Photo and text from Anton Smith about his great uncle Thomas Boland who failed to return from the bombing raid on Stettin 20-21 April 1943. He flew with the 460 (RAAF) SQN in Lancaster W4325. Thoughts of what might have happened are left out here.

”Tom was the youngest of four siblings and was a very talented artist. He was so good that he was awarded a scholarship to the Glasgow School of Art where he studied before graduating and joining the RAF with his two friends. 

Growing up in a poor Scottish mining community and receiving a scholarship to the Glasgow School of Art was a very big deal and Tom was by far his Mother’s favourite. 

My grandmother told me that when our family was informed that he had been shot down and was missing it nearly killed her mother and she was never the same again. She was a very religious person and the thought of not having a body to lay to rest weighed heavily on her mind for the rest of her life.

After the war Tom’s older Brother John tried relentlessly to find out what happened to Tom in the hope of finding a grave but all attempts at the time failed.

Growing up as a young boy I was often told stories of Tom by my Grandmother and my great Aunts and Uncle. All they ever wanted was to know where Tom was and to lay him to rest. 

When my grandmother died in 2003 (she was the last of her siblings to pass) I remember in the week leading up to her death we had a conversation about Tom. She knew she was dying and she said to me that one of her only regrets was not finding out what happened to Tom. It only occurred to me then that she and her siblings had spent their entire lives mourning the loss of their brother.  I remember it being quite a sobering thought at the time. 

On her passing I was given a box that contained belongings relating to Tom. His war medals, a framed photograph of him in his RAF uniform and a few other things. These belongings had lain untouched at my mother’s for well over a decade until a few weeks ago when I collected them during a clear up. 

I was going through the box a week or so later and discovered a war map from the 1940's that belonged to my Great uncle John. It was very delicate but I opened it up and spent the next hour looking over it. I found Stettin on the map and someone had circled it. On looking at Stettin and tracing the various routes back to the UK it occurred to me that I didn't know much about what my uncle Tom did in the RAF at all. I had heard plenty of stories but I didn't have any details. I didn't know his squadron, or where he was based or any other information like that. I only knew he went missing on the 20th April after being shot down during a raid on Stettin. 

I was speaking to my Mother a day later and told her about the map and that I was annoyed that I didn’t know more about Tom in the RAF other than the night he died. Unbeknown to me she had decided to do some research on the internet, the first time anyone had really revisited the search for Tom since the death of my great uncle John in 1986. The first time anyone in our family had turned to the internet in search for answers.

She called me the other day quite anxiously saying that she had found some information relating to Tom's Lancaster. She had found out all the details about his squadron, his Lancaster, where he was based and the other crew members. 

The most shocking news she had was that the bodies of two crew members from Tom's Lancaster had actually been found by the Germans and their details passed back to the UK authorities. Our family was never told this. 

Up until this point we were of the belief the plane had been shot down over the sea and no trace of it or anyone was found.”

”My research on this subject has been an eye opener and very sobering. The amount of human loss and suffering in this war was staggering.”