Sgt William W McLellan RAFVR - 103 Squadron - RAF Elsham Wolds - 1943 - Navigator.
Failed to Return - 24/25th July 1943 - W/O G E B Hardman RAFVR and crew - Avro Lancaster I - ED878 - Op Hamburg.
William Whitelaw McLellan ( pictured above ) was born on the 12th May 1923 at West Calder in Scotland. His parents, Robert and Margaret McLellan, also had 3 other children, Robert, Anne and Margaret. William’s father was a licensed grocer.
The family returned to live in Glasgow and William attended Willowbank Primary School and Woodside Senior Secondary School. He was a member of the Boys Brigade and played in the band and also was a keen stamp collector and enjoyed Youth Hostelling.
When he left school he was employed by a local firm and training to be a compositor in the printing trade. Like many other young men at this time he joined the Air Training Corps and volunteered for service in the RAF at the age of seventeen and a half and enlisted in Edinburgh in 1941.
After completing basic training he was selected for training as a pilot but later was remustered as a navigator and he completed this course sometime later although it is not clear as to where and when.
With the rank of Sergeant he became navigator in the crew of Sgt G E B Hardman whose father was S/L P Hardman DFC, a regular RAF Officer.
This crew was made up as follows:-
Sgt G E B Hardman - Pilot - RAFVR
Sgt D D Williams - Flight Engineer - RAFVR
Sgt D I Cameron - Air Bomber - RAFVR
Sgt W M McLellan - Navigator - RAFVR
Sgt B G Radbourn - Wireless Operator - RAFVR
Sgt J E Couch - Mid Upper Gunner - RCAF
Sgt G C Witchlow - Rear Gunner - RAFVR
This crew commenced operations with 103 Squadron with a successful raid to Dortmund on the night of the 23/24th May 1943 flying Lancaster ED389. They continued to fly together on a regular basis on operations till mid July 1943 mostly to German targets but including one raid on Turin in Italy. All these operations were flown in the same Lancaster, ED389.
The 103 Squadron Operational records relates one particular incident involving this crew which is worth mention.
On the night of the 14/15th June 1943 Sgt Hardman and his crew took part in a raid on Oberhausen. During the flight over Germany the rear gunner, Sgt Witchlow, suspected an aircraft movement in a cloud patch 150 yards to the rear of the Lancaster. A Ju 88 German night fighter suddenly appeared and Sgt Witchlow immediately opened fire with an accurate burst at close range from his 4 x 303 Browning machine guns. His aim proved spot on and the Ju 88 fell away pouring smoke from its port engine. Shortly afterwards a flash was seen on the ground and the Ju 88 was claimed as probably destroyed. The vigilance and good shooting of the rear gunner had undoubtedly saved the crew on this occasion and they returned to base without further incident.
On the 24th July 1943 103 Squadron took part in a raid on Hamburg and W/O Hardman ( he had recently been promoted ) and his crew were detailed to take part. The Squadron detailed 27 Lancasters and crews out of a total force of 791 bombers despatched that night. The raid itself was very important because it marked the introduction of Window to operational use.
Window was the code name for strips of paper with aluminium foil stuck to one side and cut to a length of 27cm long and 2 cm wide. Large numbers of these strips were to be dropped by the bombers during the operation and this had the effect of producing thousands of false returns on the German Wurzburg radar sets used for ground control of airborne interceptions and flak and searchlights and also the airborne Lichtenstein radar sets in the nightfighters used during the final stage of their interceptions.
W/O Hardman and crew took off from Elsham Wolds at 2211.
According to Martin Middlebrook, in his excellent book The Battle of Hamburg - The Firestorm Raid, the Lancaster of W/O Hardman was the first RAF bomber shot down on this night. The Lancaster was some way off track over the sea close to the Dutch coast. It is presumed that they had suffered some sort of mechanical or technical defect when approaching the German coast and were returning to the nearest point on the English coast which would be East Anglia.
Being outside the protection of the Window being dropped by the Main Force this isolated Lancaster was picked up by the German coastal Wurzburg radars and the ground controllers were able to make a fully controlled box interception. It is thought that W/O Hardman and his crew were shot down by the Bf110 night fighter of Hauptmann R Sigmund in Box Salzhering. They were the first bomber to be shot down on this operation and sadly there were to be no survivors .
By co-incidence the second bomber shot down on this raid and quite near in similar circumstances was also a 103 Squadron Lancaster, that of F/S R A Moore and crew in Lancaster JA 866.
103 Squadron lost a third aircraft that night, that of W/O F F O’Hanlon and crew in Lancaster ED878.
All 3 Lancasters were shot down by night fighters and all 3 crashed into the sea without any survivors.
In spite of the losses to 103 Squadron the introduction of Window had proved very successful and only 12 bombers out of a total of 791 were lost that night which was much less than would have previously been expected on a similar target.
It took the Germans several weeks before they could reorganise their defences to combat Window but they were soon to be even more formidable than before.
The raid on Hamburg proved to be devastating and resulted in considerable damage to the city and enormous loss of life amongst its inhabitants.
The body of William McLellan were washed ashore some days later on the German coast at what was called Adolf-Hitler-Koog and was renamed after the war as Friedrichskoog which is a point North of the mouth of the River Elbe. William was identified by the German authorities and buried by the seashore near to where he was found and his family was informed of his fate and burial site by the Red Cross sometime later.
At the end of the war a British Army Unit arrived at the site of the grave to exhume William’s body but were unable to find the location of the grave. Subsequent investigation revealed that the local people stated that an American Graves Investigation Unit had already visited the site to remove the bodies of American airmen also buried at this location and had removed the body of William McLellan at the same time and it has proved impossible to trace his remains in spite of extensive inquiries over a number of years. This sad state of affairs caused much additional distress to the McLellan family who were already grieving deeply over the loss of their fine young son and we will be most grateful to hear from anyone who may have any information which may in some way help to resolve this issue.
Sgt Witchlow is buried at the Bergen Op Zoom War Cemetery in Holland and the remainder of the crew rest at the Sage War Cemetery in North West Germany.
William McLellan is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial to missing RAF and Commonwealth airmen with no known grave. He was just over 20 years of age when he died and a fine young man and a much loved son and brother.
Sgt Gordon Edmund Bernard Hardman RAFVR – Pilot – 21 – 103 Sqn - Son of Sqdn. Ldr. Edmund Parfitt Hardman, D.F.C., and Betty Hardman, of Arundel, Sussex – Sage War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt David Denis Williams RAFVR – Flight Engineer – 103 Sqn - Son of David Henry and Margaret Williams, of Redland, Bristol - Sage War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt David Ian Cameron RAFVR - Air Bomber – 20 – 103 Sqn - Son of David and Janet Stewart Cameron, of Sutton, Surrey - Sage War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt William Whitelaw McLellan RAFVR - Navigator – 20 – 103 Sqn - Son of Robert McLellan, and of Margaret McLellan, of Glasgow – Runnymede Memorial
Sgt Bertram George Radbourn RAFVR - Wireless Operator / Air Gunner – 21 – 103 Sqn - Son of George Henry and Eva Florence Radbourn, of Thatcham, Berkshire – Sage War Cemetery, Germany.
F/S John Edmund Couch RCAF ( pictured below ) – Air Gunner – 103 Sqn - Sage War Cemetery, Germany.
Sgt George Charles Witchlow RAFVR – Air Gunner – 20 – 103 Sqn - Son of George William and Elizabeth Witchlow, of Bromley, Kent – Bergen-Op-Zoom War Cemetery, Netherlands
Other reports show this aircraft was show down by night fighter pilot Oberleutnant Hermann Greiner of the 11./NJG 1,
F/S John Edmund Couch RCAF
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G E B Hardman and crew tour
This excellent crew were lost on their 17th operation. All but one of these were difficult trips to heavily defended Nazi cities mostly in the Ruhr which they completed in the same aircraft without any apparent problems.
23-May-43 – Dortmund – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
25-May-43 – Dusseldorf – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
27-May-43 – Essen – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
29-May-43 – Wuppertal – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
11-Jun-43 – Dusseldorf – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
12-Jun-43 – Bochum – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
14-Jun-43 – Oberhausen – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
16-Jun-43 – Cologne – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
21-Jun-43 – Krefeld – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
22-Jun-43 – Mulheim – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
24-Jun-43 – Wuppertal – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
25-Jun-43 – Gelsenkirchen – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
03-Jul-43 – Cologne – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
08-Jul-43 – Cologne – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
09-Jul-43 – Gelsenkirchen – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
12-Jul-43 – Turin – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt GEB Hardman
24-Jul-43 – Hamburg – Lancaster – ED389 – W/O GEB Hardman - FTR
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24-Jul-43 – Hamburg
103 Squadron detailed 27 aircraft for this attack on the German port of Hamburg for its first big blitzing and this was a great success with the target a mass of flames. Bombing heights varied from 20000 ft to 22000 ft. The defences were disorganised by our new defensive measure, the scattering of metal strips, which upset the Nazi RDF system. There were a couple of approaches by enemy aircraft but tehse were easily avoided. One aircraft returned early and three failed to return – those of W/O Hardman. W/O O'Hanlon and F/S Moore and crews. All other aircraft returned to base.
For this attack on Hamburg Bomber Command detailed a total of 791 aircraft - 347 Lancasters, 246 Halifaxes, 125 Stirlings, 73 Wellingtons involved in the first raid of the 'Battle of Hamburg'. 12 aircraft - 4 Halifaxes, 4 Lancasters, 3 Stirlings, 1 Wellington - lost, 1.5 per cent of the force. 'Window' was used for the first time on this night. Conditions over Hamburg were clear with only a gentle wind. The marking - a mixture of H2S and visual - was a little scattered but most of the target indicators fell near enough to the centre of Hamburg for a concentrated raid to develop quickly. 728 aircraft dropped the bombs bombs in 50 minutes. Bombing photographs showed that less than half of the force bombed within 3 miles of the centre of Hamburg and a creepback 6 miles long developed. But, because Hamburg was such a large city, severe damage was caused in the central and north-western districts, particularly in Altona, Eimsbüttel and Hoheluft. The Rathaus, the Nikolaikirche, the main police station, the main telephone exchange and the Hagenbeck Zoo (where 140 animals died) were among the well-known Hamburg landmarks to be hit. Approximately 1,500 people were killed. This was the greatest number of people killed so far in a raid outside the area in which Oboe could be used.
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Lancaster - ED389
This machine lasted very well being lost on its 38th operation. It was mostly flown by Sgt K L W Lay, Sgt G D J King and Sgt G E B Hardman and crew who flew it on all their 17 operations. Its first trip was to Lorient. See below :-
07-Feb-43 – Lorient – Lancaster – ED389 – Sgt KLW Lay, Sgt G D J King and Sgt G E B Hardman and crew who flew it on all their 17 operations.
Compiled and written by David Fell . I am most grateful to the late Mrs Margaret Hampton for the information and photograph used in this item. Couch photo courtesy of the Canadian Virtual War Memorial
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