Dennis George Howdle

4 August 1925 - 2 February 1945

Research and written by Gordon Howdle

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Early Years - The Young Boy - Growing Up - The Young Man
Becoming an Airman - Prior to Recruitment - Recruitment - Training
Active Service - Becoming Part of a Crew - Squadron and Crew - Going Operational - Flying Operations
The Last Sortie – 2nd February 1945
Epilogue
Valediction
Anomalies
Appendix 1 - The German Threat
Appendix 2 - RAF Bomber Command
Appendix 3 - 46 (Australian) Squadron
Appendix 4 - The Lancaster Bomber
Appendix 5 - Details of Crew of Lancaster Lost 2/3 February 1945
Appendix 6 – Record of Sorties
Appendix 7 – Messerschmitt Me 262 - Schwalbe
Appendix 8 - Visit to Durnbach Cemetery 2011
Telegram and Letters

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to acknowledge the invaluable assistance I have had in compiling this biography. 

I have read many books about the Royal Air Force bomber campaign but have found none more informative or helpful than that called Bomber Boys written by Patrick Bishop. 

The help and encouragement given to me by retired members of the Royal Air Force has been invaluable, in particular the assistance of Flt/Lt Andy Johnson (retired) RAF Waddington.  I am most grateful. 

My sister Doreen has provided me with a wealth of invaluable information both by way of the many documents she has kept which both our mother and she have treasured for almost six decades, and through her memories of Dennis and his early life. 

Finally, I have to thank my wife Jannice.  She has steadfastly supported me throughout, accompanied me to air bases in the United Kingdom, willingly travelled abroad with me, always helping and advising along the way.  She has borne the brunt of typing and re-typing text, formatting layouts and countless other tasks.  It is certain that without her unstinting support I simply could not have brought this project to a successful conclusion.  I cannot thank her enough. 

Gordon Howdle 2011

INTRODUCTION

For some time now I have intended to write the life story of my elder brother Dennis George Howdle.  When I was a small boy after the Second World War, although Dennis was dead, I could not help but be aware of his ongoing influence on the family.

My mother adored Dennis (the feeling between them was mutual).  She constantly referred to him, he was never far from her mind.  In fact she never really accepted that he was gone.  I recall that in my teens, perhaps in the late 1950’s her saying to me that many airmen who were posted as lost had in fact survived, and were wandering around Europe having suffered amnesia and that Dennis could be one of them.  This was in spite of the fact that a number of Government agencies had confirmed his loss.

There were things about the farmhouse in which we lived that had belonged to him.  A metal casting of a Lancaster Bomber stood on a table in the front room, and there was a little cardboard box in the top drawer of a chest in mother’s bedroom which contained his campaign medals.

So in a way I grew up with Dennis still around me, indeed from time to time, I was compared with him (invariably pretty unfavourably I must say).  And it is true that the memory of him influenced and still does influence my behaviour.

 Although I had committed part of his story to paper previously, what really brought matters to a head was a visit with my wife to the Durnbach Cemetery in Germany where Dennis is buried alongside his comrades.   It struck me then that unless his story was set down it would be lost forever.  I felt that I could not allow that to happen, for to do so would be to fail Dennis and the men he served with and also to fail the generations of our family still to come.

 It seemed to me that the present generations of the family and those to come in the future needed to know about him, to take pride in the fact that some of the blood that flowed through his veins was as that which flows through theirs, some of his genes were as their genes.

I hope that I have achieved this objective and in doing so preserved the memory of a young Englishman who gave the most a man can give for those he loved.

THE EARLY YEARS

The Young Boy

 Dennis George Howdle was born on 4 August 1925.

Picture 1

He was the first son of George Howdle and his wife Agnes.  George was 25 years of age and Agnes was 23 when Dennis was born.  At the time of his birth they lived in a small house in the village of Clayhanger near Brownhills West Midlands close to where George worked on his father William’s farm.

When Dennis was still a small boy, George gave up working for his father and took on farms of his own. First the small Swingbridge Farm in Clayhanger, then later Lambs Lodge Farm followed by Brooklyn Farm at Chasetown.

So Dennis spent his early life on small farms where he lived with his parents and siblings.  Over the years the family had expanded with a sister Doreen born in 1930 and three brothers, Kenneth in 1932, Eric in 1937 and Gordon in 1942.

For most people life was not easy at that time.  The 1930’s was the period of the great depression, when there was very little work and money available and many people found it very difficult to manage.  Life was hard.

Whilst in many ways the worst effects of the depression, which affected the whole British economy, were felt by people living in the big towns, particularly in the industrial midlands and the north, very few places escaped the effects of unemployment and poor wages, which came about as factories and mines closed and the economy declined.

The economy of the Chasetown/Brownhills area was very much linked with and largely dependent on the coal mining industry.  At that time the local mining industry was privately owned by the Cannock Chase Colliery Company and was far and away the biggest source of employment in the area.  Because of the industrial depression the demand for coal was hugely reduced and many of the men who were employed at the mines were laid off and without work.  For the few who did manage to stay employed, wages in the pits were very poor, often barely enough for families to live on.  All this resulted in very little money going into the local economy and at that time there was little or no help or financial support provided by the state.

All in all, the early 1930’s, the period during which Dennis was a small boy, were very difficult times.

Living on a farm did have some advantage though, at least there was basic food available.   This does not mean that there was a lot of good things always available for them to eat.  For the family to survive and pay its way, much of what was produced on the farm had to be sold.  Moreover, the profitability of farms, particularly for small “mixed” farms was low.  This, taken together with the general unpredictability of farming, bad weather and resultant poor crops for example, meant that farming at the time was something of a “hand to mouth” sort of life with little or no money available to the family for luxuries.

In his everyday life, even as a young child, Dennis was expected to contribute to the work on the farm.  Jobs like cleaning out poultry pens and delivering the milk produced on the farm to customers in the village, fell to him.  As he grew up the tasks he had to undertake became more extensive and arduous. 

Picture 6

Farming was not an easy life, it involved unremitting hard work, and there was no escaping the labour for a farmer’s eldest son.

Working in the open fields picking potatoes, harvesting and topping root crops such as swede and mangold-wurzel  had to be carried out by hand in freezing winter weather conditions for hour after hour. As did the exhausting work of harvesting cereal crops sometimes for a ten hour stretch in baking hot weather, using only manual labour for stacking, loading and carrying the sheaves of corn.

It was anything but an easy life, however most working people at that period were in pretty much the same position.  In fact, it is likely that the lot of most of the people Dennis knew (at the time) would almost certainly have been worse.  Incomes were at subsistence levels and people had large families to support.  Real poverty was felt by many people, poor food and not a lot of it, poor housing, basic sanitation, no state aid, little or no medical care.  If you were ill often you just died. 

 As the 1930’s progressed living standards did begin to improve as unemployment levels dropped, much as a result of increased industrial activity arising from the need for the country to re-arm because of the threat from Nazi Germany.  The factories reopened and gradually increased production, and since at the time virtually all power, needed for the increased industrial activity was generated by coal fuel, the coal mines in the Cannock Chase area greatly increased production. 

 As he grew into his teens Dennis saw a steady increase in the standard of living of local people and an increase in family income.  Things seemed to be improving and getting better all round. 

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So how would a typical day be for a boy like Dennis at eight or nine years of age living on the farm at the time; say on a cold winter day.  It would have been something like this.

To start with the creature comforts we take for granted now were few and far between.  There would be a reluctance to get out of bed.  It was warm in bed.  It was very cold in the bedroom and elsewhere in the house, with the only exception being the kitchen, which was heated by a coal fire burning in a black-leaded range.  There was certainly no central heating and so the rest of the house, including the bedrooms, was not much warmer than the freezing outside temperature.  In fact when he woke up the  window panes in his bedroom would be covered with ice on the inside.

No doubt his aim would be to get out of bed, get dressed as quickly as possible and get downstairs to the fire and breakfast, perhaps of toast,  cereal with milk, and sometimes a boiled egg.  No question of a bath or a shower, a kettle of water had to be boiled on the hob of the range just to have a wash, hands and face only, keeping on as many clothes as possible.  A quick comb of the hair, with water on the comb to get his hair to stick down.

Then get ready for the mile or so walk to school, rain and snow, freezing cold.  Old overcoat on, and off he would go.  But before he set off, pick up four cans each containing a quart of milk, two in each hand, to be dropped off at peoples houses on his way to school; empty cans to be collected on the way home.

Get to school around  a quarter to nine, bell rings at five to nine, get in a line and troop into the school hall for morning assembly and prayers, then go to the classroom with the other forty or forty five boys and girls who were in the class.  At least it was nice and warm in the classroom, it was equipped with central heating!

Sit at his desk and copy the sums the teacher puts on the blackboard onto his slate and try to work them out.  Recite the multiplication tables chalked on another blackboard.   When it came to writing them down after the blackboard was covered up, the seven times and the nine times tables were always the most difficult.

At a quarter to eleven  the bell goes for playtime, out onto the playground, picking up from the crate the third of a pint bottle of milk provided free by the Council, and breaking through the ice on top of the milk before he can drink it, sucking up the cream on the top first.  Running round the playground with his friends, shouting and seeing his breath freeze.  Seeing who can go furthest sliding on the ice.

Bell goes, back to the classroom, open his reading book ready to read a bit out loud when his turn comes.  He knows it will be ok because the book is easy for him, but poor old Billy will be shouted at again because its too hard for him.

Bell goes again and its time for school dinner across the road in the old school building.  Good dinner, meat, potatoes and vegetables and a big piece of baked sponge pudding with jam and custard on it, all served by nice dinner ladies in long white coats.  Good thing his Mom could afford to give him his dinner money every Monday morning.

At half past one its back to the classroom for afternoon lessons until half past three when the babies in the infants class go home, four o’clock for the big ones in the junior school.  Unless of course, the weather turns really nasty, then with a bit of luck, “home time” comes early so that he can get home before it gets dark.

 But usually he walks home in the dark, down the road between St Anne’s Church and the church yard wall, with lots of others to start with, but not so many when he is halfway down Highfield Road, and then on his own for the last bit up Walsall Hill when he collects the empty milk cans and then runs up the drive to Lambs Lodge farm as quickly as he can because there are no lights and its very dark and scary. 

He is freezing cold when he gets into the house, hands and feet numb.  Trouble is if he puts his hands by the fire to warm them, he will get the hot aches.  That really does hurt.  After a while his heels begin to itch and he could scratch the skin off them, its mild frost bite.  They called it chilblains. 

A bit later on and its tea time.  Stew, usually beef or mutton but sometimes rabbit, or perhaps liver and onions or boney pie and the like.   Nearly always with boiled potatoes, sometimes though, egg and chips.  Rice pudding, semolina, big and little sago pudding, bread and butter pudding.  They are all puddings made with milk and the farm usually had pretty well of milk to spare.  

And so it went on day by day with a change of activity and rhythm according to the season but, with little really changing.  As he got older though his horizons broadened, there would have been an increase in his awareness of what was going on in the wider world around him.

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In the summer of 1936 Dennis left the junior school at Chasetown to go to the secondary school at Chase Terrace.  At the time the threat of a possible European war was growing.  Dennis, like most other boys of his age, was aware that the adults around him were concerned about how things were developing and he must have wondered about how it may affect him.

Growing Up

From 1936 onwards, war was in the air.  Dennis was eleven years of age.  He entered adolescence in an atmosphere of impending war, talk of war was everywhere, all around him, not least at home, from his father George.

George Howdle had been in the British army.  He was born in March 1900, and at eighteen he joined the South Staffordshire Regiment, in the spring of 1918.  At that time the First World War was raging, essentially between the allies, Britain, France, Russia and later America on one side and Germany and its allies on the other. 

Picture 7

George underwent the basic military training in the UK that all infantry soldiers were given at the time to prepare them for the battlefield, and by the late autumn of 1918 was ready to join his regiment fighting in France.  The South Staffordshire Regiment was a front line infantry regiment and in common with other similar regiments it had suffered heavy casualties whilst fighting in Flanders. 

Fortunately, George was never called upon to join his regiment in the fighting, for the war ended before he got to France. 

The family story about how close he came to going to France is that George and a group of his comrades had actually boarded a train at Lichfield City railway station in November 1918 to be taken to the front line just as the ceasefire was declared.  So George was lucky, he never did get to the front in France.  However, he did know about soldiering and no doubt, he also knew from his comrades about the horrors suffered by those who had taken part in the fighting.

George was a patriot, a man proud to be British, and proud of the British Empire.  He was politically aware and as he watched the resurgent Germany, he would probably have expressed his concerns about what was happening and the need to do something about it.

Dennis would have listened to his father’s views which, together with the reports he read in newspapers, the broadcasts on the radio, and the talk all around him is likely to have greatly influenced his thinking as he grew into adolescence.

By the time Dennis left school in 1939 the country was on the brink of war.  In the way of these things, he and the boys and young men who were his contemporaries, would be full of it all, wondering how it would affect them, and young men being as they are, no doubt there would have been something exciting about it.  Dennis would have been well aware of the German threat.  (Appendix 1)

But in 1939 Dennis was still a boy and not nearly old enough to think of active service.  What he needed when he left school was a job, and he got one with the Chasetown Electricity Company, as a trainee electrician. 

Getting such a job with the Electricity Company was not a bad start in working life for a boy who had attended a Secondary Modern school.  No doubt a certain level of academic capability would have been required to get appointed, and there would almost certainly have been competition for the job.

It was in September 1922 that electricity was first introduced to the Chasetown area and  electrically powered street lamps were installed using power supplied by the Cannock Chase Colliery Company.

So when Dennis started work, the electrical industry, whilst by no means “new”, was to some extent still a developing and exciting area of technology.  In 1939 many houses were lit by gas light or even, in country areas, by paraffin lamps.  Electrical appliances, cookers, washers, refrigerators and the like were few and far between.

Electricity represented the new and the modern, it even had a certain image of glamour about it and it was rightly perceived as having a big future before it.  Those who were involved with it would feel part of, and be seen as sharing that image.

So there is Dennis George Howdle at the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939.

Nice looking lad with a way about him.

Got a good and loving family background, something of a patriot, brought up to believe in God and King and country.

Got a good job in an industry of the future, where prospects are bright.

His country is at war and he wants to help but for the present he must be an onlooker.

The Young Man

What sort of young man was Dennis; fortunately we do know quite a bit about him, mainly from family sources.  Especially from his sister Doreen who was five years younger than Dennis and who grew up as his little sister.

One theme which seems constantly to run through his story is that he was loving of and loved by his family.  The letters he wrote home whilst in the Royal Air Force and the telegram sent to his mother on her birthday in 1944 clearly show this.  The telegram and a number of these letters are attached after the appendices.

Looking through the letters the overwhelming impression one gains is that he was a young man who thinks of and cares deeply about his family. 

The opening line in the letters is almost invariably “My Dearest Mom and Dad” or “My dear Sister” and the letters end with “Your Loving Son” or “Your Loving Brother.”  The many references to his brothers with kisses thrown in all point in the same direction.  Similarly the mention on some of his letters of the saving of chocolate from his flying issue and his wondering about how his younger brother may be missing him, do the same.

It seems quite safe to conclude that he was a young man who cared greatly for his family.

Another characteristic which comes out quite clearly is that he was a young man who was very keen on girls.  His strong attraction to them was a source of great amusement in the family and the evidence seems to very much confirm his tendency in that direction.

Again the letters give a pointer.  The letter that was written from Bridlingly dated Saturday 3.00pm leaves little doubt about his feelings on the subject and conveys about everything when he says “The best part of it is that they have a very nice daughter and let me tell you it did not take long before I got mobile”.  Can’t be much clearer than that!  Similarly another letter simply dated “Saturday” where he mentions that the landlady’s daughter is not bad at all, pity she was courting; leaves little doubt about his thinking on the subject of girls.

All this only adds further to his reputation within the family as something of a ladies man.  It seems from photographs and letters that he had his moments with a number of local girls and that life as regards this aspect was quite busy.

Another factor in the life of Dennis which needs to be mentioned if we are to get some understanding of what he was like was his attachment to the Methodist Church.

His parents were Methodists and whilst George could take it or leave it, Agnes was a believer.  So from when he was a small boy Dennis was brought up to regularly attend Park View Methodist Chapel in Brownhills and as he grew up he continued to be a member of the congregation, and seems to have been very attached to the Church.

Many of his friends were also Methodists and he continued to be in touch with the Church right up to the end.

There is little doubt that he had a strong belief in God and that the teachings of the church were important to him and doubtless would have influenced the way he thought and behaved.

That said it would be wrong to think that Dennis was in the slightest way a solemn or dour young man.  According to his sister Doreen the precise opposite was the case, in fact he was inclined to be something of a practical joker, often to a point where at times he got into trouble with his father in particular.

Doreen recounts some of his exploits as a small boy such as hiding things, in particular one shoe of a pair which caused a lot of trouble because of searching for the lost shoe, letting down cycle tyres etc.  All the things that a boisterous carefree child is likely to get up to. 

Dennis, Methodist or not, was certainly no angel.

BECOMING AN AIRMAN

Prior to Recruitment

On 17 December 1941 Dennis joined the Air Training Corps, he was sixteen years of age.  In joining he confirmed that he wished to prepare himself for wartime service with the Royal Air Force.  He also promised to be a good citizen, honouring his King, his Country and its Flag.

It was by no means necessary for him to embark on a course which would inevitably lead to active service and danger.  Had he been so disposed he was well placed to completely avoid war service.  His father was a farmer and farming work was a “reserved occupation”.  Individuals who worked in “reserved occupations” were exempt from serving in the armed forces during the war because it was considered that their civilian work was of such priority that they should not be taken from it.

Dennis did not even need to volunteer to join the Royal Air Force to avoid being conscripted into another branch of the armed forces.  Had he wished to avoid active service he merely had to join his father and work on the farm and simply sit the war out.

What then is likely to have motivated him to wish to join the Royal Air Force.

In late 1941, the Battle of Britain had come and gone and the inspiration it had given to the Nation remained a potent force and probably few felt it more than a sixteen year old boy.

The fighter pilots in their air force blue uniforms, only a few years older than himself, were seen as heroes and idolised by everyone.   What role models those pilots must have been, what an inspiration.  No surprise that young men aspired to put on the blue uniform with the winged insignia.  Then there was the feeling that the Royal Air Force alone was successfully carrying the fight to Germany in a way that the other armed services could not.

Churchill told the nation “Fighters were our salvation but the bombers alone provide the means of victory”.   Young men heard it, believed I, and responded to it.

The press consistently carried reports of bombing raids on Germany; films were being made showing how it was done; righteous retaliation for what the Germans were doing to British towns.  Vengeance was being extracted by the young men in air force blue, night after night, and if you aspired to be part of that elite group then you joined the Royal Air Force and became an airman, a member of a bomber crew.  You needed to become part of Bomber Command. (Appendix 2)

Only it was not so easy. 

To become an airman, to have that winged insignia sewn onto the breast pocket of your battle dress you had to be special, very special.

So Dennis joined the Air Training Corps, his gateway towards fulfilling his ambition. 

He took his first step towards being an airman.  He began to learn about navigation, meteorology, aircraft recognition and the rest of it.

Dennis was enrolled into the Air Training Corps on 17th December 1941 when he was sixteen years of age.  Training took place in the evenings at the Chasetown branch of the Mining College or Technical College, which was designated as the Headquarters of 1489 Squadron, one of many junior training squadrons established by the RAF as a conduit to service.

At the time the Commanding officer of the squadron was F/O Richard Gayne.  Another auxiliary officer was Mr D H Gardiner, headmaster at a local school.

Picture 10

Recruitment

In the summer of 1942, when he was seventeen years old, Dennis attended the Royal Air Force recruitment centre in Birmingham and volunteered for service.  Although men could not actually enlist until aged eighteen or over, it was often the case that younger men went through the selection process prior to reaching eighteen. 

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All the men seeking to be aircrew were volunteers.  The quality of the men available to crew the Bombers was the best that Britain and its overseas dominions could provide.  Even when losses were at their most daunting the supply of men volunteering as aircrew candidates never faltered.

Many volunteers were rejected for the selection boards could afford to be choosey.

Following initial examination at the recruitment centre where they underwent tests in intelligence, maths and general knowledge, those men who passed went to an Aircrew Selection Centre where they faced a demanding set of academic tests, followed next day by a rigorous medical examination. 

Those failing at any stage were immediately sent home.

Finally, for those remaining came an interview, usually with the senior officers, who were seeking to establish the reasons why a candidate wanted to join the Royal Air Force.  An aggressive attitude towards the enemy, the desire to fight and fly was considered to be of primary importance.

Dennis passed the tests.  He was accepted to train as aircrew, sworn in, issued with a service number and sent home until summoned.

Training

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Dennis began his service with the Royal Air Force in the late summer of 1943 when he reached his eighteenth birthday.  In common with other volunteers his rank on entry was of Aircraftsman Class 2 (AC2) the lowest rank in the Royal Air force.

He now embarked on a long course of training.  Training aircrew took a surprisingly long time, two years or so was not unusual.  Training commenced at Air Crew Reception Centres.  This was often a rough experience.   A degree of brutal sadism from the “old lag” instructors was not uncommon.

Picture 14

After a month aircrew cadets moved on to Initial Training Wings where they spent the next six to eight weeks studying airmanship, meteorology, mathematics, aircraft recognition and morse code.  In addition, they were subjected to four hours of service drill and physical training each day.

The courses at the Initial Training Wings were tough and demanding with a mark of at least 80% in all subjects needed to pass.  The many volunteers who failed to successfully complete the courses were posted to other duties in the Royal Air Force.  For those who passed, there was a welcome period of leave, their first since joining the service.

This first leave was made very special for the young cadet airman.  They were issued with new uniforms and wore the distinctive white “Aircrew Cadet” flash on their air force caps.  For the first time they could be identified as potential flyers.

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When those who had been selected to continue training returned from leave they were put into specialist training courses and promoted to the Rank of Leading Aircraftsman (LAC).

Specialist training now began.  Seven men made up the crew of a Lancaster Bomber.   Each had a special skill and it was these which they now set about acquiring, the aircrew specialities were:

•  Pilot

• Flight Engineer

• Navigator

• Radio Operator

• Bomb Aimer

• Rear Gunner

• Mid Upper Gunner

One of the interesting things about Lancaster crews was that there was no co-pilot, or second pilot in the aircrew.  Apparently in 1941, when there was a serious shortage of pilots for heavy bombers a decision was made to dispense with second pilots.  To make up for this deficiency, and to give the crew a chance of survival if the pilot was incapacitated, it was decided to train the Flight Engineer in basic flying skills.

Specialist training for each individual was decided upon based upon the aptitudes and skills they had demonstrated at the Initial Training Wings.  Dennis was selected to train as a Flight Engineer.

During their specialist training all the volunteers retained the rank of Leading Aircraftsman.  At the end of the training, if they had come through the course successfully all were promoted, generally to Sergeant with some becoming Pilot Officer.

Also, after completion of specialist training the men had a right to wear an insignia, or brevet, appropriate to their aircrew category.  The insignia comprised of a single wing attached to a circle, within the circle was an alphabetic letter designating their speciality for example ‘N’ for Navigator, ‘G’ for Gunner.

It was in late September 1944 that Dennis, together with those of his comrades who had started the course at about the same time, finished their training, gained their wings, were promoted and prepared to become operational.

Sergeant Dennis George Howdle, RAF, wore the winged insignia ‘E’ for Engineer.

The newly qualified airmen were posted  to Operational Training Units (OTUS).  Here they met their counterparts from other British and also Australian, New Zealand and Canadian training units, called Empire Training Schools, and it was here that the crucial process of welding individual specialists into aircrews took place.

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An anecdote from his sister about an incident she recalls around this time, shortly after Dennis had qualified for aircrew may provide an insight to his character at the time.

It seems that whilst on leave prior to Christmas 1944 Dennis was invited to a party being given by Harry Burgess, a relative on his mother’s side of the family.

Harry, being quite understandably very proud of Dennis being an airman asked if he would attend the party in his RAF uniform.  Dennis declined to do so, saying that he had a very nice civilian suit which he would wear together with a tie with a dog motif which he particularly liked.  He only wore his RAF uniform when flying or travelling home on leave and returning to base.  No doubt Harry was disappointed.

The incident does seem to indicate that Dennis was not seeking particularly to capitalise on his RAF airman status, indeed on the contrary it seems to demonstrate a degree of modesty which can only be admired.

ACTIVE SERVICE

Becoming Part of a Crew

Becoming part of a crew in most Royal Air Force squadrons was an odd sort of business.  For once the Royal Air Force did not simply “order” men with the appropriate skills to form a crew together on a particular aircraft. Instead, groups of pilots, engineers, navigators and the rest were put together in a large aircraft hanger and told to sort themselves into crews.

So the men mingled with each other, had a few words here and there and slowly attached themselves to one another until, incredibly, crews were formed.

However, it seems that as it happens this odd, but usual method of becoming part of a crew almost certainly did not apply in the case of Dennis.

The reason was that he was posted to a Royal Australian Air Force Squadron (RAAF) rather than a Royal Air Force (RAF) Squadron.  He was posted to RAAF Squadron 467, based at Waddington near Lincoln. (Appendix 3)

It appears that because of the lack of appropriate facilities in Australia at the time there was little or no opportunity for men to acquire a background in engineering and as a result the Royal Australian Air Force, whilst training men in the other specialities, simply did not train Flight Engineers, and so British trained Flight Engineers were invariably attached to Australian aircrews.

So it was with Dennis.  Being posted to an Australian Squadron was probably seen as a stroke of luck at the time, for in many ways service life was better in the Empire and Commonwealth Squadrons than in normal RAF Squadrons.

For a start, these Empire and Commonwealth men were less prepared to put up with the discipline of service life than many of their British counterparts, they did not easily accept “bullshit” and were not slow in voicing their opinions and their objections to things they were unhappy with.   At the same time they were renowned for their outward looking attitude; and their tendency towards inclusiveness and disregard for rank.

Throughout Bomber Command there was a pronounced tendency for a man’s loyalty to be towards his own individual crew members rather than towards the Squadron or Group as a whole.  This attitude, combined with the easy and outgoing approach to life in an RAAF Squadron would have been good to be part of. 

So, by now the men were ready to go operational, to do the thing they had set out to do, to take the fight to the enemy.  It had taken anything up to two years and had cost around £10,000 per man (£900,00 at 2010 prices) to get them to this point and ready for battle.  Having got there their lives would seem to be so valuable.

Squadron and Crew

467 Squadron operated out of RAF Waddington Airdrome in Lincolnshire.  From start to finish the squadron flew Lancaster bombers. (Appendix 4) Waddington was built to a “standard” RAF design and layout and was constructed in the 1930’s.  Accordingly, it was reasonably comfortable when compared with many of the other bases which were rapidly constructed at the beginning of the war.  Waddington had decent facilities for the airmen which included a purpose built sergeants mess and dormitories.  It was located about five miles east of the city of Lincoln, which offered the men all of the recreational opportunities popular in any substantial city of the time.

Bomber squadrons were big organisations.  Backing up each aircrew of seven men were perhaps a further forty or so people including a ground crew dedicated to each aircraft, armourers to prepare and load the bomb loads and weapon systems, flight controllers, then right through to cooks and cleaners.  If a base operated with say twenty four aircraft as was often the case, a thousand or so people could be involved.

Because of the size of the bases they could be very impersonal places and this was one of the reasons that an airman’s own crew was the focus of his attention.  Each member of a bombers crew depended on the other, usually in very dangerous situations.  Crews tended to stick together on the ground as well as in the air, they generally socialised together and kept their own company.

Dennis became part of such a crew, and whilst on the odd occasion such as leave or sickness, someone would stand in for the usual crew member, as say navigator or gunner, basically once in a crew you stayed with it and became part of it for the operational tour of duty.  A tour of duty comprised thirty raids (or sorties as they were called) against enemy targets.

As Dennis was attached to an RAAF Squadron, most of the crew he flew with were Australians, the exceptions being himself and the Pilot, Flight Lieutenant Noel Colley, whose nationality is recorded as British, although both his wife and parents address is given as Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

The names and details of the crew Dennis flew with are attached (Appendix 5)

Going Operational

Of the 21 sorties Dennis flew over enemy territory 20 were with Fl Lt Colley and the Australian crew, most often in a particular Lancaster reference number PB306PO-J. (This was the aircraft they were flying when lost in February 1945).

Whilst Waddington was a relatively good air base, things were still tough for the airmen.  Generally food was poor and sparse.  The men did get bacon and eggs before take off and after returning from operations, but otherwise food was very basic.  However, even on the food front there was some advantage in being in an Australian squadron because the men often got food parcels sent from home where it was more freely available than in Britain.

Entertainment on the bases usually comprised a cinema and from time to time professional players may make a visit, otherwise it was drinking in the mess and entertaining themselves.  It seems that there was quite a lot of drinking and the picture of a group of men sitting with glasses in front of a bar, or standing around a piano is a fairly accurate one, with parties often becoming very boisterous.

Whenever they could, the men, almost always as a crew, got away from the base.  In the case of Waddington the two pubs they usually frequented were the Horse and Jockey and the Wheatsheaf, both of which are still there (2011) and full of Royal Air Force wartime memorabilia.

Then, of course, from time to time, there would be visits to Lincoln itself.  A favourite haunt in the town was the White Hart Hotel.  During a recent visit to Lincoln (2011) it was good to see that the old Café/Restaurant called Stokes located on the bridge over the River Witham at the bottom of the town is still there, and still doing business as it was in the war.  It is very probable that Dennis and the crew had a cup of tea there.

Girls were very much top of the agenda with the young airmen and dances and other opportunities to get involved with them were exceptionally well attended.  We can be certain from what we know of his liking for the opposite sex, that where there were girls Dennis would likely be found.

Flying Operations

When on flying operations the aircrews needed all the help they could get because the odds were stacked against them very heavily indeed.

Injury or death could come very suddenly and from many sources.

The bombers were big machines.  When they took off their tanks were filled to capacity with high octane fuel and they carried many tons of high explosive and highly combustible incendiary devices.  Simply getting airborne could be a hazardous and sometimes fatal exercise.

They operated even in appalling winter weather conditions and problems arising from icing, head and cross winds, usually in total darkness took their toll.

The aircraft flew en mass, with sometimes over a thousand airborne at the same time.  Airborne collision especially at take off and when waiting to land, claimed the lives of many crews, whilst when bombing over the target, bombs falling from above brought down aircraft below them.

These hazards alone could be daunting, but when taken together with the unrelenting determination of the German defences to obliterate the attacking bombers, life expectancy for the aircrews was not something to be dwelt on.

Of the airmen who passed through Bomber Command during the war over 44% were killed in action and a further 15% were either badly wounded or taken prisoner. (Appendix 2)

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A comprehensive record of the sorties Dennis flew is attached (Appendix 6) he flew his first operation “sortie” over enemy territory on the night of 23 October 1944. The aircraft the crew flew was a Lancaster PO-G.  They took off from Waddington at 20.45 hours.  The target was Flushing.   Dennis’s log book records the pilot as Flying Officer Colley.  However, Colley’s service record shows that on this sortie he was 2nd pilot to Flying Officer Cowan.  It is likely that this was the first operational trip for the whole crew including Colley and that F/O Cowan was watching over them.  Possibly as this was the very first trip against the enemy for Dennis and the other crew members except for Cowan, the target was selected as being relatively easy.

The crew flew their next sortie on the night of 30thOctober 1944 with F/O Colley as captain.  Once again the target was Flushing where they attacked gun emplacements.  They flew Lancaster LM642PO-K, taking off from Waddington at 13.45 hours for a 3.05 hour return trip.

 They next flew on the night of 1 November 1944.  The same crew, Dennis as Engineer and Colley (now promoted from Flying Officer to Flight Lieutenant) as pilot together with the Australian crew.  This time though the target was Hamburg.  Hamburg had been bombed repeatedly through the earlier part of the war and was virtually depopulated by late 1944.  However, it was an important city as both a production and distribution hub.  It was very heavily defended with anti aircraft guns and night fighters.  If Flushing had been a relatively gentle introduction for the crew on raids against enemy territory the raid on Hamburg was quite the opposite.

The crew continued to fly together throughout November 1944, the last operation of the month being against Trondheim when they flew Lancaster No. PB306PO-J.  This was the second time they had been allocated that particular aircraft.  The first time they had used it on operations was on the night of 6/7 November when they had taken part in attacking the Ems-Wesser Canal.

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They accomplished something quite remarkable on the night of 6/7th November.  Something so remarkable that it was recorded in the Operations Record Book of No 467 Squadron.  They shot down one of only six German aircraft destroyed by 467 Squadron during the whole of the war.

 To understand what happened we need to have an overview of the role of both the Bomber and German defences against it. 

 Lancaster Bombers were designed to attack enemy ground targets, they were not designed to fight against enemy aircraft.  They were equipped with machine guns, however, these were relatively light armaments (often referred to by crews as “pop guns”) and were intended as much as anything to prevent crews feeling utterly defenceless should they come under attack.  Bombers never looked for combat with enemy aircraft, in fact they actively tried to avoid it.

On the other hand, the objective of the Germans was to attack and destroy the bombers and by late 1944 they had become very good at it.  By far the most effective weapon the Germans used were  night fighters.  Whilst anti-aircraft fire (flak) did destroy some of the attacking bombers, most (about three quarters) of them were brought down by night fighters and it was these that the bomber crews most feared.

The German night fighters were fast, heavily armed with large calibre cannon and machine guns.  They had on-board radar to help them locate target bombers and their pilots were usually very experienced.  They were also ruthlessly determined.  Their attitude was similar to that of the British Battle of Britain pilot of 1940. The bombers were attacking and killing their family, friends and comrades, they were implacable and relentless in their enmity.  It was a good idea to avoid them.

But sometimes the fighters could not be avoided.  If their radar locked onto a bomber there were but three possible outcomes.  They shot you down (likely), you shook them off and got away (unlikely) or you shot them down (most unlikely).

On the night of 6/7 November 1944 the crew of Lancaster PB306PO-J accomplished that most unlikely of things, they shot down a German fighter.  And not just any fighter.  They destroyed a jet aircraft almost certainly a Messerschmitt Me262, one of the most advanced fighter aircraft available to the Germans, one of the few German jet propelled aircraft that went into active service during the war. (Appendix 7) 467 Squadron Operations Record Book records that Flt/Lt Colley and crew had two combats on the sortie, one with a single seater aircraft (ss/ac) the other with a jet aircraft which they shot down and saw explode on the ground.

467 Squadron’s diary records the event but gives no details.  However, there is an entry made after the raid in the log book Dennis kept, it reads “1 SHOT DOWN BY R/G”.   Presumably the “RG” is the rear gunner, almost certainly Flight Sergeant Phillip Carter.  Further confirmation comes from a photograph of Lancaster PB306PO-J which shows a swastika emblem painted on the fuselage of the aircraft, the symbol used throughout the war to designate a German aircraft had been shot down.

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 From records and from observations made by members of bomber crews, it seems that the period of greatest danger for them was during the early stages of a thirty sortie tour, with the biggest losses of crews sustained during the first six or seven trips, when they were still, to some extent, inexperienced.

After that, as they became more experienced they became more confident as their chances of survival increased.  One famous bomber pilot, Jack Currie, who wrote the book “Lancaster Target”, describes how it was.  How his growing experience made him begin to think he and his crew could come through it, how he began to feel he could handle his Lancaster adequately, even when it was damaged, he knew he was becoming a good pilot with the backing of a cohesive and experienced crew.  (It is interesting to note that Currie and his crew also destroyed an enemy fighter).

Following the attack of 22 November Dennis, Flt Lt Colley and probably the rest of the crew of Lancaster PB306PO-J did not fly again until 4 December 1944 when they took part in a raid against Heilbronn.  It was likely that the crew was on leave at this time because 467 Squadron diary records that aircraft from Waddington were flying sorties during the period. 

They continued taking part in attacks against a range of targets throughout December including a raid against Munich on 17 December, flying a total of seven sorties in the month. 

They flew very little during January 1945 with only two trips recorded in Dennis’s Log Book.  Presumably this was mainly due to the appalling weather which set in at the start of the second week in January and continued throughout the month.  Also, from Dennis’s letters it is clear that he was on leave in January, probably in the period between the 15th and 22nd January.

On the night of 1st/2nd February 1945 Dennis and the crew of Lancaster PB306PO-J took part in an attack on Siegen.  They took off at 16.08 hours and returned safely at 22.28 hours.  It is recorded as an uneventful trip with slight flak encountered. 

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THE LAST SORTIE - 2nd FEBRUARY 1945

The Raid on Karlshure

During the afternoon of 2nd February 1945 crews of 467 Squadron were briefed upon the raid to be carried out that night. 

The day before a number of them including Dennis and the rest of the crew of Lancaster PB306PO-J had taken part in the raid on Seigen, a town in the north west of Germany.  The return trip had taken over six hours and they had not got back to Waddington until late on 2nd February.  They would have eaten the usual post operation meal of bacon and eggs, been debriefed and gone to bed.

It was not entirely usual to be flying another sortie so soon after the previous one, but it did happen and was not necessarily thought to be a bad thing as it helped to speed up getting through the 30 sortie tour.  This was to be the twenty first sortie for the crew of Lancaster PB306PO-J and they must have felt that they were getting on with things.

According to the Squadrons Operations Record Book the weather on the station at Waddington that morning was wet and cold but there was no snow.

At the briefing the crew of Lancaster PB306PO-J filed into the briefing room and sat clustered around their skipper Flt Lt Colley.  They were informed of the target and the route they were to take to it.  They were told why the target was to be attacked and given details of previous raids on it together with what was known about flak and searchlight positions. 

They were told that the target for that night was Karlshure, the town is located on the Rhine, on the border between France and Germany.  It would probably have been thought of as being not such a bad target; certainly not as fearsome as the towns of the Rhur which were very heavily defended targets dreaded by the crews.

The general briefing was followed by a specialist briefing for each aircrew member advising them on specifics relating to their own role.

Karlshure had been the subject of numerous bombing raids during the war.  It was an administrative and manufacturing centre with an important Rhine port.  It had extensive oil and fuel storage facilities and a military railway station.  Whilst not as heavily defended as the cities of the Rhur its defences were formidable and had taken their toll of allied aircraft in earlier raids.

The records show that from take off time to landing it would have taken seven and a half to eight hours to complete the raid and get back to base and that Lancaster PB306PO-J took off from Waddington at 19.51hours.  The aircraft was one of nineteen from 467 squadron taking part.  There were over 260 aircraft engaged in the raid which was the last large scale raid of the war against a German city.

The object of the attack was an important one.  It was to strike a further great blow against a major German city.  A blow, which taken together with the allied successes on the ground, could hasten the end of the war, bring Germany finally to its knees, and bring about the victory which the British had fought for since 1939.

The weather that night over much of northern Europe was appalling and there was widespread heavy cloud.  Over the approaches to Karlshure and over the town itself the cloud cover is reported to have been very heavy, to the point where it was not possible to see the target.

Apparently some of the target marker aircraft, usually mosquitoes fighter/bombers, did try to get beneath the cloud base.  German reports refer to these as dive bombers making attacks. 

Because of the cloud their efforts were in vain for very few bombs were dropped on Karlshure that night and little damage was done to the city.  Most of the bombs released fell onto the surrounding countryside and the town was spared the effects of what would have been a devastating attack.  According to the Bomber Command War Diaries the raid was a complete failure.

However, many aircraft were lost including 14 Lancasters;  one of those lost was Lancaster PB306PO-J.

The aircraft is recorded as taking off from Waddington at 19.51 hours.  It would have assembled with the rest of the bomber fleet over England before setting off with the bomber stream for the target.  Other than these details of the aircrafts departure from Waddington there is only one further mention of it in the Operations Record Book of 467 Squadron, an entry stating:

“Aircraft missing.  No messages or signals received.”

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 EPILOGUE

On 3rd February 1945 Dennis’s parents received a telegram from 467 Squadron which with regret informed them that he was missing as a result of air operations on the previous night. 

They would have been devastated at the news hoping and praying that Dennis had survived, perhaps even have been taken prisoner by the Germans.

A letter dated the following day, 4th February 1945, from the Commanding Officer of 467 Squadron, Wing Commander J.K.Douglas, confirmed that Dennis was missing following a raid on Karlsruhe.

In the third paragraph of his letter the Wing Commander goes on to list some of the qualities observed in Dennis.  No doubt this was very much a “standard” sort of paragraph, almost certainly included in the many similar letters sent to next of kin after the loss of an airman on active service.  However, repeated use of a paragraph does not reduce the validity of its contents.  It reads,

“Your son carried out his duties in a most conscientious and capable manner.  By his courage and devotion to duty in the face of danger, he inspired us, and his personality will be missed by all.  Your son was a very popular member of the Squadron and on behalf of the Squadron, I should like to convey to you our sincere sympathy.”

The letter goes on to point out that quite a number of missing airmen are later reported as prisoners of war or that he may still be at large.  (It is sad to record that Wing Commander JK Douglas DFC AFC was himself killed in action on 8th February 1945, only four days after his letter to Dennis’s parents)

In a letter written on 9th February the Station Chaplain states that it was not known exactly what happened to the aircraft and reiterates the point that there is a possibility that Dennis may have baled out and survived.

A letter of 11th February from the Air Ministry advises of the loss of the aircraft on 2nd/3rd February and again mentions the possibility that Dennis may have survived and that he could be a prisoner of war.

No doubt Agnes and George would have been hoping against hope that Dennis had survived.  We know that Agnes contacted the Red Cross in London to ask if they had any news of him, for in a letter to her dated 17th February 1945, they confirm that up to that date nothing had been received, but that they were making all possible enquiries. 

It was not to be.

In a letter of 29th October 1945 the Air Ministry advised that there was no evidence of Dennis having survived and that his death had now been presumed, for official purposes, as having occurred on 3rd February 1945.

The final blow came when in a letter from the Air Ministry of 4th June 1946, again in response to a letter his mother sent to them on 9th May.   It confirmed that his aircraft had crashed on 2nd February 1945, near Karlsdorf, 5 kilometres west of Bruchsal (Baden) Germany, and that seven bodies were recovered.  Six of the bodies, including that of Dennis were identified.

The letter stated that bodies of the airmen were buried in the churchyard at Karlsdorf-Bruchsal on 4th February 1945. The bodies of Dennis and his comrades were later removed from Karlsdorf to the British Military Cemetery at Durnbach. (Appendix 8)

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VALEDICTION

 Since the end of the war there has been a great deal of criticism about the actions of Bomber Command and the bombing it carried out against the towns and cities of Nazi Germany during the Second World War, even to the point of it being suggested that what was done was both barbaric and unnecessary.

At the time the people involved in making the decisions and the young men implementing them did not have the luxury of hindsight about the actions they took.  They were engaged in a desperate battle for survival and they did what they felt had to be done to defeat a regime which was set upon world domination and which was quite prepared to carry out the most terrible atrocities to achieve it.

Without their efforts and sacrifices who can say what may have happened.  Germany was forced to deploy huge resources to resist their attacks.  A significant proportion of its men, armaments and munitions were devoted to defending against the aerial attacks mounted by Bomber Command, resources which otherwise would have been available for use elsewhere.

A number of respected historians seem to be of the opinion that it was the German decision to attack Russia in the spring of 1941 which brought about its ultimate defeat.  However, for a long time the outcome of the fighting in Russia was by no means a foregone conclusion and initially Germany came very close to defeating the Red Army, and then later bringing the fighting on the eastern front to a stalemate by its implacable resistance to the advance of the Russian forces.

It seems to me at any rate that had the Germans been able to deploy against the Russians the huge resources they had to commit to protect themselves against the aerial campaign being waged against their homeland by the men of Bomber Command, then the outcome of the war against Russia could have been quite different. 

Following on from this, if Germany had prevailed against Russia then the consequences for the world could well have been dreadful to contemplate.  Had they defeated Russia the Germans would have turned the full force of their armed forces on Britain and its Empire and Commonwealth and had they done so would probably have been unstoppable.

German dominance over greater Europe and the other conquered territories would have put vast resources at their disposal in terms of manpower and added huge industrial (armaments) production capacity.  Undoubtedly there would have been the potential for Germany to control by far the most powerful military force in the world.

America alone would have been in a position to continue the struggle against both Germany and her equally fanatical ally Japan.  Given the power of such a combination against them, it is most unlikely that America could have prosecuted a war to a victorious conclusion.  Had events followed such a course then America may well have been forced to accept some sort of arrangement whereby it was left to itself and Germany and Japan given a free reign in Europe, Asia and much of the rest of the world.  Condemning the peoples of those continents to the unrestrained dominance of their conquerors for untold generations.

When viewed against such a backdrop, the actions of the British Government, Bomber Command, and its airmen need no apologists.  On the contrary they deserve the heartfelt thanks of every individual alive today for whose freedom so many of them gave the greatest gift they had.  They gave their lives.

These men contributed enormously to the defeat of Nazi Germany, their efforts and sacrifices stand resolutely between the freedom we now enjoy and the utter degradation we almost certainly would have suffered if they had not given so very much.

They were the best we had, and Dennis George Howdle was one of them.

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“The moral tests to which the crew of a bomber were subjected reached the extreme limits of human valour and sacrifice. Here chance was carried to its most extreme and violent degree above all else. Not only our hearts and admiration but our minds in strong comprehension of these ordeals must go out to these heroic men, where duty to their country and their cause sustained them in superhuman trials. They never flinched or failed.  It is to their devotion that in no small measure we owe our victory. Let us give them our salute.”
 Winston Churchill

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ANOMOLIES

In compiling this document we have become aware of two significant anomalies and, whilst these do not have a major effect as regards the main theme of the narrative about Dennis, they are worth recording.

The Number of Sorties

The first area of doubt relates to the number of operational sorties which Dennis flew, and of those he did fly, how many were with Flt/Lt Colley.

The Flying Log Book which Dennis kept, at first sight seems to indicate that prior to the last raid on Karlshure, he flew 19 sorties, 18 with Flt/Lt Colley and one with F/O Edwards.

However, in a letter to his parents which we believe to have been his last letter written on Thursday 1st February 1945, Dennis states that he had already flown 20 sorties.

After very careful study of Dennis’s log book Jannice observed that there was an entry indicating that he had flown on a night flight of five and a half hours duration on 23 October 1944.  There was no clear indication of the destination or possible target.

The name of the pilot on the flight of 23rd October as recorded in Dennis’s log book was F/O Colley.

Whilst checking Flt/Lt Colley’s Operation Record we found that his first operational flight had been as 2nd pilot to Flying Officer R. Cowan, on a raid on Flushing on 23 October 1944.

We therefore deduced that Dennis had indeed flown on 20 and not 19 sorties prior to the final raid.  The first operational flight being as part of the crew which raided Flushing on 23rd October 1944, under the command of F/O Cowan but with Colley actually flying the aircraft and hence recorded as pilot.

Accordingly, we were able to confirm that in total, including the raid on Karlshure he flew 21 sorties, 20 with Flt/Lt Colley as pilot.

The mystery of the number of operations Dennis flew was further added to by cryptic entries in his log book where it is recorded that the raid on Dortmund – Ems Canal as being his 16th sortie (he was wrong it was in fact his 18th) and the raid on Houffalize he recorded as being his 17th sortie (19th).

Crew Members Lost on 2nd February 1945

A further anomaly relates to the number of men in Lancaster PB306PO-J when it was lost on the raid on Karlshure on 2nd February 1945.  Page 180 of the Operations Record Book for 467 Squadron has an entry for 3rd February as follows:

“Once again a grim story to unfold.  Two crews did not return from the raid (the pilots being) P/O Robinson and F/L Colley.  With F/L Colley was a second pilot, F/O Inkster, so that we have lost five pilots in two days …………etc.”

This entry clearly indicates that there was a second pilot in the aircraft that night, which, together with the usual crew of seven would make up a total of eight men.

However, a letter dated 4th June 1946 from the Air Ministry to Dennis’s parents about the loss of the aircraft and its crew and based on information obtained from German sources, records that seven bodies were recovered from the crashed aircraft, not eight.  The letter goes on to say that six of the men were identified.  The fact that their identities were recorded does seem to indicate that some care went into setting down the details of the bodies recovered.  It seems odd that with such attention to detail the Germans would be wrong about the number of bodies actually recovered.

The most reasonable explanation seems to be that the Germans did probably recover seven bodies, not eight, and that in fact one of the crew members was not in the crashed aircraft.

However, we do know that all eight men of the crew are interred at Durnbach.  The records name every one of them as being buried there, five in named graves, and the other three in a communal grave.

A possible explanation is that the Germans recovered seven men from the aircraft itself with a further man being recovered later from the surrounding area.

Any attempt to explain what may have happened to the eighth man before his body was found would be pure speculation.

One thing though is certain, at the time the bodies were recovered, six of them were identified. 

One of those identified was Dennis. 

Finally

In the text Noel Colley is referred to as both F/O Colley and Flt/Lt Colley.  This is not an error as he was promoted from F/O Colley to Flt/Lt Colley on 1st November 1944.

APPENDIX 1

THE GERMAN THREAT

Hitler’s War

Following its defeat in the First World War, Germany had been in turmoil and out of the turmoil a new belligerent force had arisen, Fascism.

In 1933 the National Socialist Party (Nazis) had come to power in Germany.  The party was led by Adolph Hitler.  Hitler had been a soldier fighting for Germany in World War One, and in common with many other Germans, he had felt great humiliation at its defeat.

Although in many ways a strange and deluded individual, Adolph Hitler had a great gift as a political leader, he was a stirring orator; a gift which at that time was highly appealing to much of the population of Germany.

Hitler wanted revenge.  Revenge against all who had been, in his view, involved in the defeat of Germany.

From 1933 onwards immediately on coming to power in Germany, he began a programme of re-armament in order to exact the revenge he sought.

Although the western allies, particularly the Governments of Britain and France, could see the direction that Hitler and Germany were taking, they wished to avoid war.  They did not want a repeat of the suffering caused by World War One, and so at first, they chose to ignore what was happening.

However, by 1936, when the German army occupied a de-militarised area of Germany and brought it under their direct control, the situation could no longer be ignored.  For a time, the allies tried still to buy off Hitler by acts of appeasement.  The more they gave Hitler the more he demanded.  It became clear that war with Germany was inevitable.

The breaking point came on 1 September 1939 when Hitler’s armies invaded Poland, a country with whom the British has a mutual assistance treaty.  On the same day Great Britain declared war on Germany.

Fighting Back

From September 1939 when Great Britain declared war on Germany, through to the summer of 1940, nothing much changed.  There were no major attacks by or on Britain, and although more and more people were joining the armed forces and a number of “war time” measures were introduced, life more or less continued as before.  The period was called the “phoney war”.

Then all hell broke loose.  The German army, using its blitz krieg (lighting war) technique, fell upon France and the low countries like a wolf on the fold.  By the early summer of 1940 the allied forces were defeated.  France was mostly occupied by the Germans and fully under German domination.  The British army expeditionary  force had been pushed back to Dunkirk and its defeated soldiers evacuated by sea, with most of their equipment left behind and abandoned in France.

The German army began to train for an invasion of Britain and started to construct and assemble shipping to carry the invasion troops across the English Channel.

In Britain preparations were being made to resist the expected invasion.  The army was being re-organised and extended and re-equipped as quickly as possible.

The Royal Navy was on high alert readying itself to resist the German invasion fleet at sea.

The Government was exhorting the civil population to ready itself for the forthcoming trial, with Prime Minister Churchill at his most belligerent to the point of telling people “If you are to die, take one (a German soldier) with you”.

However, the Germans knew that for an invasion of Britain to succeed one vital thing was required.  It was absolutely necessary for the German air force, the “Luftwaffe”, to utterly defeat and destroy the fighter aircraft of the Royal Air Force.  If it could do so, its invasion fleet would almost certainly survive crossing the English Channel in spite of the efforts of the Royal Navy.  If it did not do so, then the Royal Air Force together with the Royal Navy would almost certainly destroy the German invasion fleet.

It is difficult for us now to imagine just what the state of mind and feeling of the British people must have been like at the time.

For centuries the British had been impregnable in their island fortress, with the Royal Navy providing secure defence against any potential aggressor.

The last time there had been the slightest possibility of invasion was almost a century and a half past, when Napoleon had been a little threatening, but that threat had been conclusively disposed of by Nelson and his navy.  Since then British power had just grown and grown, the British Empire was vast, its power unsurpassed.  Against such a background how could the British be expected to relate to the possible invasion and occupation of their island.  But they had to face up to that possibility and no doubt there was a collective sense of disbelief, of shock, that it could be so.  But the reality was the Germans had occupied most of continental Europe, had shattered the French armies, and had swept the British forces into the sea, all in a matter of months.

Hitler said he was coming, and whilst Churchill was belligerent in his rhetoric, it was far from certain that the means for Britain to successfully  resist an invasion were available.

In the summer of 1940 the Germans launched their offensive against Britain.  The German air force began the assault, concentrating its efforts on the south coast of England, and especially against British air fields.  The aim was to eliminate the Royal Air Force. Once that was done, the Germans would then embark their armies using the troop carrying barges they were constructing in France at the channel ports.  And the land invasion of Britain would take place.

The problem for the Germans was the Royal Air Force was not going to be easily eliminated.

Everyone in Britain knew that the Royal Air Force was vital if a German invasion was to be stopped, and the commanders and pilots of the Royal Air Force knew it better than any.

Fortunately, the pilots of the Royal Air Force had at their disposal the means of resisting the German attacks, the Spitfire and Hurricane fighter aircraft of RAF Fighter Command.

So it was that in the late summer and early autumn of 1940, a momentous air battle took place over the south of England, The Battle of Britain.

The battle raged to a fro, and the Germans came very near to winning, but by late September of 1940, they realised that they had not broken the Royal Air Force.  The invasion of Britain was postponed.

The invasion of Britain had been stopped, but the war had not been won.  After a pause, whilst it consolidated its position in France, and the low countries, instead of renewing its offensive against Britain Germany turned its attention eastwards, and in 1941 opened its offensive against Russia; as before, at the start of the campaign its armies seemed invincible.

Britain desperately needed to move from defending itself to attacking Germany, but was in no position to launch a land attack.  If it was to carry the offensive to Germany, how could it be done?  Once again the answer was the men and machines of the Royal Air Force.

Invasion, and the probable defeat of Great Britain by Germany, had been prevented by the defensive prowess of the men and aircraft of RAF Fighter Command.`

The defeat of Germany was to be taken forward by the offensive efforts of the men of RAF Bomber Command.

German bombers had attacked Britain.  Night after night they had inflicted the blitz on London and had carried out a devastating raid on Coventry.  It was said, that by doing so, the Germans had sown the wind.  The British, through Bomber Command were going to retaliate.  Germany was to reap the whirlwind.

APPENDIX 2

RAF AND BOMBER COMMAND

The Royal Air Force

During the Second World War the Royal Air Force was subdivided into a number of “Commands” perhaps best understood if thought of as “Departments”; these included Fighter Command, Coastal Command and Bomber Command.

As their names suggest, each of the Commands specialized in a particular task.  Fighter Command was famous for its exploits in the summer and autumn of 1940 when during the Battle of Britain it fought and defeated the hitherto invincible Luftwaffe.  By doing so it prevented the German air force from gaining control of the skies over Britain and almost certainly averted a German invasion of Britain.  The place of Fighter Command is rightly as secure in the annals of British history as the defeat of the Spanish Armarda on Nelson’s Victory at Trafalgar.

However, this story is about another RAF Command, the one in which Dennis George Howdle served.  It was called Bomber Command.

Bomber Command

Bomber Command was established for one purpose only.  That purpose was to attack Britain’s enemies and to aggressively carry the war to them.  From 1939 until the end of the Second World War in Europe that enemy was the axis powers, Germany and Italy, with Germany being by far the senior partner.

Following the stunning German victories in continental Europe, culminating with the defeat of France and the evacuation of the British Army from Dunkirk there was no means available to the British to engage in significant offensive warfare against Germany using conventional land forces.  There were of course, actions involving the Royal Navy and the occasional Commando raid but there was no possibility of these actions challenging German dominance of Continental Europe or leading to the defeat of Germany.

It therefore fell to Bomber Command, and for a long time, Bomber Command alone,  to wage war on Germany and her allies.  From a halting start Bomber Command gradually learned its lessons and by the end of the war it had become a fearsome force.  With help from the American Air Force, it became a devastating weapon on war which all but destroyed the German homeland and provided crucial assistance in smashing the German armed forces.

It was a slow and frustrating start, during the first two years of the war nearly 5,000 airmen were lost on bombing raids and in terms of material damage to Germany there was little to show for it.

Whilst inadequate aircraft, poor meteorological forecasts and a lack of navigational aids caused considerable problems, the real difficulty arose because of the policy of attempting precision attacks on military targets which were heavily defended.

The Germans had already demonstrated by large scale aerial attacks on British towns such as Coventry and particularly by heavy and continuous attacks on London (The Blitz) that great damage and disruption could be caused by maintaining attacks on towns and cities, and it was clear that such attacks were more effective than precision bombing attacks.

The British took some time to learn the lesson, and to concentrate their bombing attacks on civilian centres, but when they did, the result was to be catastrophic for Germany.  The real change in British bombing policy began in July 1941, a little over two years into the war.  A man named Charles Portal was appointed as Chief of Air Staff.   In February 1942 Portal appointed Air Marshall Arthur Harris as head of Bomber Command.  Both of them believed that the strategy of precision bombing was useless, that it was causing devastating casualties in their air crews and was having no affect whatsoever on the German war effort.

They set about changing things.

Harris in particular was utterly ruthless in his attitude towards the Germans, it was he who said “They have sown the wind and they will reap the whirlwind”.

So far as he was concerned the Germans had started the war and had bombed and killed British civilians when they deliberately attacked British Towns and Cities.  He was going to retaliate by wiping out Germany and he was going to do it by introducing a new and ruthless strategy.  Under his command the Royal Air Force was going to “carpet bomb” German cities, to drop huge quantities of bombs on centres of population with the sole aim at obliterating them completely, and Bomber Command was to be his instrument for this act of mass destruction.

At the very moment Harris needed it the means to carry out this policy was put into his hands.  It was a new four engined aircraft called the Lancaster Bomber.  In early 1942 this superb aircraft came into service, with its new and improved navigational aids.  At the same time the recently trained volunteer aircrews began to arrive in force at their squadrons.  By the spring of 1942 Harris had the men and machines he needed, and he set about implementing his policy with grim determination.

In May 1942 Harris ordered the first 1000 bomber raid of the war against Cologne.  The effect of so many bombs being dropped so quickly was devastating.  Such was the damage that for the very first time the German people saw the possibility that they may not win the war.

Bomber Command aircrew members were all volunteers and although losses were daunting, there was always many more men seeking to join the Royal Air Force as aircrew than were needed.

This meant that selection boards could be very selective about the men they accepted and many of those wishing to join were rejected.  Only the best that Britain and its overseas could offer were accepted.

Applicants had to be A1 fit.  They had to pass tests in intelligence, mathematics, and general knowledge.  A candidate’s desire to fight was of paramount importance.  Consequently, recruits were the best young men of their generation, whose task would be to carry out the most deadly task of the war.

And being a member of a bomber aircrew was indeed the most deadly of all wartime active service activities.  The basic statistics tell a grim tale.

Just over 125,000 men passed through Bomber Command during World War Two.  Of these, 55,573 were killed (just over 44%).  A further 18,241 (15%) were either badly wounded or taken prisoner.  Moreover, these statistics include a huge number of men who were still being trained when the war ended and who never saw action.  Taking this into account, according to one study, the true casualty rate was 65%.  It significantly exceeds the notoriously high casualty rate of front line junior officers in the First World War.

It was like this; if you were intelligent and very fit and could demonstrate a burning desire to fight, then Bomber Command may select you from among the many men it could choose from.

If you were lucky enough to be among those chosen then two out of three of you would be killed or badly wounded before the war was over.

APPENDIX 3

467 (AUSTRALIAN) SQUADRON

A Brief History

467 RAAF Squadron was part of RAF 5 Group and was formed on 7 November 1943 out of 463 RAAF Squadron when 463 moved to Waddington.

The Squadron flew Lancaster bombers from Waddington until the end of the war.

Its aircraft were generally manned by Australian aircrews except for Flight Engineers who were usually British.

Statistics 

• 467 Squadron flew 3,833 Lancaster sorties

• ·104 Aircraft were lost in action (2.7%) in 299 bombing and 15 mine laying raids

• 14 further aircraft were lost in crashes

• 721 Aircrew posted as missing whilst on missions

• 17,578 Tons of bombs were dropped

• 6 Enemy aircraft were confirmed as destroyed

• 13 Enemy aircraft were confirmed as probably destroyed

• 26 Enemy aircraft were confirmed as damaged

  Gallantry awards as follows:

• 5 Distinguished Service Orders (DSO)

• 2 Conspicuous Gallantry Medals

• 182 Distinguished Flying Crosses and Medals DFC, DFM

 The 467 Squadron Motto was “Recidite Adversarious Atque Ferociter”. It means “Returning Adversaries Attacks with Ferocity”.

 APPENDIX 4

 THE LANCASTER BOMBER

By 1944 Bomber Command had at its disposal, three heavy bombers, Stirlings, Halifaxes and Lancasters, and whilst some airmen did express a preference for the other two, by far the most popular of these was the Avro Lancaster, and in late 1944 most of the bomber fleet were Lancasters.

Designed by Roy Chadwick and his team at the aircraft company A.V. Roe Ltd (Avro) the Lancaster was developed from earlier prototypes, most notably the Manchester a two engined bomber which fell far short of expectations.  However Chadwick had great faith in the basic design of the air frame and following many modifications and crucially the installation of four engines his efforts were rewarded.

The prototype of the Lancaster flew on 9 January 1941, and the first operational Lancasters went into service just prior to Christmas 1941.  The first Lancaster combat mission came on 2nd March 1942.

For its time the Lancaster was a very advanced aircraft, even when first introduced, and as time passed and modifications were made to improve its performance, and with its ever more effective navigation systems, the airmen who flew it expressed admiration and even affection for it.

Lancasters were big aircraft standing over 20ft above the ground, they were over 60ft long and had a wingspan of over 100ft.  Generally powered by four of the renowned Rolls Royce “Merlin” engines they were fast, could gain height quickly, and could cruise at over 20,000ft, also and often crucially they were, for their size, highly manoeuvrable in the air.  Not only did Lancasters have all these qualities, they had a further great asset, they carried a bomb load of 14,000lbs.

When compared with other bombers of the time, American, German, or those flown by any other air force this was an enormous bomb load.  They could also be comparatively easily modified to carry special weapons, for example, the “bouncing bombs” used in the 1943 Dam Busters raid on German reservoir dams.

The main criticism of the Lancaster was its comparatively light defensive armaments.  These consisted of .303 calibre machine guns, four in a hydraulically operated rear turret, two located in the mid upper turret, and a further two mounted in the front turret.  The problem was that as regards both range and power these guns were much less powerful than those installed in enemy fighter aircraft, an issue which was very contentious up until the end of the war.

All in all, the Lancaster “The Mighty Lanc” as it was sometimes referred to, was a very formidable weapon indeed, capable of delivering devastation on an unprecedented scale, able to operate in appalling weather conditions, and to absorb enormous amounts of damage, and still endure to bring its crew home against the odds.

APPENDIX 5

 DETAILS OF THE CREW OF LANCASTER NUMBER PB306PO-J. 2ND FEBRUARY 1945

APPENDIX 6 

OPERATION RECORD OF SORTIES UNDERTAKEN BY DENNIS

* Pilot P/O Colley under command of P/O Cowan

** Sortie when crew credited with destruction of enemy aircraft

*** Sortie Dennis flew with F/O Edwards as pilot (the only sortie flown with a pilot other than Colley)

Picture 38

In combat, when properly flown, the Me262 proved very difficult to counter because of its speed.  It is generally thought to be the most advanced aviation design in operational use during World War Two.  Me262 pilots claimed 506 Allied kills.  This is against a loss of around 100 Me262’s.

The allies countered its potential effectiveness in the air in the only way available to them, by relentlessly attacking the aircraft on the ground or whilst they were taking off or landing, and most of the 100 or so Me262 losses are accounted for by such attacks.

Considering the quality of the Me 262 it must have been considered a remarkable feat for Flight Sergeant Carter, the rear gunner of Lancaster PB306PO-J to have shot one down.  He and the rest of the crew must have been very proud of being credited with destroying such an aircraft.  It is worth noting that this Me262 must have been one of the very earliest to fall to Allied attacks as the aircraft did not go fully operational until November 1944.

APPENDIX 8 

VISIT TO DURNBACH CEMETERY – 2011

On 15 August 2011 my wife Jannice and I visited the cemetery at Durnbach where Dennis and his comrades are buried.  It is easy to find.  Prior to going there we stayed overnight at Saltzburg.  It only took us a couple of hours to drive to the cemetery.

The day was long anticipated and the visit to his grave was something which someone from his family was under some obligation to do, whether from love, loyalty or duty and perhaps I was the last of his immediate family who was in a position to make the visit.

It is now done and my mind is a little easier for it.  Perhaps, just perhaps, he also is resting a little easier for having one of his own standing there.  Who knows.  I phoned my sister when I was there, it was hard for her and she was upset, but glad as well, I think.  Jannice played her part well; she got my sister on the phone when my emotions overcame me and I could not.

The cemetery is green with grass and white with graves, toned with a bit of bright colour from flowers here and there around the gravestones.  It is set in a valley with trees around it and mountains in the distance.

By all objective judgements it is a lovely place, beautiful, as they say.

It is also desolate, it is unutterably sad and so very lonely for them.  They lie there in the ground, far from home, in a foreign land, rarely if ever, has anyone they knew been to lay a flower or stand a moment.  In over half a century Dennis has had only two visitors from home, and it is unlikely that there will be many others.

At least their graves will be cared for longer than most.  They lie together in the huge, ordered, manicured cemetery, they who died in the common purpose which is the marker of their lives.  Not perhaps as the letter to his parents promised will the cemetery “ be maintained for all time” but still it is a marker which will go beyond most others.

Not much comfort for his mother there though. It is perhaps as well she never went to Durnbach.

Picture 39A

Picture 39B

Picture 39C

Picture 39D

Picture 40

Picture 40A

 THE TELEGRAM AND THE LETTERS

Picture 47

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NOTE:   Dennis’ handwriting is sometimes difficult to interpret on the letters which follow. For this reason a printed version follows the copy of each original letter.

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This letter is believed to have been written shortly after Christmas 1943 when Dennis refers to Christmas at home without him, and Gordon’s presents.   Also the party he attended where there was a very nice daughter!

Pictures 48a and 48b

186651 HOWDLE D G HCU
7 Flight
89 COURSE
No 1 Squadron
21 ITW
Bridlingly
Yorks 

Saturday 3.00 

Dear Doreen

Thank you for your letter I received yesterday you are very lucky I am answering this for I do not get any time to spare these last few days as our pass out revision take up all spare time so this mass of scribble will be short and sweet.

Well I am glad to hear you had a good Christmas complete with plenty of food and toys.  It sounds as though Gordon will soon be able to start a shop with his presents.  By the way what did you get for Christmas.  We had quite a good time here plenty to eat and bags of fun we had with the wives next door really they made our Xmas.  The best part about it is that they have a very nice daughter and let me tell you it did not take long before I got mobile.

Eh, sister what’s this about “my young lady” take it from me what exists between Gwyneth and myself is plain friendship and I don’t think anything else will ever originate, this is “pucka gen”

It won’t be long now before I shall be back at Chasetown.  It seems impossible that a week today I shall be at home, having a good time, but boy what a week it is going to be, nothing but Exams, Exams, Exams.

Well I shall have to close now as I want to finish that cake off that came from home.

“Cheerio”

Your loving Brother

Dennis

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This letter is believed to have been written on Wednesday 18 October 1944 on his last day of training before joining his Squadron. 
He refers to ‘tonight being his last trip before being posted’.

Wednesday

My dearest Mom and Dad

Just a few hurried lines before I go aviating to let you know that I am still OK also to thank you for your most welcome letter which I gratefully received this morning.  Do you know Mom this is the first letter I have received since I came back off pass best some of these people start writing some letters or are they all like me too busy, but still I can always find a few minutes in which to write one to you.

Well things here are still the same as ever bags of work and very little play, you can tell for yourself, last night we started to fly at 9.30 after doing what we had to do we eventually got down at 3.30 then after having supper (BACON & EGGS boy was it good)  We managed to get to bed at 4.30, then I was there until 12 today, after having dinner I had to be at our office at 2.0 after this we had to have some gen on tonight’s trip this lasted until 4.0  Now we are off again at 6 and so in between these two times I am scribbling this.  Never mind out of these flights I am managing to scrape Gordon a little chocolate together.

Tonight is our last trip from here after this we are posted to a Squadron.  There are about 4 places where we are likely to go to, from one of these, it is quite possible that we shall get 14 days leave then be posted to India, quite a few crews have done this, personally I am not in favour of this effort but still I guess someone has got to do it, on the other hand it will be about 5-6 weeks before we get 7 days leave of course there is quite a good chance that we may get a 48 hour pass and as you know these are very welcome.

Well if the weather at home is anything like it is here farming will be at a standstill for quite a few days yet, for boy it is grim, the ground seems to be all darn mud as we have had that much rain, but I hope for Pops sake that it is better at home for if it is not I know what he will feel like, I guess he has told you that after this lot is over I am definitely staying at home – my mind is made up about this  fact, no more working for anyone else for someday I want to be my own boss.

Well Mom now about this car, do you think Mr Poole would be willing to wait until I can get home to see it and get the gen on it, if he can’t would you ask him to let me have all the gen on it and then I will write by return of post.  Anyway Mom £45 for it, if it is any good will be a real bargain.  Now Mom so far as buying one is concerned.  I want one now for more reasons than one, apart from the need of it now.  I shall want one for after the war and as they are going to be darn dear now is the time to buy, but still if you definitely don’t want me to have one I won’t, otherwise I think I shall carry on with this deal.  Thank Pop for all the running about he has done and tell him that one day I will repay him for it.

Well I am glad Doreen is well on the way to recovery for I know that it has taken a load off your mind as well as one off her own.

I shall have to close now as it is time for me to go so I will sign off hoping that you all at home are all fine as I am.

With all my love to you all at home

Your loving Son

Dennis

For Gordon & Eric  x x x x x x x x x x x

Will you ask Mr Poole,

What make of car it is

What year

The mileage it has done

How many miles it does to the gallon

What HP it is

Is it taxed and insured and the condition of the engine and coachwork

Dennis

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This letter is believed to have been written on Tuesday 23 January 1945 shortly after his return from his last leave. 
He refers to wanting to get the next 11 trips in pretty quickly.

Pictures 50a, 50b, 50c and 50d

Tuesday

Dearest Doreen

Just a few hurried lines to let you know that your big brother is still fit and well and doing fine as a matter of fact I am on top of the world apart from the small inconveniences this jolly weather is causing me.  The trouble is you see it is giving me “cold feet” - now don’t take this the wrong way – although this may even be correct (joke).

Well things at Waddington are still the same as ever, only now we are having a really quiet time. it is nearly like a holiday camp – this as you will surmise is due to the weather too.  Do you know that since we returned from leave we have not done one trip – so you can guess what kind of an atmosphere one is existing in at the present time it is really deadly for the boys are all the same as myself.  Want to get these next 11 in pretty quickly but it looks as though this is going to be impossible, so I am beginning to think the same as the General Public do here that B.L.A. no longer stands for ”British Liberation Army” but for “Burma Looms Ahead” but how I hope it is incorrect.

Well sister when I came on the bus from Walsall to Birmingham on the day of my return, I saw you looking out of the window of that place where you spend most of your time these days but I don’t think you saw me as I was not sitting in the seat you anticipated me being in as it was occupied.

Well love I shall have to close now as I have bags of work to do.

“Cheerio”

Your loving brother

Dennis

x x x x x x x x x x x

P.S. Please take care of yourself and of them all at home

Dennis

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This letter is believed to have been written on Wednesday 24 January 1945.
Dennis refers to 11 trips still to do and also refers to a message left on Sunday, with his mother to pass onto Mrs. Maddox.

Pictures 51a, 519b, 51c, 51d and 51e                          

Sergeants’ Mess
R.A.F. Station
Waddington
Nr Lincoln

Wednesday

 My Dearest Mom, Dad

 Just a few hurried lines to let you know that I am still fit and well and doing O.K. as a matter of fact I am on top of the world under the circumstances.

 The only thing that is giving me any trouble at all is the grubby weather and this week it is absolutely putrid, today it has started to ‘thaw’ and this means that there is about 3”of water around the place here.  Boy it is a darn good job I have a pair of gum boots or else my feet would be wet all day long.

Well things at Waddington are still the same as ever apart from the fact that we are having a rather easy time here at the present moment and this as you will gather is due to the weather.  Since returning off leave we have not done one trip so you can guess what the boys are like regarding this for they are all the same as myself want to get this “trial” finished as soon as possible, but the way things are going it looks as though it is going to take quite a while to get this next 11 trips done.  Still with the continual help of God I guess we shall be finished sometime.

Did you let Mrs. Maddox have the message I sent, on Sunday, or did the letter I wrote her find its destination before then, in any case I have not received the parcel yet, still I guess it is still on the way some-place.

Well love how is everyone keeping at home still as fit and well as ever I hope – there is one thing it is a little warmer for you all now, than what it has been and I guess this will make things better, rather than there will be bags of “slush” about.

I think this is about all for now so I will sign off with the good old “cheerio”.

With all my love to you all at home

Your loving son

Dennis

For Gordon & Eric x x x x x x x x x x x

P.S. Enclosed are two Australian stamps for Ken

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This letter is believed to have been written on Saturday 27 January 1945 following Dennis’s leave of 7 days.
He refers to having been back at Waddington about 5 days and his next leave was due to start on 10 March.

Pictures 53a, 53b, 53c, 53d and 53e

Saturday 

Dearest Mom & Dad 

Just a few hurried lines to let you know that your biggest worry in the world is still fit and well and doing fine could only be better by being at home and with bags of luck and the help of God this should not be long now – I hope not anyway.

Well things at Waddington are still the same as ever, today we have flown for the first time since returning off leave and this was only some training flying.

Last night as you know I went to Neville’s place for tea and then with him and his wife (she is really  bang on) to a cinema show.  I am going again tomorrow evening this is to a birthday party that is being held at this place it is the daughter of the landlady’s party.  I believe she’s not bad at all, still she’s courting I believe.

Well Mom what have you been doing of late as I have not heard from you since I came off leave and that is about 5 days now and I don’t suppose there will be any mail tomorrow.

I hope you are all still fit and well at home and that Gordon has settled down to life without me once again, I believe our next leave is due to start on the 10th of March great six weeks.

Well kid I shall have to close now as there is bags of work to be done as I close with the good old “cheerio”.

With all my love to you all at home

Your loving Son

Dennis

For Gordon & Eric x x x x x x x x x x x

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This letter is believed to have been written on Thursday 1 February 1945 after raid on Seigen and day before his final raid on Karlsruhe. 
He refers to having completed 20 operations.

Pictures 54a and 54b

Sergeants’ Mess
R.A.F. Station
Waddington
Nr Lincoln
Thursday

My Dearest Mom & Dad

Just a few hurried lines to let you know that I am still fit and well and doing fine on top of the world now right and proper this is due to the weather picking up for now a man can get to work again and get his trips done.

Well things at Waddington are still the same as ever bags of work once again.  We have managed to get the 20 opps in but have had a bit of bad luck as at least all air crews have for now we hear that a tour is no longer 30 trips but 36, I believe though this is only a temporary measure due to the shortage of fellows  coming from training as you will guess this is due to the weather as they have not been able to get the boys through.  So all you can wish is that the weather will pick up and that the tour of 30 will soon be resumed.

Well love how are things at home still as well as ever I hope and I also hope that by now poor old Gordon has got over his Dennis not coming back from B’ham – never mind tell him I am trying to get some chocolate together for him.

This is a good show about the furniture you sent to Collis’s going up in flames.  Never mind Mom you will probably be able to get a new settee etc – out of the game.  Won’t be so bad will it.

I shall have to close now as I have bags of work to do so I will sign off with the good old, “Cheerio”.

With all my love to you all at home.

Your loving Son

Dennis

For Gordon & Eric x x x x x x x x x x x

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Picture 55

The vast majority of the images in this biography have been provided by the author, Gordon Howdle, the younger brother of Dennis George Howdle.

The details for the remainder are as follows:

Reference, Item and Source

38. Messerschmitt Me 262A Schwalbe © Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_262 and U.S. Air Force Museum http://media.defense.gov/2005/Dec/22/2000574791/670/394/0/040820-F-1234P-081.JPG

39. The main entrance into Durnbach Cemetery © Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Durnbach_war_cemetery_entrance.JPG

39B, 39C and 39D. Photographs of Durnbach Cemetery © Steve Rogers and The War Graves Photographic Project

40A. Photograph of Dennis’ headstone at Durnbach War Cemetery © Steve Rogers and The War Graves Photographic Project

41A. Photograph of the headstone of Flt/Lt Colley, the pilot of Lancaster PB306PO-J, at Durnbach War Cemetery © Steve Rogers and The War Graves Photographic Project

42A. Photograph of the headstone of Flt/Sgt Bean, the mid upper gunner of Lancaster PB306PO-J, at Durnbach War Cemetery © Steve Rogers and The War Graves Photographic Project

43. The cenotaph at Chasetown © Blogging while allatsea website https://allatsea.co.za/blog/chasetown-war-memorial/

44. Dennis’ name inscribed on the cenotaph at Chasetown © Burntwood Family History Group website and Alan Betts https://www.bfhg.org.uk/chasetown-war-memorial

45. The RAF Memorial at the National Arboretum © Trip Advisor website https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0c/c0/72/c0/raf-memorial.jpg

46. The RAF Memorial at the National Arboretum © Lichfield Live website https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/2015/06/15/national-memorial-arboretum-service-to-remember-those-who-served-in-the-raf/

55. Commonwealth War Graves Commission commemoration certificate in memory of Sergeant Dennis George Howdle © Commonwealth War Graves Commission