far ranging and path
breaking. [He] is a giant on whose
shoulders so many now stand.”Turing was nominated along
with fellow codebreakers Gordon
Welchman and Dennis Babbage,
as were Vickers innovator
Barnes Wallis; mine detector
inventor Józef Kosacki; radar
pioneer Robert Watson-Watt;
Avro, Hawker and Supermarine
designers Roy Chadwick, Sydney
Camm and Reginald Mitchell, and
Charles Parsons, whose turbines
revolutionised maritime propulsion.
Other candidates ranged from
clergymen to explorers and included
former Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher, jet engine inventor Frank
Whittle, medical stalwarts Alexander
Fleming and Elizabeth Garrett
Anderson, and philosophers Robert
Hooke and Bertrand Russell.Turing, born in June 1912, helped
set the foundations for future work
in AI. He devised the Turing Test to
measure the ability of AI to exhibit
intelligent, considered behaviour
indistinguishable from human
thought. While now celebrated for
his war work, Turing was convicted
of gross indecency in 1952 after
acknowledging his homosexual
relationship. Instead of prison,
he opted to undergo medical
processes designed to force
hormonal changes and chemical
castration. He committed suicide,
aged 41, in June 1954.
Homosexuality outside of the
armed forces and Merchant Navy
was decriminalised in England and
Wales in July 1967, with Scotlandand Northern Ireland following in
the 1980s. Openly gay, lesbian
and transgender service personnel
have served since 2000. Turing
was granted a posthumous royal
pardon in December 2013, with
then Justice Minister Chris Grayling
describing him as an “exceptional
man with a brilliant mind”. A
general pardon – Turing’s Law –
was extended posthumously to
thousands of men convicted under
similar circumstances in 2017.
The new note, which will depict
a 1951 photograph of Turing
and formulae from his 1936
paper On Computable Numbers,
with an application to the
Entscheidungsproblem, is slated to
enter circulation in late 2021. ∎The memorial to Lancaster JB701's crew.
(SAC WILL DRUMMEE/CROWN COPYRIGHT)The crew of Lancaster JB701. George Kirkpatrick is seated bottom left. (VIA MOD)14 NEWS BAW SEPT2019.indd 14 8/15/2019 11:32:40 AM