Flight Lieutenant Neville George Richardson BOOTH (81661) | |
No. 20 Operational Training Unit, Royal Air Force Date of birth: 13th June 1916 Date of death: 18th May 1942 Killed in action aged 25 Buried at Odense (Assitens) Cemetery in Denmark Grave BD 381 |
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Neville George Richardson Booth was born at Bucklow in Cheshire on the 13th of June 1916 the son of Joseph Vincent Lane Booth, a merchant, and Josephine Lyndall (nee Richardson) Booth of Denshaw in Yorkshire, later of "Blentarn", Cadnant Park, Conway in Caernarvonshire.. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Heads House from September 1929 to July 1933. In 1935 he was on the reporting staff for the Manchester Evening News and worked in their London office from 1938. By 1938 he was also a Sergeant Pilot in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer on the 30th of June 1940. He was promoted to Flying Officer on the 30th of June 1941 and to Flight Lieutenant in 1942. On the night of the 17th/18th of May 1942 Bomber Command despatched 32 Stirlings and 28 Wellingtons to the Frisians and to the Heligoland area on mine laying missions. Neville Booth was serving with No. 20 Operational Training Squadron at Lossiemouth when he was attached to a crew of 15 Squadron Royal Air Force as an official observer of the new GEE radar system in operational conditions. The crew was forbidden to mention to anyone that they were carrying an extra passenger that night. It appears that there was some resentment at having an official observer along on the trip as the crew’s usual Observer, New Zealander, John Ryan (Royal Canadian Air Force) had been appointed due to his radar and navigational skills. Also on board that night, was trainee Navigator Ronald Maycock, bringing the crew up to nine. They took off from RAF Wyton at 9.40pm on the 17th of May 1942 in Stirling Mk 1 W7531 LS-F "MacRobert's Reply" bound for the Danish Sound. The night was "clear but moonless." The aircraft flew at a height of 3,000 feet to the southern coast of Norway before flying south just over the tip of southern Sweden and then to Malmo where they reduced their height to a few hundred feet and turned west towards the Jutland peninsular, from where they would begin their bombing run. As the aircraft was flying at 200 feet and preparing to drop its mines at the entrance of Oresund, it was hit by flak from both shore based batteries and from the German cruiser Prinz Eugen, which was moored in the sound. One of the port engines took a direct hit and burst into flames, and the pilot, John Hall, turned the aircraft on to a westerly heading while the crew tried to release the mines from the bomb bay. As they descended they came under more fire from other ships moored in the area and were hit several more times. During the descent, they flew over the Little Belt Bridge where they were hit several more times by sustained anti-aircraft fire, turned sharply to port, and crashed into woods at Galsklint, two kilometres west of Middelfart at 2.10 am. When the aircraft hit the ground one of the remaining mines on board exploded and completely destroyed the aircraft. The crew were killed on impact with the exception of the Wireless Operator, Donald Jeffs, who was thrown clear of the wreckage causing him severe injuries. The crew was:- Squadron Leader John Charles Hall DFC (Pilot) Flying Officer John Patrick "Buck" Ryan RCAF (Observer) Sergeant Anthony Spriggs (Flight Engineer) Sergeant Ronald Maycock (Observer) Sergeant John Bernard Butterworth (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner) Flight Lieutenant Neville George Richardson Booth (Observer) Sergeant Frank Leslie Sharp (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner) Sergeant Robert Nicholson (Rear Gunner) Sergeant Donald John Jeffs (Wireless Operator) POW (interned at Camps Stalag Luft 8B and 344) The Germans arrived on the scene at around 2.30am where they directed members of the local fire service to extinguish the fire which spread to the nearby trees. A local boy, Niels Ebbe Lundholt, visited the crash site a short time later and described what he saw: - "I heard rumors that an English bomber was crashed in the Hindsgavl forest, and I took my bicycle and went to the area, in order to see if I could find some weapons, I could use against the Germans. I brought a Kodak box camera, in case that I could retrieve any useful information. At the crash site, a big part of the forest was cut, it almost looked like a huge razor had cut through the trees. It looked like there had been a huge explosion, since there were only small parts left from the bomber and there was a big hole in the ground. Since there were only small parts left, I could not recognise the bomber". Donald Jeffs had been thrown clear of the wreckage and was lying in a ditch where he was found to be badly burned by local man Willy Schmidt. He was carried to the loft of a large shed on the edge of the Adler estate where he was hidden by Danish resistance members and treated by a local doctor. After a few days, with his wounds not healing, he was handed over to the Germans for treatment. The crew was buried with full military honours at 7 am on the 21st of May in a ceremony conducted by German Army Chaplain Vorrath with several Danish and German officers in attendance. Theirs was one of seven aircraft lost that night. A monument to the memory of the crew was unveiled at Odense in 1949. He is commemorated on the war memorial at St Martin's Church, Egwysbach in Wales. |
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