OMBER COMMAND LANCASTER CREW
BAND OF
42 FLYPAST February 2018
O
ver a mug of tea and a sticky
bun, recently qualified
pilots, navigators, bomb-
aimers, wireless operators and
gunners, under instructions to sort
themselves out, were playing out a
ritual well known in the operational
training units of Bomber Command.
They were ‘crewing up’, hoping to
become a team.
This particular exercise was taking
place in the summer of 1943 at 14
Operational Training Unit, Market
Harborough, Leicestershire. The crew
of a Vickers Wellington was being
forged from five newly qualified men;
three of them had trained in Canada
and the USA.
In early 1944, and staying together,
they moved to 1660 Conversion
Unit at Swinderby, Nottinghamshire,
to begin their ‘heavy’ training on
the Short Stirling. There, they were
joined by a flight engineer and an
additional gunner. Five had become
seven and the crew concluded
instruction on the Avro Lancaster at
5 Lancaster Finishing School (LFS)
at Syerston, also in Nottinghamshire.
(See the panel for crew details.)
Before long, these seven young men
would have to rely on each other to
demonstrate exceptional degrees of
fortitude, flexibility and courage, to
give them even a fighting chance of
survival. The Battle of Berlin was
ending and the liberation of Europe
from Nazi occupation was imminent.INTO BATTLE
Pilot Fg Off Fred Clement and
his crew joined 106 Squadron
at Metheringham, southeast of
Lincoln, on a cold February day in- They were greeted by a sea
of mud on the recently constructed
airfield. Flying started straight away,
consolidating what they had learnt
during their short course at 5 LFS.
On November 11, 1943
Metheringham opened for business
when 106 Squadron arrived. From
then until February 20, 1944 the
unit lost eight crews and aircraft.
The squadron was to continue
suffering a high attrition rate.
They flew on their first operational
trip on February 25, to Augsburg in
southern Germany with the Station
Commander, Gp Capt William
McKechnie GC.
Navigator Bill Wilkinson wrote
in his operations diary: “Gp Capt
McKechnie was our pilot, Fg Off
Clement being sick. Crew got an
aiming point.” Wilkinson pasted
into his diary a press cutting
covering the raid, with the headline,
‘Augsburg Ninth Aircraft Centre
Wiped Out’. The article was
euphoric: ‘The great RAF double
attack on Augsburg finished a week
that marks the beginning of the
end for the Luftwaffe, and last week
brought suddenly nearer the day
of obliteration of the Luftwaffe’s
fighters and fighter-building plants.
‘Enemy fighter-plant centres –
or associated centres – had been
devastated before the attack on
Augsburg. Now Augsburg makes
the ninth. The other eight are:
Schweinfurt, Regensburg, Leipzig,
Brunswick, Stuttgart, Gotha,
Bernberg and Steyr.’
Events would reveal that this
assertion by an optimistic British press
was far from the truth – the Luftwaffe
fighter force was not finished.The first trip together under
the command of Clement was to
Chateauroux in central France. Again,
the objective was to destroy an aircraft
factory. Wilkinson’s diary states:
“Special selected target. Bombed at
8,000ft in bright moonlight. Factory
completely destroyed.”
The paced quickened. Eleven
Lancasters from 106 Squadron took
part in a raid on Stuttgart on March- Two 106 Squadron aircraft
were hit by incendiaries dropped
by others in the bomber stream.
SEVEN
STEVEN POTTER RECOUNTS THE STORY OF A
LANCASTER CREW OF 106 SQUADRON THROUGH
THE KEEPSAKES OF THEIR FAMILIES
Rank/Name Position From
Flt Lt Fred Clement Pilot Marlow, Bucks
Fg Off Bill Wilkinson Navigator Colne, Lancs
Fg Off Norm Gautschi RCAF Bomb-aimer Vancouver, Canada
Sgt Des Potter Wireless operator Kendal, Westmorland
Sgt John McLachlan Flight engineer Edinburgh, Scotland
Flt Sgt Jimmy Palmer Rear gunner Workington, Cumberland
Flt Sgt Jim Balmer Mid-upper gunner Eighton Banks, County DurhamBAND OF SEVEN