My grandfather, Thomas Forbes, was a Lancaster pilot for 12 Squadron (based at Wickenby near Lincoln) from May to July 1943 - tragically he died on 13 July 1943 returning from an operation to Turin, Italy.
For the last 3 years I have been trying to find out as much as I can about him, 12 Squadron and Bomber Command in general.
Please visit my site to view my findings...
http://www.aujs06.dsl.pipex.com/12squadron
Tom was born at Maryhill, a Scottish farm near Buckie in Banffshire, on 24 May 1912. In 1932 he left the peaceful surroundings of Scotland for London and joined the Metropolitan Police Force and was stationed at Harrow Road Police Station, Paddington. There he met and later married Jessie Dungate who worked as a clerk at Bernard and Co, 436-438 Harrow Road.
In 1941 after seeing the destruction that the Luftwaffe was causing all around him he volunteered for the RAF. This took him intially to Newquay, Cornwall where he was stationed at No. 8 Initial Training Wing (ITW). Approximately 10 weeks of training later - which included maths, navigation and signalling - he was graded as a potential pilot and travelled across the Atlantic Ocean to join Course No. 6 at No. 2 BFTS (British Flight Training School) based at the Polaris Flight Academy, near Lancaster in California.
A course of flight training now began and would last approximately 20 weeks (200 hours flying time) from Winter 1941 to June 1942. During primary training the cadets flew PT13 Stearman aircraft, then for basic/advanced training a mixture of Vultee BT13's and North American AT6's.
Also enrolled in Course No. 6 was William (Bill) Reid who famously went on to received a Victoria Cross. Tom made friends with another Tom, Thomas Fee who was from Whitehaven in Cumbria and I have many photographs of the two of them during their time in California, some of which were taken with the families they were staying with.
On gaining his 'Wings' Tom returned to Britain to continue training and in early 1943 was posted to 30 Operational Training Unit (OTU) based at RAF Hixon in Staffordshire. Here he was joined by some of his crew to begin training on Wellington Bombers;
Navigator - Leslie Matthews
Wireless Operator - Reginald Sneesby
Bomb Aimer - William Thomas
Air Gunner - George Deasley
The pinacle of this training was to fly a Wellington Bomber to France to drop 'Nickels' (propaganda leaflets) and return to base in darkness. This they successfully achieved on 23 March 1943.
At this time the Lancaster bomber was being mass-produced and in April 1943 the crew left Hixon for Lindholme to join 1656 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU). The original crew of five was now joined by two more airmen; a Flight Engineer and another Air Gunner.
Flight Engineer - Alfred Hales
Mid Upper Gunner - E. Southon
After four weeks of training on Lancaster Bombers the crew were ready for an operational squadron and on 4 May 1943 Tom and crew joined 12 Squadron, a frontline 1 Group Lancaster Squadron based at Wickenby, Lincolnshire.
On 23 May 1943 Tom and crew flew their first operational mission to Dusseldorf - it was to be the heaviest attack the squadron had carried out so far with Lancasters. Indeed it was the heaviest Bomber Command had carried out since the '1,000 Bomber Raids' of May and June 1942 - in all 826 Bombers were dispatched to the Ruhr valley.
Tom had joined Bomber Command during the early stages of 'The Battle of Ruhr' - an all out fierce attack on Hitler's centre of industry. It would be a bloody battle for both sides.
I shall now list the operations that my grandfather and crew carried out with notes for each and how many aircraft were dispatched in total and from 12 Squadron...
23 May 43 - Dortmund - 826 Total - 21 from 12 Sq
Heaviest attack so far - F/O Mounsey and crew lost from 12 Squadron
23 May 43 - Dusseldorf - 759 - 22
F/S Steele and crew lost and the wireless operator from P/O Wright's crew - F/S Routledge also died
27 May 43 - Essen - 518 - 19
All returned safely
29 May 43 - Wupperthal - 719 - 15
F/L Goudge and crew missing
There now was a period where Bomber Command curtailed it's activities during the full moon period.
11 June 43 - Dusseldorf - 783 - 24
This was a terrible operation for 12 Squadron with 5 crews not returning; F/O Ford, F/L Doel, Sgt Thompson, F/S Shepherd and Sgt Highet.
On this raid Leslie Matthews fell ill through problems with oxygen supply and they abandoned this mission returning early.
12 June 1943 - Bochum - 503 - 16
All crews returned safely but the Bomb Aimer of F/S Mizon's crew - Sgt Thomas Smale was killed by flak over the target area.
I suspect Tom and crew were given leave during this period as their next operation was 10 days later. But 12 Squadron continued - like Bomber Command in general - at an extreme pace. Oberhausen on the 14th, Cologne on the 16th, Sea Mining on the 20th and Krefeld on the 21st.
On the 17th tragedy struck; during night bullseye (bombing) training a Lancaster captained by Sgt Lindup crashed 3 miles SSE of Wickenby and 4 airmen were killed and 3 seriously injured.
22 June 43 - Mulheim - 557 - 18
All returned safely.
24 June 43 - Wupperthal - 630 - 21
All returned safely.
During the afternoon of 25 June another aircraft crashed during a training flight killing all on board. This time the terrible events directly effected Tom and his crew. On board, taking the place of another airmen was Tom's wireless operator - Reginald Sneesby. Tom had tried to stop the flight taking place but was unsuccessful.
Tom and crew were stood down for several operations (Gelsenkirchen on the 25th, Cologne on the 28th)
3 July 1943 - Cologne - 653 - 17
Tom abandoned this mission over the base due to a faulty rear turret. F/O Herron and Sgt Hill and crews failed to return.
On the 4th July Squadron Leader Baxter joined 12 Squadron to lead 'C' Flight (Tom and crew were in C Flight). Tragedy it seems was ever present - just two days later on the 6th during a training flight S/L Baxter's Lancaster crashed into the Firth of Forth killing all on board.
Tom and crew now including new navigator Sgt Lawrence Mitchell may have had leave during this point as there next operation would be 10 days from Cologne. Again 12 Squadron continued with Cologne on the 8th, and Gelsenkirchen on the 9th.
12 July 1943 - Turin - 295 - 20
At 10.30 pm twenty Lancasters from 12 Squadron would take off in 36 minutes. For many a trip to Italy was seen as a soft target. The Italian defences were not of the standard they had come to expect from missions to the Ruhr. But like any operation or indeed training flight the risks were high.
The weather on this particular night would play a deadly role. Huge thunderstorms over the Alps caused navigational instruments to fail and ice formed over the entire wing area causing loss of height and control.
In the early hours of the 13th as many Lancasters were flying low along the west coast of France and across the Bay of Biscay - Tom's Lancaster crashed into the sea. It may have been a mechanical fault or it may have been as a result of German fighters [at least 5 Lancasters encountered the FW 190's of ZG1 - a German fighter group based near Brest and caused the downfall of Wing Commander Nettleton VC of 44 Squadron].
Four of the crew tragically died;
Thomas Forbes, George Deasley, William Thomas and Alfred Hales.
Three managed to survive the crash and eventually became prisoners of war Lawrence Mitchell, Leslie Matthews and E. Southon.
I would be delighted to hear from anyone who may have any information regarding the above airmen.
Please do visit my website:
http://www.aujs06.dsl.pipex.com/12squadron
or email me:
tom.forbes@email.com
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