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My Dad's story

Note that all of the pictures on the main pages of this site are thumbnails. In order to view these full size, click on the picture in the text and the full picture will be displayed on a new page.

Early Years

My Father, John Edgar Wainwright, always known as Jack, was born on the 23rd July 1923, the son of a miner, in a village called Stanley near Wakefield in Yorkshire. He was a bright lad, but the family could not afford the grammar school uniform so at the first opportunity he was shipped out to start work..

My Father in a picture taken when he was very young

Rather than the mines though, he joined the railways and worked as an engine cleaner. He was 16 when war was declared and not yet eligible for military service. When the Home Guard was formed in 1940 he joined the local platoon.

The real Dads Army - The Home Guard
My Father is back row, 3rd from the right

Joining the RAF

As soon as he was old enough he joined the RAF, on the 29th July 1941, six days after his 18th birthday. He reported to RAF Cardington near Bedford. He was classified Medical Category Grade 1 and earmarked for pilot training when he was 18 and three months and put on Reserve. I have a photocopy of Jack's RAF records sent to me by the Ministry of Defence in 1993 which can be viewed here along with my best interpretations of what the various postings were.

This one looks like an initial training group picture
My father is front row, 4th from the right

All aircrew were volunteers, and by that stage of the war my Dad must have known full well that the odds were that a good proportion of aircrew did not survive. Accepted figures now are that 55% were killed, while something only just over a quarter survived a tour of 30 operations without being killed, severely injured, captured or shot down. Bomber Command lost a total of 55,573 men in WWII.

Jack was recalled from reserve on the 9th of February 1942 and reported to the Air Crew Reception Centre (I believe at St Johns Wood in London) and from there was posted to 4 ITW at Paignton in Devon for pilot training. 

Dad in full flying gear looking rather stern

Jack failed the training which took place at between the end of February and May 1942 and by August was remustered into training as a bomb aimer (or Air Bomber). Rob Davis says at RAF Bomber Command 1939-45 "Everyone wanted to be a pilot and those who failed the aptitude and preliminary flying tests were remustered as navigators and bomb aimers."

Training for the three key personnel on a bomber, pilot, navigator and bomb aimer, was two years. Jack's RAF record shows a series of postings to various training units through 1942 and 1943 including six months spent in South Africa where he also attended an Air Navigation course. He passed through No. 31 Base (Stradishall) and Feltwell in Norfolk during the latter stages of training on various conversion units for heavy bombers and was finally posted to No. 51 Base (Swinderby) in early March 1944 qualified for allocation to a squadron.

Once qualified Jack was awarded his wing

Jack was posted to No 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron stationed at Dunholme Lodge in Lincolnshire on the 24th March 1944. No 44 Squadron was part of 5 Group, Bomber Command, and back in December 1941 had been the first squadron to be equipped with the Lancaster.

Dad's crew, he is third left (click on the photo to see a larger picture in a new window)..

Left to right: Flight Engineer Sgt William (Bill) Robinson, Wireless Operator Sgt Thomas (Leslie) Jackson, Bomb Aimer F Sgt John (Jack) Wainwright,  Pilot Officer William (Bill) Young RAAF, Rear Gunner Sgt Robert (Bob) Routledge, Mid Upper Gunner Sgt William (Bill) Rennie RCAF and Flying Officer Frank Wareham, Navigator.

Not pictured from m the crew lost on the 4th/5th July are Flying Officer Harold Braathen RCAF, who was a second navigator, flying for experience on that particular night, and Rear Gunner Sgt Ronald Houseman who took over from the regular rear gunner, Bob Routledge when he was taken ill shortly before the aircraft took off. Many thanks to the family of Bob Routledge for this information.

Tour of Duty

(Badges are reproduced by permission of the Secretary of State for Defence)

Dad joined 44 Squadron in some of the busiest months of the war for Bomber Command, preparing the way for the D-Day invasion in June, and then afterwards supporting the troops on the ground and countering the V1 menace. Statistics show that the months of June and July 1944 saw the heaviest casualties of the whole of WWII for Bomber Command (see Rob Davis' RAF Bomber Command 1939-45 for details).

Henry Horscroft of the 44 Squadron Association has provided me with a list of the crew's missions. All were flown in Lancaster Mk I ME699, KM-T for Tommy.

Further details of the individual raids and targets and some pictures of damage inflicted can be found in the diary section of the RAF Bomber Command History site.

The aircraft was damaged three times before it was finally shot down in July. The crew took part in twenty-one missions, and were three times told to abort while over their target due to poor visibility. Attacks on French targets were abandoned unless the target could be seen clearly to avoid civilian casualties.

Their first mission was a raid on Nuremberg on the night of the 30th March 1944. This was a major disaster for Bomber Command with 95 aircraft, 11.9% of the force, shot down as a clear moonlit night turned the raid into a turkey shoot for German fighters, 82 aircraft were lost before they reached the target. The loss was the worst suffered by Bomber Command on a single raid during the whole of WWII. 44 Squadron was lucky to only lose two aircraft in the raid.

As a new crew on their first trip my Dad's crew will have been very lucky not to be lost on their first mission as so many "green" crews were. Over the following three months they flew regularly attacking mainly targets in France, paving the way for the invasion in June. In May the crew flew on 11 nights including another tragic mission, the attack on Mailly le Camps on the 3rd of May when again over 11% of the attacking force were lost. this happened when US Forces radio interference meant that the Master Bomber could not order the attack, leaving the main force circling the target. There were several collisions and night fighters also infiltrated leading to a loss of 42 aircraft.

On the night of 21st June 1944, 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron sent sixteen aircraft including P/O Bill Young's crew in KM-T on a raid to attack a synthetic oil plant in Wesseling, near Cologne in the Ruhr. Six of the aircraft failed to return, a loss of 37 men. 619 Squadron, which shared Dunholme Lodge with 44 also lost six aircraft as did 49 Squadron based at Fiskerton, five miles away. Altogether 37 Lancasters were lost in the raid out of 133 dispatched, 27.8% of the force. This was by far the highest percentage loss on a single raid by Bomber Command after February 1942.

The 207 Squadron Association website has a detailed set of pages on the Wesseling raid which include a target map and details of the equipment and tactics of the RAF and Luftwaffe during the raid. It also carries narratives from some of the 44 Squadron survivors and a Roll of Honour for the crewmen lost by the Squadron on the raid.

By the time July came round Bill Young's crew would have been viewed as veterans. 

The Lancaster of the BBMF at Southend Airshow, June 2004;

Raid on St Leu d'Esserent 4th/5th July 1944

Steve Darlow describes the mission that night in some detail in chapter 10 of his excellent book on the battle against the V1 menace, "Sledgehammers for Tintacks". The raid on the V1 storage and assembly areas in the caves at St Leu d'Esserent on the 4th/5th of July 1944 was the first of several as the RAF attempted to stem the attacks on southern England by the V1 rocket, or Doodlebug as it became known. The details that follow are taken from that book, published by Grub Street.

The Allies had been aware of the potential threat from V1 flying bombs at England since early 1944 and Operation Crossbow was the RAF's mission to counter the threat. By the end of June 1944 the Germans were launching over 200 of the bombs a day at southern England from various sites scattered across northern France. The RAF carried out many raids on specific launch sites but it became clear that there must be a central assembly and storage area where the bombs were coming from.

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) submitted a report suggesting that the natural limestone caves in St Leu d'Esserent, just north of Paris were being used for this in March 1944, but it wasn't until June that further intelligence pointed to the site and the caves, which had previously been used for growing mushrooms, were targeted.

On the 29th June the Germans launched the 2,000th V1 at England in what was a dangerous campaign to try to wear down the morale of the British population for the continuing fight against the Nazi's.

The first raids on the caves at St Leu d'Esserent were by American daylight forces in late June. These caused minimal damage but further intelligence gleaned in intercepted communications confirmed that the site was a major base for V1's and the site was set as a target for a major raid by the RAF's 5 Group on the night of the 4th/5th July. The diary section at the RAF Bomber Command History site records that 246 aircraft made the main attack, with 19 aircraft from 617 Squadron making a separate initial sortie on the target with specialist bombs. 

With clear skies and bright moonlight forecast the raid was planned to provide maximum deception for the main force with diversionary raids on railway junctions at Villeneuve and Orleans in an attempt to draw off the night fighter force. The raid proper on the caves at St Leu d'Esserent was led by the famous Dambusters, 617 Squadron, who would attack with 12,000lb "Tallboy" bombs to try to collapse the caves followed immediately by the main force to bomb the area with 1,000lb bombs.

Damage at Les Aubrais railway station caused in the diversionary raid on Orleans

At 01:30 Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire leading 617 Squadron in a Mustang marked the target for the rest of the squadron. 11 Tallboys were dropped with the remainder of the squadron unable to site the target accurately due to smoke, then the rest of the force attacked almost immediately afterwards.

The raid as reported in the North Yorkshire Post

Thirteen aircraft failed to return from the mission (5.3% - above average losses even then), one of them my dad's 44 Squadron Lancaster, KM-T. Of the losses that night Bomber Command put eight down to fighters, two to flak and one to flak and fighters. The remaining two were lost to unknown causes. In all seventy-seven men died in the raid with eight more taken as POW's. Nine men evaded capture. My Father was one of the nine.

Fourteen more Lancasters were lost in the diversionary raids on Villeneuve and Orleans and seventeen German aircraft were shot down in return on that night.

Houses hit in Faubourg Bannier Street in the diversionary raid on Orleans

The RAF would return to St Leu d'Esserent twice more in July and August with the loss of a further thirty-two aircraft. The raid on the 7th/8th July was one of the fiercest night time air battles over France in World War II with thirty-one RAF aircraft lost out of 221 sent, 14% of the force. In contrast on August 5th out of 742 aircraft that attacked St Leu d'Esserent and another storage site at Forêt de Nieppe, just one was lost.

By the end of August the town of St Leu d'Esserent itself was 85% destroyed in the various raids before the site was finally rendered unusable.

By the end of the summer 1944 the battle against the V1 was just about over.

Graham Taylor, an Englishman living in France for the last 11 years, is pulling together information on the V1 Storage area at St Leu d'Esserant. His site is under development but contains some great pictures and can be found here. He is also trying to set up a museum to record the history of the V1 at St Leu. 

In 2004 a group from the 207 Squadron Association visited St Leu d'Esserant and the caves. 207 Squadron lost two aircraft on the raid on the 4th-5th July. The story of their visit can be found here. Photographs of the caves, which have now been returned to their previous use for growing mushrooms are here.

KM-T Shot Down

On the night of 4th July the crew of Lancaster Mark I ME699, designated KM-T for Tommy, took off from Dunholme Lodge at 23:00 as part of the raid on St Leu d'Esserent.

The crew of KM-T that night were:
PO William Young, RAAF - Pilot
FO Frank.Wareham - Navigator
FO Harold Braathen, RCAF - Navigator/2
F Sgt John Wainwright - Bomb Aimer
Sgt W Robinson - Flight Engineer
Sgt Thomas Jackson - Wireless Operator
Sgt William Rennie, RCAF - Mid-upper Gunner
Sgt Ronald Houseman - Rear Gunner

F/O Harold Braathen, aged 28, who died on his first mission on the night of 4th/5th July 1944

Harold Braathen was a Canadian school teacher who had volunteered for the RCAF and ended up after training posted to 44 Squadron. One of eight children he was the only one of three brothers that enlisted not to return from the war. He had married his wife Audrey during his Embarkation Leave.  They had seven days together before he left for London and never returned.  The mission he was on was his first and training mission. He was sent up with Bill Young's crew as it was the practice for new Pilots and Navigators to be sent out with an experienced crew to get a feel for what flying Operationally was all about. 

Harold's brother F/O Hans Braathen was also in the RCAF and was shot down on D-Day while flying on a glider tug. He was briefly taken prisoner by the Germans, but he and his crew managed to turn the tables on the demoralised troops and ended up walking 60 prisoners back to the allied beachhead. The other brother, L-Bdr Nels Braathen, was wounded in January 1945 while serving in Holland in an anti-tank unit. 

Many thanks to Harold's niece Diana for this information.

Sgt Ronald Houseman, aged 20, who died on his first mission on the night of 4th/5th July 1944

The regular rear gunner for the crew, Bob Routledge, should have flown that night but was taken ill at the last minute was sent to hospital after a pre-flight medical check and replaced by Ronald Houseman for whom it was also a first mission. Bob subsequently completed his tour of operations with another crew and often wondered whether he would have spotted the fighter that shot KM-T down given his extra experience. Bob said that he always had Bill Young weave the aircraft so that he could watch for night fighters approaching from below, a favourite tactic for "Schrage Musik" fighters, which had guns that pointed upward. Many thanks to Bob's family for this information. Bob Routledge's Logbook.

It is believed that KM-T was the fifth Lancaster downed by German night fighters on the raid on St Leu d'Esserant when it was shot down by a ME 110 night-fighter over Beauvais. The German night fighter claim for KM-T states the time of the kill as 01:49 on the 5th of July 1944, and names the pilot of the aircraft as Unteroffizier Gunter Schlomberg.

Schlomberg was with 3./NJG3, a night-fighter unit based in Vechta in northern Germany. German controllers had directed the night-fighters to the channel on detecting the raid coming in and the fighters followed the bomber stream across France and towards their target. At some point after the St Leu bombers attacked their target and turned for home Schlomberg attacked KM-T while it was flying at 2,500m above Beauvais.

German records show  that Unteroffizer Gunter Schlomberg was killed and Unteroffizer Otto Wagner was wounded when their aircraft crashed near Cruxhaven. near Hamburg, on 11th August 1944. The cause of the crash is not known. Their aircraft when they crashed was Bf110 G-4, D5 + LL, works number 140339.

With ME699 fatally hit by Schlomberg's night fighter shortly after dropping its load of 1,000lb bombs on target, the pilot, PO Bill Young ordered the crew to abandon the aircraft. The hatch at the front of the Lancaster was right below the bomb aimer's position and on such an order the bomb aimers job was to open the hatch and get the hell out, making space for the rest of the crew.

The bomb aimers "office" - Lancaster R5868 at the RAF Museum Hendon

Jack was first out, followed by the flight engineer Sergeant Bill Robinson before the plane plunged to the ground and exploded, killing the other six men on board.

       
The gates of Marissel French National Cemetary in 1951 and in 2006

The six crewmen that did not survive are buried in a single grave in the Marissel French National Cemetery in Beauvais. Sergeant Ronald Houseman, Air Gunner, is also commemorated on the War Memorial at Fewston in Yorkshire.

         
The grave of the six that did not escape the aircraft in 1951, before the official CWGC marker was put up.
A colour picture of the grave marker as it is today can be found here, at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial and also in the story of my Father's time in France.

Having landed behind enemy lines Jack was lucky that he was in "friendly" territory. The invasion of Europe was established in Normandy and the French Resistance were actively supporting from behind German lines.

The following morning his mother in Wakefield received the dreaded "Missing" telegram.

My Father spent most of July and August 1944 in France with the French Resistance. This section has now grown to the point it needs it's own page! 

Back in the UK

A snippet from the records - the full records, Form 453, recording all postings, mustering and movements can be viewed here.

Having been returned to the Allies by the French Resistance he was sent back to the UK and given leave to go home arriving a few days later. For whatever reason, the telegram telling his family he was safe and well did not get sent until the 9th of September, by which time he was home.

He used to tell the story of knocking on his mother's door and her opening it to find the son she must have thought was dead standing there. There was no dramatic scene though, this was Yorkshire! His mother just said, "Hello John" and invited him in for a cup of tea.

   
No 47 ABI Course, taken February 1945 
My Father is in  Squad II, left, middle row

After a period of leave Jack returned to the RAF and was posted to RAF Manby in January 1945, where he attended No 47 ABI course to qualify as an instructor at the Air Armament School at the base. He was also promoted to Warrant Officer around this time fur the duration. He transferred to 5 Air Navigation School at RAF Jurby on the Isle of Man when this was formed in May 1945. 

While at RAF Jurby Jack met Bob Routledge in a cinema purely by chance and they shared a few beers catching up on what had happened to Bill Young's crew. Bob was at the time stationed as an instructor at another training school on the island, at RAF Andreas.

The King's Warrant

His next posting was to RAF Dunkeswell, near Exeter, in November 1945 which was a Ferry Unit preparing aircraft for overseas service. 

The Far East

In February 1946 Jack was posted to HQ 232 group, part of Air Command South East Asia (ACSEA) and in March 1946 on to 48 Squadron, flying on Dakota's, and saw much of the region from India to Australia. From the photographs this was mainly through the bottom of a beer glass!

(Badges are reproduced by permission of the Secretary of State for Defence)

W/O Wainwright in Singapore in a picture posted home
On the back it says "Do you like the hat!"

A great, and fairly typical, picture from the time

A scruffy picture of a Dakota of 48 Squadron in Singapore

Back when Britain had a Navy!

A Sunderland of 209 Squadron

It would seem that the time with 48 Squadron in the Far East was a good one

"Myself and Mick at the Lido, this is taken the day I got burned" Dad is on the left, presumably Mick is the one on the right. Any ideas who Mick is would be most welcome.

   
NAAFI Menu from "Sandy's farewell party" at Singapore Lido 11/5/46

After the RAF

Dad's release papers

Jack was released by the RAF in January 1947 and returned to civvy street working still with aircraft as part of Air India's London operation. He married my mother, who he had met in the RAF when she was a WAAF Radio Operator at RAF Binbrook and later RAF Blyton, while on demob leave on the 8th February 1947 in Bournemouth. I have a number of pictures from my mother's time as a WAAF at these bases that can be found on my Mum's page.

After some time working for Air India, in 1954 he joined the Metropolitan Police and was posted to a beat in Chelsea in West London.

With the advent of Greater London in 1964, and the Metropolitan Police taking over the new London Boroughs dad moved the family to Essex to live and work in Rainham. His new station ID? KM!!

Dad remained a PC until he retired in the summer of 1978, latterly having been a police dog handler. He served long enough to add the Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal to his ribbon. My parents had two children, my sister Christine in 1954 and Michael (me) in 1960.

Tragically, between his retirement from the police and taking up a new job dad was diagnosed as suffering from cancer, a result of 36 years of smoking, a habit picked up while in the RAF. After a short fight with the big C he died on Friday the 13th of October 1978 in Oldchurch Hospital, Romford, aged just 55.

Despite having officially retired he was given a full police funeral which took place at Upminster Crematorium in Essex and he is commemorated in the main chapel at the Crematorium.

Lancaster ME699 - KM-T Home