Another Rear Gunner survival on the aircraft that killed US Lieutenant General Frank M. Andrews in Iceland! At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, Lieut. Gen. Andrews was appointed commander of all United States forces in the European Theater of Operations, replacing Dwight D. Eisenhower.
What great true tale .I was under the impression that about 47% of Aircrew never made it though the war ,but never had any idea that in bomber command it was that high All the groups I have listed Except N E Litchfield DFC* flew or flew in Bomber command all heavy bombers .A very lucky bunch of brave mens medals I have in my collection Great Tale of just how hard it must have been. Cheers Aj
Very, very generally, I thought it was 55,000 lost out of 120,000 who served as aircrew. Perhaps the 76% refers to total casualties i.e. including those wounded etc. Sobering whichever way you look at it.
I cant remember the exact number, yet most of the 10500+ (Dead) RAAF Air Crew flew with Bomber Command, yet again I think I may be right in saying more RAAF men flew in the Sth West Pacific & East Sth East Asia esp by 1944/45. The luck of vast skies Bomber Command, 3486 Dead, Fighter Command 191 dead, Coastal Command 408 Dead. Europe 5397 Dead, Sth West Pacific 3,342 Dead, Mid East 1,135 Dead Although it makes me wonder how many tail gunners did not survive compared to other aircrew in the same plane. Post mixed up when answering p tried to use my own post as quote and deleted a sentance or two. So a sentance may be mising, sorry guys
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from Earth, loosed from the dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
Hi Cobber, May I ask what/who is the source of these RAAF (death) figures? My research shows 10,836 RAAF and a further 203 who were Australians that were killed with the RAF and are listed as UK on the CWGC website. My list is from all causes - KIA, Accidental, Natural Causes etc Your list adds up to 13,959. Are some of these figures used twice? Eg Europe and Bomber command? Cheers Geoff
Spidge your figures are right mine show 10562 dead but the figures are pretty much spot on. Mate what I should of done in my post was separate my bottom three examples, Such as Bomber command 3486 Dead Coastal Command 408 Dead Fighter Command 191 dead. This is where i should of shown a separation of figures Europe 5397 Sth West Pacific 3342 Dead Mid East 1135 dead. I for some reason thought that it would be interpreted the way i wrote it as the 3 different commands I quoted the losses of were all in Europe. I then showed how many deaths in totals in the different theatres including Europe and the Pacific. Anyway I hope i have answered your questions appropriately and look forward to more chatter as time goes on.
Hi Cobber, Thanks for the info. I knew that there had been a double use but couldn't get the figures to tally working them back. Initially I had all of the panel photos of the Aussies listed on the Runnymede Memorial however with research of Australians killed in the RAF, I need to obtain photos of another few panels. We now have 1447 listed on the memorial which like other Allied countries shows how high the percentage was "of no known grave". Cheers Geoff
Yes - This is only for Runnymede in the UK though. I should collate all the memorials - eg. Alamein, Malta, Lae, Rabaul etc and see what the figure is.
RAAF Memorial - "Those with no known grave" Total figure for memorials for those with "No Known Grave" 3203
So thats close to a third of all KIA's, still flying them WW2 birds, a lot of men are lucky to have a known grave or crash site/grave. Cheers Spidge Cobber
