{"id":2698,"date":"2014-03-31T19:03:21","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T01:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?p=2698"},"modified":"2018-07-05T20:33:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-06T02:33:00","slug":"2698","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?p=2698","title":{"rendered":"408 Squadron\u2019s Last Casualties of WW2"},"content":{"rendered":"

408 Squadron\u2019s Last Casualties of WW2 and <\/b>The Final Flight of EQ-U Lancaster Mk X KB993<\/b><\/h2>\n

18 May 1945<\/p>\n

RAF Station Linton-on Ouse<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/a>
Michael Cecil Cameron (W.Op \/ Air Gunner).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The war in Europe had ended 10 days before and life at 408 Squadron was good.\u00a0 With only 4 weeks remaining until the Squadron redeployed to Canada, the wartime alert levels had been stood down and daily operations took on a training and maintenance role. \u00a0While the air war against Germany was over, 408 Squadron was one of eight squadrons selected for redeployment to the Pacific Theater of Operations and the continued fight against Japan. The squadron had begun conversion to the Avro Lancaster X from their Handley Page Halifax VII bombers and 40 Squadron was devoting most of its time to flight and ground training.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the early evening, Flying Officer Anthony Clifford and his crew were in the circuit practicing<\/p>\n

\"WO2<\/a>
WO2 Cameron<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"WO2<\/a>
WO2 Cameron (right) and his crew in front of a Halifax VII.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

At 2210 hours, EQ-U was observed flying into the hillside of James\u2019s Thorn above Ashton Clough in Derbyshire.\u00a0 All six of the crew perished in the crash, making them the last 408 Squadron casualties of the Second World War.<\/p>\n

\"13.<\/a>
Memorial to the RCAF Crew of KB993<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Memorial to the RCAF Crew of KB993<\/strong><\/h3>\n

On 18 May 1995, on the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of the crash, a memorial to KB993 and its crew was unveiled at the crash site.\u00a0 Two men from the Glossop are, Paul Booth and Stephen Lewis were the driving force behind the memorial.\u00a0 It also has a plaque commemorating the crash of a USAAF C-47 Skytrain a few meters away from the same site on 24 July 1947, claiming the entire crew. The ceremony was attended by Mrs. Marion Clifford, the 91 year old mother of Flying Officer Clifford and other relatives of the crew, including the widow of the tail gunner, Flight Sergeant Hellekson.<\/p>\n

\"RAF<\/a>
RAF and RCAF Colours flying at the crash site<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Dedication Plaque on the Memorial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lower plaque reads;<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
UNVEILED ON 18th MAY 1995 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CRASH OF \u00a0 KB993 BY MRS MARION CLIFFORD, CANADA. ERECTED BY PAUL BOOTH AND STEPHEN LEWIS TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE KILLED.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The upper plaque reads;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
ON THE NIGHT OF MAY 18th 1945 AVRO LANCASTER KB993 OF \u00a0 CANADIAN 408 SQUADRON CRASHED AT THIS PLACE.THE CREW WERE FLYING CIRCUITS AND BUMPS<\/p>\n

F.O A.A CLIFFORD<\/p>\n

F.O D.A FEHRMAN<\/p>\n

W.O M.C CAMERON<\/p>\n

F.S C.J HALVORSON<\/p>\n

F.S L.C HELLERSON<\/p>\n

P.O K.B McIVERTWENTY<\/p>\n

SEVEN DAYS LATER 408 GOOSE SQUADRON RETURNED TO CANADA.<\/p>\n

FOR FREEDOM.<\/p>\n

NEARBY ON THE MOOR BELOW LIE THE REMAINS OF C47 SKYTRAIN \u00a0 2108982 WHICH CRASHED ON THE 24 JULY 1945 WITH THE LOSS OF ALL ON BOARD.<\/p>\n

1st Lt G.L.JOHNSON USAAF<\/p>\n

1st Lt E.W.BURNS USAAF<\/p>\n

1st Lt B.W. IZLAR USAAF<\/p>\n

Sgt T.R. McCROCKLIN USAAF<\/p>\n

Sgt F.M MALONEY USAAF<\/p>\n

Cpl G.R ALEXANDER USAAF<\/p>\n

LAC J.D MAIN RAF<\/p>\n

IN MEMORY<\/p>\n

THEY ARE NOT FORGOTTEN<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"11.Flying<\/a>
Flying Officer A.A. Clifford, Pilot RCAF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Flying<\/a>
Flying Officer D.A. Fehrman, Air Bomber RCAF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pilot<\/a>
Pilot Officer K.B. McIvor, Flight Engineer RCAF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Flight Sergeant C.J. Halvorson, Air Gunner RCAF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Warrant Officer II M.C. Cameron, Wireless Operator \/ Air Gunner RCAF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The crew of EQ-U is interned at Brookwood Military Cemetery at Pirbright, UK.\u00a0 In September of 2006 Christine Hulett, the great-niece of WO2 M.C. Cameron, visited the cemetery and took photos of the grave markers of the crew.\u00a0 The photos above were provided by her for 408 Squadron.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

408 Squadron\u2019s Last Casualties of WW2 and The Final Flight of EQ-U Lancaster Mk X KB993 18 May 1945 RAF Station Linton-on Ouse The war in Europe had ended 10 days before and life at 408 Squadron was good.\u00a0 With only 4 weeks remaining until the Squadron redeployed to Canada, the wartime alert levels had been stood down and daily operations took on a training and maintenance role. \u00a0While the air war against Germany was over, 408 Squadron was one of eight squadrons selected for redeployment to the Pacific Theater…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-408-squadron-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2698"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3159,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698\/revisions\/3159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}