Remembering Today 13/8/44 Pilot Officer:John Wensley Humble,170143,Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

HUMBLE, JOHN WENSLEY
Rank:
Pilot Officer
Trade:
Navigator
Service No:
170143
Date of Death:
13/08/1944
Age:
35
Regiment/Service:
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
578 Sqdn.
Grave Reference:
Grave 38.
Cemetery:
CHIEVRES COMMUNAL CEMETERY
Additional Information:
Son of Wensley Thomas and Louise A. Humble; husband of Edith Mary Humble. of Woolavington, Somerset
Casualty Details

 

Details of the above loss.....

12-13 August 1944

578 Squadron Halifax III LW383 LK-K
OIp. Russelsheim

Took off from Burn at 2149 hours. Shot down by a night-fighter and crashed at Chapelle-a-Ols, 8km west south west of Ath. At 35, P/O. Humble was over the age usually associated with Bomber Command airmen. Both air gunners were aged nineteen.

Crew.

F/O. O S. MacPhillamy +
Sgt. F B. Newman pow
P/O. J W. Humble +
Sgt. N R. Beamish evaded
F'S. L R. Body RAAF evaded
Sgt. G E. Ward +
Sgt. L. Stafford +

Source - RAF Bomber Command Losses Vol.5 - W R. Chorley

During the course of 1944 RAF Bomber Command visited Russelsheim on 2 occasions. 699 aircraft were dispatched with 636 attacking the target (Industry) 1303 tons of HE were dropped along with 1222 tons of Incendiaries. 35 aircraft were missing or lost.

 

Memories of Burn...lived for two years on a very small estate which was one of the domestic sites of RAF Burn.In those days the little road that ran to nowhere had the quaint name of Paperhouse Lane.....now called West Lane.

Passed through the village many times since and still the nice village it was 50 years ago.... little development has taken place since apart from fill ins.There is still the odd maycrete building at the entrance to the estate standing forlorn and derelict in a field...I wonder if people living there would know the past history of where their houses are now standing and the lives lost from the airfield.

I can remember when the airfield was still in its prime but not operational,riding up the A19 on my bike towards Selby as a schoolboy.One of 3 T2 hangars looked to be situated dead in the village but a curve at the entry into the village revealed that it butted virtually into the village.....ideal in the past for airmen to sneak out for a pint at the Wheatsheaf.

There used to be a seat donated by No 578 Squadron Association outside the Selby Londesborough Hotel which is long gone but as far as I am aware its association still exists.

In its short operational life,the squadron, an offshoot of No 51 Squadron from down the road at Pollington (RAF Snaith) saw one of its captains,Cyril Barton earned a VC for his bravery on the disastrous raid on Nuremburg on the night of 30 March 1944....it was his final and 19th op.