Crew members of Halifax JB912
A Long Journey
Sgt. Jackson and his crew took part in an operation which was to take his aircraft and crew to the squadron’s most distant target Turin, Italy. On the night of February 4/5 1943 five aircraft of 419 left the base. Over France two aircraft developed severe mechanical failures. One in fact had not been able to fully retract it’s undercarriage and was reduced to crawl across the skies since it had left the base. The second Halifax had a glycol leak and ended up returning with only two operational engines.The three remaining 419 Halifax’s captained by W/C Fleming, S/L Clark and Sgt. Jackson were to find out the extensive flak coverage of the Italian defenders had over this of this Northern Italian city. The saving factor was the flak was completely ineffective. The long trip with numerous twists and turns to avoid heavily defended cities and towns along the way and staying out of neutral Switzerland’s air space was a strain on the petrol supply available on a Halifax. No room for multiple passes on the target or straying off the planned routes. For Jackson the successful attack on the target had to wait as he and his crew had drifted off course and used up vital petrol necessitating making a landing at Herne as his fuel supply was nearing empty.
Crew:
Sgt. T. E. Jackson –Pilot
F/S J. M. Carlton – Navigator
F/S J. R. Fry – Bomb Aimer
Sgt. T. M. Crandell – WAG
Sgt. C. J. Sebastian – F/E
Sgt. E. Jury – M.U. Gunner
F/S H. C. Stortz –Rear Gunner
Another Tricky Sortie
The last raid for the month of February brought Jackson’s crew to St. Nazaire, a U-boat installation on the Western coast of France. A mostly clear sky with a haze of smoke, most likely a defensive action by the enemy didn’t keep the mission from being successfully. Although the Luftwaffe was present they were on the receiving end this time as two night fighters fell to the gunners of 419 Halifax’s.
Luftwaffe fighters were not the only active defense in the area, the flak gunners and searchlight crews were well rehearsed at working together to cone the attacking bombers. The only damage reported was to Sgt. Jackson’s aircraft which was punctured between the starboard inner engine and the fuselage. His crew and aircraft returned safely to base.
Crew:
Sgt. T. E. Jackson –Pilot
F/S J. M. Carlton – Navigator
F/S J. R. Fry – Bomb Aimer
Sgt. T. M. Crandell – WAG
Sgt. C. J. Sebastian – F/E
Sgt. E. Jury – M.U. Gunner
F/S H. C. Stortz –Rear Gunner
Lost Over Stettin
The squadron and the crew had a three days of no operations then on the 20th of April the target became Stettin one of the largest ports used by the German forces to supply the war effort against Russia. A bright moonlight night and green target indicator gave the force an excellent guide to the target with its harbour and rail concentrations targeted by the bombs. A single factory chimney burned like a huge torch and acting as guide to the waves of bombers. The crews found that they could avoid most of the flak by keeping on the path they were assigned to follow. As described by details given by the Crandell family, Jackson and crew were attacked on the return to home base some where near the coast North of Stettin (Szczecin) . Luftwaffe records show a fighter 4/NJG5 bringing down a Halifax 1.5km from Eggesin which is near Stettin or by the Polish name of Szczecin. So this is most likely the fighter involved in the attack on JB912.
They may have been out as far as the Baltic or in the small body of water to the North of the target Jackson managed to bring the aircraft around and back to land hoping to give his crew a better chance to bail out over the countryside rather then into the cold sea. The crew all bailed out except for the tail gunner, F/S Dennis A.Watkins DFM an experienced gunner on his second tour . It was Watkins first operation with Jackson’s crew. ( After F/S Stortz left the crew, there were a series of other tail gunners taking his place.) There seems to be no record of what exactly happened to F/S Watkins, squadron operations book has the notation “D/D” beside his name. Watkins had flown his first tour in the Middle East theatre of the war. He was remebered for treating each encounter as a lesson to be passed on to his fellow Air Gunners. His DFM citation is listed in the Awards section of this site.
The rest of the crew were captured and taken prisoner. Sgt. Tom Crandell has the word “Missing” near his name on a copy of the same ORB page as Watkins notation. Sgt. Crandell was captured near Eggesin just inland from the Baltic and to the North West of Stettin.
see Sgt. T. Crandell for more details on his story.
Crew:
Sgt. T. E. Jackson –Pilot
F/S J. M. Carlton – Navigator
F/S J. R. Fry – Bomb Aimer
Sgt. T. M. Crandell – WAG
Sgt. C. J. Sebastian – F/E
Sgt. E. Jury – M.U. Gunner
F/S D. A. Watkins–Rear Gunner
