大象传媒

Mickey the Moocher

Or Lancaster QR-M of A Flight, No. 61 Squadron. Stationed at Skellingthorpe, Lincs, and being one of, I believe, less than a dozen to have survived over one hundred bombing missions in active WW2.

QR-M has finally been settled as having flown 118 actual bombing missions, although it dropped bombs on enemy
targets on 119 before the raid was called off for poor visibility after Mickey had bombed.

But the ground crew, who painted the bomb symbols on the nose of the plane each time it returned from a mission, did so if the plane left on a mission and crossed the enemy coast line, and I think they had 128 bomb symbols painted on.

The interest that we have as a family in "Mickey" is that Denis Cluette my brother-in-law, was the rear gunner of the crew that flew the last 19 missions that "Mickey" flew before being stood down from active service. Leaving them to finish their tour in another newer Lanc.

Mickey has now the honor of showing off her colors etc. once again as the Lanc in the BATTLE OF BRITAIN MEMORIAL FLIGHT along with a Spitfire and a Hurricane.

The Pilot was Frank Mouritz.- Flight Eng. Jimmy Leith.- Bomb aimer Peter Smith.- Nav. Laurie Cooper.- W/op Dave BloomField.- Upper/Gunner Arthur Bass.- Rear Gunner Denis Cluett.
Denis gave me a copy of a map showing the route both out to their target and back of all their 19 operational flights and dates etc. I gave this to Rotherham Library for their archives.

I thought it may interest you to hear this little tale that I have to tell. It is all about "Mickey the Moocher" and Frank Mouritz's crew. and apart from Arthur Bass the upper gunner, who had passed away, the remainder of the crew had kept in touch, all except for one. Peter Smith the bomb Aimer, of him they had lost all trace, they had tried but failed.
I had seen on Teletext where you could advertise for lost comrades, a certain number of
words free, so I had a go, we knew he married a girl from Nottingham and his father had
been Chief Constable of Cambridge in the War years. I had no reply from Tetetext but I did get a phone call from a man at Rotherham, who had seen the add.. who's father used to be in B Flight of 61 Squadron and hence his interest, and did I mind if he had a go. as it was his hobby. Sure enough ten days later he rang me again, and told me to get a pen and paper as he had Peters address. I immediately rang Den in South Africa, and he rang Frank in Australia etc. Enabling six out of the original crew to be on parade in Lincoln in 1994.
1 also, as a result of the advert received a letter from one of Mickey's Ground crew who sent me a photo copy of an " illegal" photo, of the crew of Mickey, Serving in her at that time, the pilot inside the crew sat on top, and four ground crew on the nose, Mickey the Moocher is showing bombs for 91 ops. on this.
When Den came over for the reunion, I took him to Skellingthorpe for a look round. It is
now an housing estate with a Pub where the control tower used to be. in the Pub were
several photo's, one of which was of "Mickey the Moocher'' showing 112 Ops and a Crew with a note underneath saying that all the crew were lost on a later mission.
Den said " Good God, I'm dead," as his crew was manning "Mickey" at that time. but must have been on leave.
Member Name:- roborhode

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