Honours For The Crew
For their heroic actions during that night of working together to
attend the injured and fulfill their duties
F/O Ron Cox, F/O Lyle Sitlington, P/O John Wilkins and F/O Blair Lindsey all
received the DFC while Sgt. Ray Toane and Sgt. Frank Dennis each received the DFM.
The details of their commendations, are found in the 419 Honours section.
419 Squadron Honours
Frank Dennis's DFM
On the night of November 1st, 1944, when attacking Oberhausen, the aircraft in which Sergeant Dennis
was the Flight Engineer was attacked by an enemy fighter and badly damaged by cannon fire, setting fire
to the Navigator's compartment and cutting the lines to the port inner engine. Sergeant Dennis successfully
put out the flames with his hands and feet and then feathered the damaged port inner motor. Proceeding
to the rear of the aircraft, although the intercom was unserviceable and there was no oxygen supply
available, he found the Navigator and Wireless Operator severely wounded by shell fragments. With the
aid of the Mid-Upper Gunner he very skilfully rendered first aid and dressed their wounds.
A few moment s later he was compelled to feather the starboard inner engine. Five minutes later
this engine broke into flames and Sergeant Dennis very quickly extinguished it with the Graviner system.
Sgt. Toane and Sgt. Wilkins Combat Report for Nov.1 1944
Sgt. Frank Dennis Returns to Operations
On December 28th Sgt, Frank Dennis, F/O Ron Cox, F/O Tony Palanek, Sgt. John Wilkins and F/O Blair Lindsay returned to operational
duty. The original Cox crew was now without their R/G Sgt. Ray Toane and Wireless operator F/O Lyle Sitlington
who were both because of their injuries unable to return to flying duties.
The replacement rear gunner was F/S Peter Wiens who had lost his crew with the crash of a Stirling bomber.
His rear gun section of the aircradt was thrown loose from the Stirling, this violent action ended up saving his life.
Cox also added F/O Gibbs to his crew to replace F/O Sitlington.
A Few More Ops. and the Return of KB767
After the December 28th operation, the new crew would make one more sortie in 1944, on the night of December
29th.
Their first operation for 1945 on the night of January 2nd. was one which must have brought back memories of
their terrible night over Oberhause. For Sgt. Dennis and the others the attack on thier Lancaster was made all
the more agitating as
this time they were being fired on by one of their own gun batteries below them. Here they were flying in the direction of enemy
positions and some gun battery opens fire on them. In Wiens account the Lancaster VR-S was actually hit by the
fire.
The night of January 6th. for Sgt. Dennis and F/O Cox it was a reunion with KB767, the shot up Lancaster they had brought
home. The damaged Lancaster, their own VR-U now repaired would be used just once more by Dennis and his fellow
survivors of the attack on her back on November 1st over Oberhause.
One more time F/O Ron Cox would see his name on the Battle Order. This for the night of January 7th. along with those of
Dennis, Lindsy,
Wilkins and Palenek his original crew. This time listed as simply as "SPARE" they would not be needed to take part in this night's operation.
Superstition and Reality
During the interview in which Frank Dennis told his story, he mentions that he been at one point classified as a spare engineer
and as such attended the briefings for the nights operations. He stated that if he was not needed to replace
a crew's F/E , he had to go to his barracks room and lock himself in. Once the aircraft returned, the information he had
picked up at these briefings would then no longer be secret.
He related how the crews eyed any temporary crew member as bad luck. And there are a few instances in the 419 history
when this proved true, a replacement for an ill or otherwise unavailable crew man ended with a crew being
lost. This proved to be correct three times for former members of the Cox crew.
Once the Cox crew were split up after F/O Cox had left the squadron for home, Sgt. Dennis joined the crew of
F/O Bevan MacNeil. Dennis completed some training flights with his new crew. There came a week of terrible weather
which the whole squadron and all of Bomber Command were stood down and Leave offered to the men. Sgt Dennis took the
opportunity to travel home to Peterbrough while the other members of the crew decided to say on base.
On his return from Leave, Dennis found out that the MacNeil crew had ended up being sent on a operation to Dessau. Mac Neil and his crew
along with a spare F/E named P/O Ross Wilson had not made it back. Dessau
a long distance from Middleton St. George, an operation made all the more difficult and dangerous by the weather
had cost the lives of five of the crew including Wilson. Two had managed to survive the loss and were to become POWs.
F/O MacNeil and crew
This superstition would also follow F/O Palanek, who after the disbandment of the Cox crew, stood in for the F/E
of the F/O R W Millar crew. Millar and his six of his crew were lost on March 21 1945. Palanek age 25 was on his 17th sortie
was one of those lost.
F/O Millar and crew
A third member of one of Sgt. Dennis's former crews he would also come under the shadow of this superstition when as part of the
F/O Milner crew, F/S Peter Wiens became injured in the crash landing of KB708. On returning from a raid on
Russelsheim the Lancaster
ran out of fuel before making it to base.
KB708
Posting to 427 Squadron
On April 12th 1945 with the air war winding down Sgt. Dennis was posted to 427 Squadron. His commission finally came through, now as P/O
Dennis would be part of an all commissioned crew, a rarity. They were also on their second Tour.
While with is new pilot, F/L Schmitt, a colourful person by P/O Dennis account, another 2 operations were completed.
Post war he took part in what Dennis called "Garbage Runs", these were flights over designated dump areas at sea,
where old dangerous bombs were dropped to clean up the
Group 6 bases.
F/O Frank Dennis pt.1
