OMBER COMMAND LANCASTER CREW
46 FLYPAST February 2018
rear gunner, Flt Sgt N H Johnson,
were killed; Jackson and the other
four crew became prisoners of war.
Repatriated in 1945, Norman
Jackson was awarded the Victoria
Cross for his outstanding gallantry.INVASION TARGETS
In the following weeks, Bomber
Command shifted its focus back to
fuel and ammunition dumps and
troop concentrations in preparation
for the invasion of mainland Europe.
Spring was moving into summer
and the evenings were
getting lighter. Clement
and the crew had taken
off for a flight test
in X-for-X-ray at
1100hrs on
Mayclothing, but after slipping down
onto the wing, he lost it.
Jackson managed to hold onto the
wing leading edge, but the fire had
spread and he was badly burned.
The crew had to let go of the rigging
lines. As the parachute had not
fully deployed and
was partially burnt,
Jackson’s landing
was a heavy one and
he broke his ankle.
The pilot and theTrip 14 for the Clement crew was
to Schweinfurt, east of Frankfurt,
on the 26th. Nearly 220 aircraft set
out that night and 21 didn’t return- more than 9%. Five of those lost
were from 106 Squadron, out of 16
Lancasters sent out.
One of the missing captains was Fg
Off F M Mifflin DFC, who was on
his 29th trip – near the end of his
tour. His Mk.I ME669 O-for-Oboe
was raked by cannon shells from a
night-fighter that started a fire in
the starboard wing near one of the
fuel tanks.
The flight engineer, Sgt Norman
Jackson, decided to attempt to
extinguish the fire. Wearing his
parachute, he climbed out of the
flight deck escape hatch
and on to the fuselage.
The parachute had
been opened in the
cockpit, and the
crew paid out the
rigging lines as he
slid back along the
fuselage. He
had pushed
a fire
extinguisher
into his
Readers might wonder how the author came to have an
interest in this crew. Sgt Des Potter, the wireless operator, was
my father’s cousin. In 2004, I embarked on a journey to fi nd
out what happened to Des and how he ended up in St Sever
Military Cemetery in Rouen. We stood in front of his grave and
saw that he was buried with his crew, three of whom had been
awarded the DFC.
Many questions came to mind and the answers came thick and
fast. One by one, the families of the seven were found, all over
the world. The story is told in the book Seven Short Lives: Pro
Libertate, more details at: http://www.sevenshortlives.comFA M I LY CONNECTION“As our crews returned across the Channel,
they saw a vast fl eet of miscellaneous craft,
from battleships to barges, heading towards
the coast of Normandy”Right
Brian Potter paying his
respects to his cousin
Sgt Des Potter, St
Sever, June 2004.Below
A relaxed gathering of
the crew. COURTESY INA
AND SANDIE MCLACHLAN