P/O James O B Mooney RNZAF and crew - 103 Squadron - RAF Elsham Wolds - 1943.
Failed to Return - 16/17th April 1943 - Avro Lancaster I - W4848 - Op Pilsen
Jim Mooney was born in Northern Ireland and emigrated to New Zealand in the mid 1930s. At the start of WW2 he joined the RNZAF and trained as a pilot. He arrived in England in 1942 and joined 103 Sqn at Elsham Wolds with his crew in March 1943.
Jim and his crew successfully completed 5 ops as below
Tour of ops
26-Mar-43 – Duisburg – Lancaster – W4827 – Sgt JOB Mooney RNZAF
03-Apr-43 – Essen – Lancaster – ED724 – Sgt JOB Mooney RNZAF
04-Apr-43 – Kiel – Lancaster – ED724 – Sgt JOB Mooney RNZAF
Combat with twin engined night fighter. No claim..
10-Apr-43 – Frankfurt – Lancaster – W4848 – Sgt JOB Mooney RNZAF
13-Apr-43 - La Spezia – Lancaster - ED713 – Sgt JOB Mooney RNZAF - Landed at Westcott
16-Apr-43 – Pilsen – Lancaster – W4848 – P/O JOB Mooney RNZAF – FTR - Crashed near Ludwigshafen, Germany
On the night of 16/17th April 1943 103 Squadron took part in a raid on the Skoda armament factory at Pilsen Czechoslovakia. This distant target proved very difficult to find and the raid was not a success.
Avro Lancaster W4848 and crew from 103 Squadron failed to return.
The crew consisted of:-
Pilot Officer J O B Mooney RNZAF
Sergeant S Biggs RAFVR
Pilot Officer A H Gipson RCAF
Sergeant H J D Rouse RAFVR ( pictured above )
Pilot Officer F J Hudson RAFVR
Sergeant V J Merefield RAFVR
Sergeant R W Harley RAFVR
The aircraft crashed at 0038 local time on the site of a German Luftwaffe flak battery near Ludswighafen am Rhein. It appears that the Lancaster hit the ground with considerable force and exploded. Both Sergeant Biggs and Sergeant Rouse baled out and survived to be taken prisoner of war.. The other 5 members of the crew were killed and now rest at the Durnbach War Cemetery.
Pilot Officer James Owen Beggs Mooney RNZAF – Pilot – 25 – 103 Sqn - Son of John and Agnes Mooney, of Doagh, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland – Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany
Sgt Stephen Biggs RAFVR – Flight Engineer – 103 Sqn - POW - Camps - L1/L6/357 - POW No 979
Sgt Biggs came from Gratrix Rd, Bromborough Wirral, Cheshire. He broke his ankle on landing.
He was incarcerated at the Dalag Luft, Frankfurt, Luft 1 nr Stralsund, Pomerania, Luft 6 Hydekrus, Eastern Prussia, Stalag 357, Thorn, Poland and Stalag 357 Fallingbostell, Northern Germany.
F/O Aaron Henry Gipson RCAF ( pictured below ) – Air Observer – 29 – 103 Sqn - Son of William and Margaret Gipson, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany
Sgt H J D Rouse RAFVR – Air Observer – 103 Sqn – POW - .
F/O Francis James Hudson RAFVR – Wireless operator / Air Gunner – 30 – 103 Sqn - Son of James Thomas Hudson and Agnes Emily Hudson; husband of Vera Marjorie Hudson, of West Norwood, London - Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany
Sgt Victor John Merefield RAFVR – Air Gunner – 20 – 103 Sqn - Son of Frederick William and Edith Annie Merefield, of Fontmell Magna, Dorsetshire - Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt Robert William Harley RAFVR – Air Gunner – 21 – 103 Sqn - Son of William Clowes Harley and Annie Harley, of Winscombe, Somerset - Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany.
F/O Aaron Henry Gipson RCAF
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16-Apr-43 - Pilsen
103 Squadron detailed 17 aircraft for this attack on the Skoda factory at Pilsen Czechoslovakia. There was no cloud and a bright moon. Captains were ordered to cross the fighter belt at 1500 ft to 2000 ft and to climb to a few thousand feet at the target. Bombing heights were between 6000 ft and 9000 ft. One aircraft failed to take off, one was engaged by intense flak over Stuttgart and dropped his bombs which started a very good fire and two did not reach the target. The raid was thought to have been successful. P/O Mooney and crew failed to return.
For this attack Bomber Command detailed a total of 327 aircraft - 197 Lancasters and 130 Halifaxes to bomb the Skoda armaments factory at Pilsen in Czechoslovakia. 18 Lancasters and 18 Halifaxes lost, 11.0 per cent of the force. One Canadian squadron, No 408, lost 4 of its 12 Halifaxes dispatched. This raid, took place by the light of a full moon but was not a success. In a complicated plan, the Main Force was ordered to confirm the position of the Skoda factory visually; the Pathfinder markers were only intended as a general guide. In the event, a large asylum building 7 miles away was mistaken for the factory and only 6 crews brought back bombing photographs which were within 3 miles of the real target. The Skoda factory was not hit. One report says that 200 German soldiers were killed when their barracks near the asylum was bombed.
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Lancaster W4848
This Lancaster was detailed for 5 ops. On the second with Roly Newitt and crew it was badly damaged. It was out of commission for 2 months whilst it was repaired. On the third take off was aborted due to delays on the airfield. Lost on the 5th
17-Jan-43 – Berlin – Lancaster – W4848 – P/O RM Newitt RCAF - Diverted to Croft. Force landed.
23-Jan-43 – Dusseldorf – Lancaster – W4848 – P/O RM Newitt RCAF - Badly damaged by attack from a twin engined night fighter. Evaded diving into cloud. On landing 120 x 4lb incendiaries fell on runway and burnt up.
29-Mar-43 – Berlin – Lancaster – W4848 – Sgt GM Pettigrew DNTO - Passed take off dead line after runway change.
10-Apr-43 – Frankfurt – Lancaster – W4848 – Sgt JOB Mooney RNZAF
16-Apr-43 – Pilsen – Lancaster – W4848 – P/O JOB Mooney RNZAF – FTR - Crashed near Ludwigshafen, Germany
Item compiled by David Fell. Photos courtesy of the Mooney and Rouse families
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There is an article on the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper website about this crash with photos and a video
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Youtube Video
Mr Erik Wieman in Germany has very kindly sent me an excellent Youtube Video he has produced of his recent interview with Mr Raubenheimer who, in 1943, was a young schoolboy Flakhelfer at the flak position where W4848 crashed.
Erik tells us :- "I interviewed a 92 year old flak soldier last week (a schoolboy at the time, his whole class was ordered to support the Luftwaffe soldiers in the position, even the teacher came in the position to teach them in the Flakpositions mess hall)
He explains what he saw when the aircraft crashed, who was killed on the German side ( 4 Germans were killed too on the range finder position), and fourteen (including many schoolboys/flak-helpers) were wounded.
He was hit at the foot, came in the hospital and was send to another Flakposition in Ludwigshafen-Rheingönheim.
He was drafted in 1944. He was was taken prisioner in eastern Germany in 1945. He was lucky his whole unit came to the americans instead of the russians. But when he found out he would be sent to France, sentenced to forced labor, he jumped of the train near Mannheim and walked home. To stay.
He also wrote about the crash in his diary in 1943 and also said one of the "English survivors" that bailed out came walking into the position and was taken prisoner. Biggs or Rowse. He only knows of one, did not see the other. He must have landed further away. Mr. Raubenheimer was then taken to a hospital and he did not return. After he was tended on a sleeping mattress in the open air just outside a damaged barracks he was taken away.
Check it out on Youtube.
Item compiled by David Fell with grateful thanks to the Mooney family. Gipson photo courtesy of the Canadian Virtual war Memorial
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