Continue reading]]> That is what James Cutler, a British historian, claims to have discovered. For years, it was presumed that Gibson had run out of fuel or crashed while flying at low altitude. On the night he was killed, he was flying a de Havilland Mosquito, acting as a pathfinder for heavy bombers raiding Germany. The date was September 19, 1944.

According to Cutler, Gibson would have appeared behind a Lancaster whose rear gunner, Sgt Bernard McCormack, mistook the Mosquito for a German Junkers Ju 88 night fighter. McCormack instinctively fired 600 rounds into their pursuer, which exploded in mid-air over the Netherlands. Upon their return, McCormack and his crew claimed a Ju 88 shot down. After several enquiries by intelligence officers, McCormack realized that he had not shot down a German night-fighter but Bomber Command’s 26-year old legend Guy Gibson, VC.

McCormack, overwhelmed with guilt, never told anyone of the incident but recorded his confessions on a tape which he gave to his wife Eunice before his death in 1992. Eunice handed over the tape to Cutler, who also claims to have uncovered classified Bomber Command documents confirming the incident.

But why would Gibson, often considered as the most experienced bomber pilot in the RAF in World War II, have followed a heavy bomber? He was certainly aware of the risks of confusion, especially at night. One possibility is that Gibson and his navigator had lost their navigation equipment and made the ultimately fatal decision of following a “heavy” back to England.

Mosquito (above) or Junkers (below)? At night and in combat conditions, rapidly distinguishing the two was no easy task.

Read more:

• The Telegraph

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Tom McLean (Crown Copyright)

The legendary aerial gunner Thomas Joseph McLean died on July 20, aged 89. He is arguably the highest-scoring gunner, his DFC citation crediting him with seven confirmed kills as well as two probables. Postwar research indicated the two probables were actually destroyed, giving him a total of nine aerial kills, but McLean always limited his tally to what  was officially awarded to him.

McLean joined the RAF at eighteen in June 1940 and was trained as a ground defence gunner, learning everything he could about guns, ammunition and ballistics. He later volunteered as an aerial gunner and was posted to No 102 Squadron as a Halifax rear-gunner. On his very first mission on 28 August 1942, McLean shot down an attacking Me 109.

He was awarded an immediate DFM after shooting down 2 Junkers Ju 88 on 6 December 1942, on his 17th mission. Astonishingly, this was not to the taste of some of the squadron’s officers, who made sure that McLean remained “in his place”.

McLean shot down an Me 110 and claimed another one as probable over Lorient on 16 February 1943. The probable was later recognized as a confirmed victory by intelligence. Ending his first tour of operations in April 1943, he became a gunnery instructor in Bomber Command.

Some time later, he was assigned as a gunnery instructor in a remote Coastal Command station and felt that his skills were mis-used. He managed to take part in patrols but never recorded these as actual operations in his logbook.

His morale was very low and he had begun considering desertion when he was invited to join the elite 617 Squadron, where he was well received and found an atmosphere more suited to his personality and skills.

On 15 March 1944, McLean’s aircraft was attacked by two night fighters over France. McLean was wounded but immediately shot the first attacker down in flames. The second attacker inflicted even more damage to the Lancaster but was quickly dispatched by fire from McLean’s turret and crashed. A nearby Me 109 was attracted by the action and proceeded to attack them but McLean was able to fend him off.

After recovering from his wounds, McLean continued flying with 617 Squadron until after D-Day, retiring with an official total of 51 sorties. He was awarded a DFC and was received by King George VI.

After a bried time a a civilian, McLean rejoined the RAF in 1946 and remained there until 1956. He then worked as a a barber and later as a caretaker, up to age 80. After his first marriage was dissolved, he married, in 1981, Kay Thompson. He is survived by both his wives, four children from his first marriage, a daughter from his second and by two stepchildren.

An obituary can be read on the Telegraph. I  highly recommend reading about his wartime exploits in the book “617 Squadron – The Dambusters at War” by Tom Bennett (Patrick Stephens Ltd, ISBN 1852600411, new edition 1987, Chapter 4).

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The BBMF Lancaster in Flight. Photo by Andrew Dennes (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Veterans of the RAF’s Bomber Command will be campaigning to raise funds to build a national memorial for their 55,573 comrades who died during World War II. Permission to build the memorial in Green Park, Central London, has already been obtained, but the construction work will only begin when the £5 million total has been reached. To date, some $2M have already been raised.

Bomber Command suffered the highest losses of any service during World War II but veterans believe that, due to political correctness and post-war questioning of the area bombing tactic used by Bomber Command, their contribution to the war effort and victory has never been properly recognized.

Visit the Daily Telegraph’s article for more information and how to contribute to the Bomber Command Memorial.