Lancaster I LM184 - At Aalestrup - The Crew På dansk Updated: 16 SEP 2008
A single crew - 7 of about 150,000 allied airmen lost
during World War II.
"Numerous tragedies appear behind the many fates. We will
follow the crew of
Lancaster LM 184 of 90 Squadron, RAF and in that way share in 7 of these
fates.
Pilot of the plane was Flight Lieutenant
David Sumsion, born in Herefordshire on 21 August,
1922. After his education at Cheltenham College he joined the Royal Air
Force Voluntary Reserve in July 1941. He was trained as bomber-pilot in USA and
transferred to 90 Squadron in August 1944.
With him In the plane he had his good friend
Pilot Officer H.E. Allman, born on 12 January, 1911.
He was an assistant to a technical engineer, a skilled piano player
and director
of the choir of Tattenhall Church. The very day the war broke out Allman joined
the RAF as a volunteer. After his training in Canada he in 1943 participated
in
many bombing raids over Germany. In July Mrs Allman gave birth to a son, who was
named David after his friend.
The navigator of the plane was Flying Officer
Jack Leadbeater, born on 4 January, 1922. He joined
the Royal Air Force Voluntary Reserve after attending Leeds
Technical School. He
too had been trained in Canada.
The wireless operator was Sergeant E.R. Atkinson, born on 16 February, 1923. He was having a technical education, when he in 1942 joined the RAF.
Sergeant D.W.H. Davey,
born on 11 May, 1925, was the flight engineer of the plane. He had been a member
of the Home Guard, when he joined the RAF on 8 June
1943 at the age of 18.
The two gunners were Sergeant
A.E. Hall, born on 27 June, 1924, and Flight Sergeant
J.M.S. Turachek, born on 18 March, 1925 in Kostice in
Czechoslovakia.
Turachek had at the age of 4 emigrated to Canada with his
parents. In 1943 he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force.
On 29 August, 1944 this crew with nearly 600
others flew over Jutland at about midnight. Lancaster LM 184
targeted Stettin, but it was shot down by a German night
fighter and crashed
burning to the ground just south of Aalestrup in Himmerland. (Here)
All of the crew was killed.
On 1 September, 1944 F/O Allman´s parents in
Chester received a telegram saying: "30th August 1944 deeply regret to inform
you that your son
F/O Henry Edward Allman is missing as result of air operation
on the night of 29/30 Aug ... Any further information received will be
immediately communicated to you..."
The very same day Allman and the 6 other airmen had been dug down at Aalestrup Churchyard as unknown.
However, farmer Martin Husum, owner of the field
with the crash site, later found an identification tag, which he passed on to
the leader of the resistance movement in Aalestrup, blacksmith Arne Dantoft, who
sent it to
Toldstrup, who sent a wireless message to London about the find. It was said
that the tag had this inscription,
"GB 153326 officer H.E. Allman CE-RAF" and
that all of the airmen were buried at Aalestrup Churchyard.
On 6 April, 1945 the telegraph messenger again
came to the home of the Allmans in Chester. The telegramme read,
"Deeply regret to advise you that according to
information received through a reliable source your son F/O
Henry Edward Allman
is believed to have lost his life as the
result of air operations on 29/30/8
1944... The air council express their profound sympathy. His wife has been
informed..."
In more than 150,000 cases families in USA and
The British Empire received similar messages about losses of flying personnel.
In many cases the family got certainty about the fate of their loved one some
time before the war ended. A stream of reports from the Red Cross, intelligence
services, resistance groups and even private
people went to London from the
Continent about the fate of crashed crews." (FAF)