Failed to Return

F/Sgt C G Foster and Crew

F/Sgt Foster and crew were posted to 550 Sqdn on squadron start-up from 100 Sqdn "C" Flight:

The picture below shows F/Sgt Foster and crew.

Click image
This photo has been available from various sources for some time, but this copy kindly made available by Norman Reid (nephew of Sgt John (Jock) McGhie (F/Eng))
Click image And what is special about this copy is that on the rear all the crew have signed the photo, and there is a note from John McGhie to his parents.
Many thanks to Norman Reid for making this available

Lancaster ND425/BQ-C was shot down on the night of 30/31 March 1944 by a night-fighter on the raid to Nuremburg. The plane exploded over Unterspiesheim, 11 km SSE of Schweinfurt. ND425 was one of two 550 Squadron Lancasters lost that night. The crew on this operation was as above. All of the crew were killed and are buried in Durnbach War Cemetery.

Other information about the flight and the target available here.

The entry on the 550 Squadron Roll of Honour here.

Sgt John McGhie

Sgt John McGhie was the F/Eng on ND425 and you can read more about him here.

Sgt Wilfred Barratt

Sgt Wilfred Barratt flew as the mid-upper gunner on ND425 and you can read more about him here.

F/Sgt Robert Johnson

F/Sgt Robert Johnson was the bomb aimer on ND425 and you can read more about him here.

Crew Operations

F/Sgt Johnson's son has provided the following information about operations undertaken by this aircrew.

 
The plane was delivered in January 1944 and is known to have taken part in the following raids.

Serial  Sqn Call  Target          Raid Date            Aborted     Comments
ND425 550 Sqn BQ-C Brunswick      14/15 January 1944   Yes         Aborted - unspecified reason
ND425 550 Sqn BQ-C Berlin         27/28 January 1944   No
ND425 550 Sqn BQ-C Berlin         30/31 January 1944   No
ND425 550 Sqn BQ-C Berlin         15/16 February 1944  No
ND425 550 Sqn BQ-C Leipzig        19/20 February 1944  No
ND425 550 Sqn BQ-C Schweinfurt    24/25 February 1944  No
ND425 550 Sqn BQ-C Stuttgart      15/16 March 1944     No
ND425 550 Sqn BQ-C Berlin         24/25 March 1944     No
ND425 550 Sqn BQ-C Nuremberg      30/31 March 1944     No 

The crew were on their 17th raid and I have deduced that they may have taken part in the 
following raids from RAF Waltham before relocating to North Killingholme. However, this is not confirmed.
 
Serial  Sqn Call  Target          Raid Date   	       Aborted Comments
N/K 550 Sqn N/K Berlin         	  26/27 November 1943  No
N/K 550 Sqn N/K Berlin            2/3 December 1943    No
N/K 550 Sqn N/K Leipzig           3/4 December 1943    No
N/K 550 Sqn N/K Berlin            16/17 December 1943  No
N/K 550 Sqn N/K Frankfurt         20/21 December 1943  No
N/K 550 Sqn N/K Berlin            23/24 December 1943  No
N/K 550 Sqn N/K Berlin            29/30 December 1943  No
N/K 550 Sqn N/K Berlin            1/2 January 1944     No
N/K 550 Sqn N/K Berlin            2/3 January 1944     No 

As aborted raids were not counted in their totals, this would make 17 raids.  
The aircraft used at Waltham is unknown but they were obviously allocated ND425 when it first became available.

Since that initial list (above) was originally compiled the full list of the crew operations is now available online. See the full list of operations and search the page for "C G Foster. There should be 17 hits. The bulk of the crew operations were carried out in ND425, but the crew also flew a small number of raids in ED536 and LM321.

On a number of operations there was a stand-in F/Eng in place of Sgt McGhie the regular F/Eng McGhie, and likewise for the rear-gunner Sgt Johns, as well as a couple of flights with a second pilot on his "second dicky" flight.

Final Fate of the Aircraft

F/Sgt Johnson's son has provided the following information.

There are  a number of different versions of how the aircraft was lost.  
The quote (first sentences above) from the "official" book of RAF losses (can't remember the title) 
but Martin Middlemas in his book "The Nuremburg Raid" claims something different. He states 
that the aircraft was coned and shot down by flak and that the night fighters arrived late in the area.  
 
Another source (Norbert Vollman) claims that one aircraft in the area was hit by flak and then by a night fighter before crashing.
 
Relatives have also been given an eye witness account of the plane crashing.
This is a translation of a report by Mr. Elmar Seufert, former second mayor of the community of 
Kolitzheim made in July 1995.  This has been altered slightly to correct English and words.  
The original words are in brackets. 
 
"On midnight the anti-aircraft-sirens were sounding (hooting) at Unterspiesheim.  Our family went 
to the dugout in the garden which was dug by our father against the bomb-splinters. At about 1.30 hours 
a bomber coming from the south and burning like a torch was coming (drowning) very low above the village 
flying in NNW direction. It looked (I was strucked) as if the bomber intended (attended) to make 
an emergency landing. Shortly after passing the village the plane crashed with (under) a big 
explosion into the little wood, which is situated about one and a half kilometre away from the village. 

The next day the police and a lot of people out of the village were visiting the crash place. Two airmen 
were indeed dead, but looking externally safe, with the exception of little wounds and black 
and blue marks.  The other airmen were partly deformed and partly burned.  Beneath the dead they have 
salvaged a lot of ammunition. All seven killed airmen were buried by the community of the Unterspiesheim 
at the local cemetery on a common grave on the west wall. 

At the crash scene in the wood the trees were splintered and partly burned on an area as big as a soccer 
field. I can remember that in 1946 a British military commission came to Unterspiesheim to exhume the corpses.  
They were reburied at Durnbach War Cemetery. "
 
The crash site, apparently, indicates that the plane probably did not break up at normal altitude but
probably just before it hit the ground and this would appear to be confirmed by the eyewitness report above. 
The site still shows one large crater (the body?) and 4 small craters (engines?) but they are not in line.  
The engines may have come off with impact with the trees.

Crash Site Visit

Eve Dolphin, the daughter of Sgt R.G. Johns, was born after her father failed to return from his final mission. Eve made a journey to Germany to visit the crash-site and returned with items from the aircraft received from two men who, as young boys, found the crash-site in the woods the morning after the crash. These items are now in the 550 Museum in North Killingholme. This was recorded in Association Newsletter Issue 47 (October 2010).