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December 29th 1943, Binbrook Lincolnshire, one of Number 1 Group's bomber bases at the height of the Battle of Berlin.

Lancaster N-Nan, JB607 with its crew; Pilot- Stan Ireland, Flt Eng- Billy Squires, Air Bomber- Frank Seery, Mid Upper Gunner- Reg Poulter, Navigator- Ambrose Blight, Rear Gunner- Max Squire, Wireless Operator- Cyril Seddon. The H2S equipped Lancaster lifted off of the runway at Binbrook at around 16.40 hours.

She carried fire bombs: 1110 4-pounders, 120 4-pounder special incediaries and 56 30-pound incediaries and a a four thousand pound cookie or blockbuster (so named because most German city areas had blocks of flats as dwelling places and the blast from such a bomb, H.E. in a thin skin, literally busted open the blocks and allowed the incediaries to get in and do their destruction). As the target was "The Big City" she would have had 2154 gallons of 100 octane aboard as well for the long trip.

The outward journey and the attack on Berlin were, aside from the usual greeting of flak and searchlights, modestly uneventful. Now, at around 23.30 N-Nans Merlins were heard over the Dutch/German border town of Kerkrade.

Once over Holland, the crew would be a little more relaxed than when flying over Germany. Aachen was just to the North-East of them as they commenced the run home to complete their 19th operation; only another 11 and they should complete their tour.

Sitting in the nose of the Lanc, Frank Seery one of the four Australians in the crew (the other three were British: Squires, Seddon and Poulter)who came from the Sydney area, the same as his 29 year old pilot, was musing about getting back to Binbrook, when suddenly the 21 year old Air Bomber noticed tracer coming passed the nose of the aircraft. He thought it was ground fire at first and then Stan Ireland put the kite into a dramatic corkscrew and Seery felt a couple of thumps as the Lanc was hit. They had been picked up by a nightfighter.

As Ireland pulled N-Nan out of her corkscrewing gyrations, she was hit again and this time much harder. The first burst is believed to have been delivered by Schraeger Musik fired from probably two twenty millimeter cannons mounted at and angle of 40 to 45% in the aft fuselage of, in this case, a Messerschmitt Bf110g from I/NJG1. With this type of weapon, the German flew under that Lancaster and fired up into the bomber which, other than the three hundred Mark II types with Bristol Hercules radial engines, had no ventral guns. If they used this weapon on outbound bombers, still with a bomb load, they aimed at the wings so as not to set off the bombs directly above them but to ignite the petrol tanks. Although these were self-sealing, they were not armour plated, the only armour in a Lancaster was a sheet at the back of the pilot making up the upright of his seat. Homeward bound bombers were just shot up in wings and fuselage as the explosion risk was now gone. The 110 was flown by Oberfeldwebel Heinrich Oloff who finished the war as an Oberleutnant with 14 night victories and died just before Christmas 1999.

(I am still trying to trace his radar operator and gunner).

When Nan was hit for a second time a severe fire started about four feet behind the piot's position. She was mortally wounded and Stan gave the order to abandon the aircraft. For the navigator, wireless operator, mid-upper gunner and rear gunner there was very little chance of survival.

Frank Seery had other ideas about dieing and released and tried to jettison the nose hatch in the floor of the aircraft. As he dropped it out it caught the slipstream, twisted and stuck in the exit. Unable to move it alone he called 19 year old Sergeant Billy Squires down into the nose from the flight engineers position alongside the pilot.

Billy descended the couple of steps and the two young men forced the hatch cover free. Billy remarked "I'm going back to help Stan!" It appears that the pilot was probably wounded.

If you have ever been inside an Avro Lancaster you will realise how limited space is. Although it has a wingspan of 102 feet and what appears to be a large, greenhouse like cockpit, take it from me as one who has experience of the flight deck, main spar and other crew positions in this wonderful old aircraft, cat swinging is not to be indulged in. Therefore, it was only sensible, as the "Abandon Aircraft" had been issued and because there was not room for two beside the pilot, for Flight Sergeant Seery to jump clear leaving the exit unclogged for his two mates.

He left the strickened Lancaster head first through the floor, nose hatch and soon pulled the D-ring on his chest pack parachute.

As he floated into captivity as a guest of the German government Seery watched N-Nan go passed on fire but seemingly in level flight. To him it felt like minutes had gone past and he was sure the other two had made it out when with a muffled roar JB607 N-Nan exploded in a great fireball that plunged to earth several thousand feet below.

The wreckage spread itself over the garden of a monastary and a football pitch, thankfully harming nobody on the ground. Monks joined the local Brandweer in extinguishing the fires caused and extracting the mortal remains of three Dinkum Aussies and Three Brave Brits -You see, Stan and Billy did not make it.

The six airmen are all buried in the Kriegsfriedhof at Kleve. They are sadly not all together but Stan and Billy, like any Lancaster pilot and flight engineer are side by side for eternity..

Keith Wardell

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