207 SQUADRON ROYAL AIR FORCE HISTORY
207 Squadron RAF Association visit -
Friday May 6th 2005
CWGC Cemetery Heverlee - Unsworth crew
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 Wg Cdr Thos Murray DSO DFC* RAF(Retd) was senior Flight Commander on 207 Squadron April 1941 - Sep 1942. Wg Cdr Russ Jeffs AFC RAF(Retd) was CO May to Dec 1942. Before laying the Unsworth wreath with Russ Jeffs, Thos spoke movingly of how he had tried to teach tactics to help crews survive in their tasks (in fact this was mentioned in the citation for the bar to his DFC). We were, as ever, moved by the Binyon verse, responding We will remember them |
Thos Murray : "By the end of August I was the senior Squadron Leader Flight Commander - that gives some idea of the casualty rate at the time. For a very short time, before Russ Jeffs arrived, I had temporary command of the Squadron and it gave me an opportunity at Flight briefings to give some tactical advice, which you couldn't do as a mere Flight Commander.
I had noticed that when you were penetrating the searchlight belt, the cones would open up either side of you and the instinct was to fly in the friendly dark gap between the two - only to find that you were flying into a battery which was just waiting. So I told the crews that whenever navigationally feasible, get right into the cone of the searchlight. You would then be flying over a battery already fully engaged, and if you could get right in, as you could, in the intersection, you might be interfering with the aiming devices and so help the poor chap who had been coned at the time. This was just a little tactical manouevre, very simple, but I believed and hoped that it saved a lot of lives."
14 October 1941 207 Squadron Manchester I LM7321 EM-D target: Cologne Railway Station.
The aircraft took off from its
base at RAF Waddington. It was held in searchlight beams over
Liege. It was shot down by a Me110C night fighter
(Oberleutnant Heinrich Griese, 1./NJG1 based at St Trond).
The attack was devastating, only two managing to bale out
before the aircraft crashed and exploded at Horion-Hozemont,
4km east of Comblain-au-Pont and 17km south of Liege, Belgium
at 0444 local time. Those who died are buried in Heverlee War
Cemetery.
P/O Unsworth was awarded his DFM for services on 49 Sqn.
kia = killed in action
Pilot - P/O Joseph Unsworth DFM RAFVR - kia
2nd Pilot - Howard Bertram Carroll RAFVR - evaded
Observer - P/O William Egbert Simpson RCAF - kia
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner - Sgt Gilbert Thomas Cox RAFVR -
evaded
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner - Flight Sgt Ernest Moulding RAF
- kia
Air Gunner (front) - Sgt Alexander Fernie Dickson RCAF - kia
Air Gunner (rear) - P/O Frank Mason RAFVR - kia
based on: RAF Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, 1941 (WR Chorley, Midland Countief Publishing)
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please click on headstone images for a larger
image (and when that comes up, put your cursor on it to activate the expansion button for an even larger one) UNSWORTH CREW EM-D L7321UNSWORTH DFM, JOSEPH Pilot Officer (Pilot) RAF 207 Sqdn.Age: 27 died 14/10/1941 |
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MASON, FRANK Pilot Officer (Air Gnr.) RAFVR 207 Sqdn.Age 26 died: 14/10/1941 |
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DICKSON, ALEXANDER FERNIE Canadian Sergeant (Air Gnr.) RCAF 207 (R.A.F.) Sqdndied 14/10/1941 |
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MOULDING, ERNEST Flight Sergeant (W.Op./Air Gnr.) RAF 207 Sqdn.died 14/10/1941 |
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SIMPSON, WILLIAM EGBERT Canadian Pilot Officer (Air Obs.) RCAF 207 (R.A.F.) SqdnAge: 25 died 14/10/1941 |
207 Squadron RAF History
last update 29 Jul 05
images: Haslam