"Look-ups" for 166 Squadron RAF Bomber Command

David

Thanks for your comment re Jack, I'm only sorry that there was no help from Wings of War. More about Durnbach here;
http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/war-grave-photographs/37070-durnbach-war-cemetery-5.html
Ron

 

Impossible question I know but any thoughts re the survivors would be gratefully received. My thoughts are the others would have baled out first, but if so how come none survived ?.
Many thanks again, Jeff.

Hi Jeff,

Not an impossible question at all. Let's hear what Philip Pochailo has to say on the sequence of events. He turned 92 three days ago, by the way. If you would like to hear him in his own words, there is also audio:

Detail Page - Veterans Affairs Canada

And I said to the navigator, I went down from my guns from in the nose, I went down and I said to him, "How far, what's the ETA, estimated time of arrival, to the coast?" And he said, "Two minutes, navigator. Two minutes, bombardier." And at that minute we got hit by two cannon shots. And that was the last word he spoke, because he and, and the wireless operator and the mid-upper gunner was all killed. They were killed in the plane. And the and then the rear gunner said, "The whole right side of the plane is on fire." And we were hit by a Messerschmitt 110, who came up . . . see, we didn't have a belly turret and they came up underneath, and he just get past us, get in, into the nose, and then the, the, the, the gunner, the shooter would have his guns, and they had what they called schräge musik technique, and he had his guns pointing back and he would just fire the gun, and he fired two cannon shots. One would hit the mid part of the aircraft, and the other one would hit the two starboard motors. And he'd peel off to the right. That was the technique that they used. In this particular case, it was the last, we were the last, the fifth plane that he had shot down that day, and he was, he was tired, or, or his plane wasn't working properly, I still have the, the transcript from the guy's log. And he ca-, he, he banked off to the right and he banked right past the starboard . . . I could see the whole aircraft in front of me. If I had been sitting at the, at my guns I could've knocked him down just as easily as, as pie, but I wasn't at my guns at the time. I was down below, and so he, so they flew back and that was the end of it. But I have, have the whole, the description of the whole thing and, out of his log. A guy sent it to me. As a matter of fact, I know who shot me down. I have his picture and, and, and the wireless operator, also.
Continued

Detail Page - Veterans Affairs Canada

We were hit, and the, the pilot said, as soon as the, the, the aircraft was on fire, he said, "I've lost control of the aircraft. Abandon aircraft, now." You know, he kept say, saying, "Abandon aircraft, now." I looked back, and my parachute, I had the parachute in the, in the cradle, and there's a strap that goes over the cradle and the damn strap was broken. So, my parachute flew under the engineer's feet. So, when he said, "Abandon aircraft." I reached for my parachute and it wasn't there, and I thought, holy jeez, you know. I mean, you're desperate at that time. But I looked over under the engineer's feet and it was there, so I went over. I crawled underneath and I got his, I got the parachute. And my job was to open the front hatch. I still had my intercom on. I opened the front hatch, and I looked back and I could see the engineer just helping the pilot out, because the plane was going down, eh. And so I opened the hatch and I dove out after the hatch, and I didn't hear anything until such time as the, the chute opened. And the chute opened, and I came to then. And so I never heard anything more from them until, until later, until I got back into the underground. And I found that the, the engineer and the, the rear gunner got out, but they were drowned in the, in the water, they were drowned in the, in the Meer se Frisian (sp) and the Meer se Maas (sp) and the, another body of water. The wireless operator, the mid-upper gunner and the navigator were killed with . . . the initial salvo killed them. The pilot got out, but he was the last out, so he got out in the mainland. He, he dropped in the mainland and I dropped on the Island of Voorne. And I, luckily, I dropped on the Island of Voorne. I was given, I got two days before they even started to look for me, before they started looking, because they, they didn't know. They picked up the pilot right away, and they thought everybody was, was, was on the mainland, just out of, just near Rotterdam, whereas, I was on the Island of Voorne. So, I was very, very, fortunate.
Regards,

Dave

 

Jeff, Dave ('AlienEyes'? - I'm still trying to get the hang of this thread business) and all the guys - that extract from the vet's memoir is just amazing - such recall, such drama - and fancy having the photo' of the guy that shot you down!

 

Hi again Ron
Just clicked through the link you kindly gave me and had a look at the further material on Durnbach - thanks for that.
I also followed on to read about Operation Whisky - very curious - why do you think Herr Vogele handed over the secret papers whilst t the same time supposedly assisting a survivor to escape?

 

David

The short, honest, answer is that I have no idea, but the whole episode is still, to my mind, shrouded in mystery.

Durnbach is full of amazing stories that are still being un-earthed.

Ron

 

Amazing indeed.
I have another uncle, Lawrence ('Lawrie') Holbrook - thankfully still alive but now in a nursing home in Canada who was always going to tell me all about his own exploits as a pilot in the Glider Regiment but unfortunately it has become impossible for him to communicate by email now.
I would still love to find out about his record - do you know of anyway I could make a start please?

 

Hi Geoff , if you are interested 166sq still have a reunion each year at the Marrow bone and Cleaver at Kirmington , usually first week in Aug. there are still some veterans attending, sadly less each year . regards Frank.

 

Hi Jeff,

Not an impossible question at all. Let's hear what Philip Pochailo has to say on the sequence of events. He turned 92 three days ago, by the way. If you would like to hear him in his own words, there is also audio:

Detail Page - Veterans Affairs Canada

Continued

Detail Page - Veterans Affairs Canada

Regards,

Dave


In his P.O.W. diary P/O James William Reilly (aged 20) describes exiting the forward hatch after F/O Pochailo and the flight engineer, Sgt. Dickson. By then the area behind the cockpit was heavily ablaze. To his surprise he landed in the sea (note: this was most likely off the island of Voorne where P/O Pochailo landed). Fortunately P/O Reilly was a good swimmer and was used to the cold waters off Fife, Scotland. After some difficulty and buoyed by his Mae West, he managed to deploy his life raft. After 2.5 - 3 hours he drifted ashore and into the hands of a German patrol. He notes that this proved fortunate as the beach was heavily mined. He ended up in Stalag Luft 3.
Flt. Lt. J.W. "Jim" Reilly A.F.C. became a pioneer of helicopter aviation. He died in an air crash in Sydney, Australia, on the 10 December 1966.

JEFFF - in his biography "Then & Now" P/O Philip Pochailo gives a more detailed description of the crew, their training, bonding and mission. On page 43 there is a very nice description of Leonard ("Len") Clutterbuck. I would pleased to share.

 

Hi Andrew
I Would be pleased to find out more about Len Clutterbuck; it's an unusual name and reminds me of one I came across of a glider pilot sadly lost at At Arnhem. unfortunately I cannot remember his name with certainty and I am unable to check the source of the story.

 

From Philip Pochailo's book "Then & Now 1944-2004".

Sergeant Len (Leonard) Clutterbuck: "The Navigator was Len Clutterbuck, and he was good. Len was young and full of the devil, but when it came to navigation he was one of the best and always did his job well. He was handsome and debonair and always ready for a good time."

Len's body was washed up at the Hoek (Hook) of Holland. He hailed from the Forest of Dean. Further details on the Forest of Dean Family /history Trust website: http://www.forest-of-dean.net/fodmembers/index.php?mode=thread&id=39014

 

Hi Andrew
Thanks for that info.
Judging by the content that can't been the chap I was thinking of as he was definitely a glider pilot and was lost at Arnhem.
DFoe anyone know if there is a way I can look-up casualties amongst glider pilots from Arnhem beginning with'C'?
Cheers
David

 

Will this do, David?

CARTLIDGE, DENNIS
Staff Serjeant
18/09/1944
The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.

CASTLE, VERNON EDWARD
Staff Serjeant
25/09/1944
The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.

CHANDLER, FRANCIS JAMES
Serjeant
18/09/1944
The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.

CHITTLEBURGH, KENNETH TREVOR
Lieutenant
21/09/1944
The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.

CLARKE, ERNEST ERIC
Staff Serjeant
22/09/1944
The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.

COLE, HENRY CHARLES LIVESEY
Lieutenant
21/09/1944
The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.

COWAN, ERIC ALFRED
Serjeant
26/09/1944
The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.

CROFT, ROGER MALCOLM
Serjeant
18/09/1944
The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.

CULVERWELL, STANLEY MARTIN
Lieutenant
22/09/1944
The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.

CUMMINS, BERNARD ARTHUR
Staff Serjeant
22/09/1944
The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.

CURLEY, JAMES
Staff Serjeant
25/09/1944
The Glider Pilot Regiment, A.A.C.

 

Hi Pieter
That will do indeed!
Thank you so much for picking-up my query on this thread and providing your very detailed post. The gentleman in question is I'm sure Lt. Chittleburgh.
Sad to say how many men died who's name only began with a 'C'.
Many thanks again,
David

 

Glad I could be of help David.

 

Re: F/S Leonard Clutterbuck, Lanc ND579

Good evening Andrew, Dave and all you kind fellows,
What can I say except a huge & embarrassed SORRY for disappearing off the scene for a while. I'm afraid the last few months have been very difficult for me and my family with various health issues, I'll be quite honest I forgot all about my post here despite Andrew's kind email.
However I've just seen new links to this thread on the Forest of Dean Family History site, I can only presume one of you kind gents (Andrew?) has contacted the site direct, thanks very much indeed for that. As you can see if you click the above link your findings have already aroused great interest and have been passed onto Len Clutterbuck's family.
I have lifelong interests in military aviation both hobby & engineering career, and more recently been involved in the campaign for the long overdue Bomber Command Memorial, so reading P/O Pochaillo's memoirs and particularly watching his video have been of immense interest to me and emotional too. Thanks so much for sharing it Andrew, I'm sure you are hugely proud of your father and his mates. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for the incredibly brave acts and sacrifices these young men made for us all.
I found this thread/site purely while searching the net, I must say I was pleasantly amazed by just how much information is freely available online without dipping into the formal MoD files, on various forums etc such as this particularly fine one. What a superb source of important historical information, rest assured I will be returning in the future.
Belated but sincere thanks again, Jeff.

 

Hi Geoff , if you are interested 166sq still have a reunion each year at the Marrow bone and Cleaver at Kirmington , usually first week in Aug. there are still some veterans attending, sadly less each year . regards Frank.

Hi Frank, thanks for that. Before I posted on this site I trawled the net by search engine and was very pleased to find several helpful sites including this forum. One such site is below, I'm sure you know it, it contains some good photos of past reunions, very moving indeed.
Thanks again Jeff

http://www.rodcollins.com/wordpress/166-squadron-memorial-service-kirmington

 

Hi,

Dave (Alieneyes) found the citation for this pilot from Calgary, Alberta Canada for me earlier this month. His DFC was awarded for operations July to October 1944 with 166 Squadron.

Forgive my ignorance abour RAF research but is it possible to identify his 166 Squadron crew members or is that only possible with casualties?

Steve Y

 

Steve Y

Over the weekend I will have a look at my copy of Wings of War and see if there is any info regarding his crew.

Ron

 

Steve Y

Had a pretty good look but couldn't find anything over the period quoted.

As others have previously noted, it's easier to find stuff if a plane has been shot down

Ron

 

Steve,
Between posting in, 16/7/44, and last op 24/10 44, this Pilot and crew did 30 ops.
Alan