Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
#1
I just heard about this today, it seems the Lancaster was only found on November 22nd.
A search has begun to find relatives of a Welsh airman and other crew of a downed World War Two bomber discovered in Germany after 70 years.
Flt Sgt David Morgan Ellis, 32, from Pontypridd, was the oldest in the Lancaster when it was shot down after a mission over Berlin in 1943.
German aviation archaeologists finally located the wreckage in dense woodland 25 miles away.
The nephew of a gunner who died is now trying to find all the families.
Ian Hill, from Crewe, Cheshire, said his mother Alwyn, 81, had finally received "closure" after finding out what happened to her brother, Sgt John Phillips, the youngest on the Lancaster.
He said: "My mother was 11 when her eldest brother died and the discovery of the plane has given her real comfort and, finally, some sense of closure.
Squadron base
Continue reading the main story
Lancaster ED328's crew
Britons
Flt Sgt David Morgan Ellis, 32, from Pontypridd
Sgt John Phillips, 19 (family traced)
Sgt John Armstrong Currey, 21, of Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Australians
Flt Sgt Robert Clarence Naffin, 23 (family traced)
Flt Sft Douglas John Tresidder, 20 (family traced)
Flt Sgt Everard John Phillips, 23, from Wembley, Western Australia
Flt Sgt Noel Joseph Bullen, of Thornbury, Victoria
"We now know that the bodies of the crew were treated with the utmost respect by the Luftwaffe and buried with full military honours."
Three Britons of the RAFVR and four Australians in the RAAF were on the Lancaster. The families of three crew have already been traced, but Mr Hill is trying to find relatives of Mr Ellis and four other airmen.
He was the son of David and Jane Ellis and married to Iris May Ellis, from Cwmgorse in Carmarthenshire. It is not known if they had any children.
The Lancaster, on its 19th Bomber Command mission, went down near Lanke north of Berlin, as it was returning to the squadron base at Ludford Magna in Lincolnshire after a night bombing raid.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#2
any news on the reburial barry,ws.
Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
#3
Yes Brian, it seems they were buried in 1946 but no record of where, at least the families can now and some have visited the graves, see below.
"It was wonderful to learn they were laid out in the village hall and buried in the local cemetery with full military honours by the Luftwaffe and treated with respect."
In 1946, the bodies were moved to the war cemetery in Berlin.
