Stalag VIIIB/344 Prisoner of War Camp
www.Lamsdorf.com
Harold Gainsford Dryhurst
28 November 2017 16:25
I am currently putting together some info photos etc. about my Dad Harold Gainsford Dryhurst and I have worked on this with David Fell from 103 Squadron which is the Squadron Dad was with when he was shot down.
It is about him and his crew and I have also put some further detail about his post war career.
Dad went on to join the RAF after the war and then went into civil aviation. Tragically he was killed in an air crash on 23.12.1967 aged just 44 years. This year is the 50th anniversary of his death so I am on a mission to try and preserve as much of his story as I can for future generations of the family to see.
Nichola Cowell
Link to Bernie Hughes memories:
file:///C:/Users/email/AppData/Local/Temp/Temp1_HG%20Dryhurst%20for%20IBCC%20(1).zip/DAD%20for%20IBCC/Bernie%20Hughes%20103%20Sqn%20dads%20crew.html
Coreen Atkins-Sheldrick 09:53 AM on March 20, 2009
I am continuing with research into the 2nd Ed. of a book I published in 2007 about local Military veterans. One of those veterans was Pilot Officer Vincent Merrill MacDonald Morrison who was killed 29 August 1942. He was crewed on a Halifax Bomber #BB.214 which was shot down near Saarbrucken, Germany (shot down by a night fighter).
Two of the crew members survived the crash and were interned in Stalag VIIIB
Pilot #1332214 Sergeant Harold Gainsford Dryhurst (RAF)
Navigator #A400332 Sergeant A.A. Roberts (RAAF).
Halifax WW II bomber crash site
by Corelli1
11/3/07
ADD A REPLY
Handley Page Halifax Mk. II BB 214 PM-?, with Merlin XX engines, built by the London Aircraft Production Group to contract number B124357/40.
Issued to 103 Squadron 11-8-42.
Categorised "Cat E" (Missing) 29-8-42.
Struck off charge 1-9-42.
The Movement Card records 18 hours and 50 minutes flying time on the airframe.
Took off 20:37 from Elsham Wolds, North Lincolnshire, on op to Nuernberg, carrying five bombs filled with either TNT or amatol. Crashed on 29-08-42 into the Maria Laach lake after having been shot three times 00:10 9,000 ft. at "Hohe Acht" mountain (near the Nuerburgring) by a Messerschmidt Me 110 night fighter from Mendig airfield (Fw. Fritz Schellwat: 5./NJG1). The Halifax Pilot tried to bring down the burning plane, just over the romanic church of Maria Laach, into the lake, however, the tail broke away and crashed on the grassland next to the lake. The plane then plunged into the water like an arrow, where it is still hidden today , likely broken into a lot of pieces, a few meters under the water surface, covered by a layer of mud.
Crew:
Sgt H G Dryhurst POW
Sgt J W Platt +
Sgt A A Roberts RAAF POW
P/O V M M Morrison RCAF +
F/S J J Carey RCAF +
Sgt B F Hughes RNZAF POW
Sgt J L MacLachlan +
Three crew members have been escaped by parachute. Of another crew member, the parachute did not open, so he died, like the fifth one, who was found dead in the lake. Two crew members are still missing today. There is some confusion over whether there was one or two crew left on board when the plane crashed. Possibly their remains are still in the wreck.
Of those who died two are buried in Rheinberg War Cemetery and two, Sgt Platt and F/S Carey RCAF are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. Sgt MacLachlan's father, George Henry MacLachlan, won the Military Medal and later gained a First Bar to his award.
From Bernie Hughes, the mid upper gunner on BB214, beside some photographs, a detailed letter exists describing how the plane was shot down and Bernie Hughes escaped.
1043816-HandleyPageHalifaxWWIIBomberCrash.kmz
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1043816-HandleyPageHalifaxWWIIBomberCrash.kmz
SH401Atlas said:
Hello Corelli1,
I am the nephew of Sgt HG Dryhurst who piloted the Halifax II BB214 which was shot down over Mendig / Andernach and crashed into Laacher See, south of Bonn.
According to our family, Sgt Dryhurst was shot down on his return flight, so the aircraft would have had no bombs on board. The flight time since leaving Elsham Wolds at 20.37 until being shot down at 0010 is almost identical to the time required when flying a Halifax II at cruising speed of 210 miles per hour from North Lincs, to Nuremburg and back to over Andernach.
He parachuted out and landed with his parachute stuck high up in a tree. Hostile locals came and threatened him. He spoke German well and ordered them to call the police. They thought he must be German. It was the police officer who saved his life or kept him safe, forcing the locals at gunpoint to hold a net or canvas sheet for him to fall into.
My uncle was sent to Stalag Luft 3 at Sagan, then he was sent to Stalag Luft 8B at Lamsdorf until late January 1945 when he was made to walk across Silesia and Germany. We believe his column went west then north. He said it was 1000 miles, but it may have been 1000 km. He said it was painful, freezing cold, hungry and many died en route. It was the worst part of his POW life.
We believe Sgt Bernie Hughes went back to NZ. The other survivor, who must be Sgt AA Roberts, died in a motorcycle road accident in the 1950s. My uncle used to visit him.
Do you have the contact details / email for Bernie Hughes and his family ???
I have driven down the autobahn past Laacher See many times and recently I went to Goerlitz and so I passed where he had been often without knowing.
http://www.aircrewremembered.com/BomberCommandDatabaseSearch/?s=16000&q=Sqd
Memorial remembers those who made ultimate sacrifice
by Archie Londry
Brandon Sun ~ July 9, 2014
In response to the Brandon Sun article dated Thursday, June 24, entitled “Second World War Airman’s Remains ID'd After 72 Years.”
The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum agrees with the RCAF Commander's statement of honouring the cost of war and the information regarding the death of the RCAF airman recently found, Flight Sgt. John Joseph Carey and the Second World War deaths of 19,186 predominantly RCAF personnel are honoured in the museum’s chapel and listed in our memorial book “They Shall Grow Not Old.”
Carey, John Joseph FS (AG) R53908. From Ottawa, Ontario. Killed in Action, Aug. 29, 1942, aged 22. No.103 Squadron (Noli me tangere) (Touch me not). Target —Nurnberg, Germany. Halifax aircraft BB 214 was shot down by a Me-110 night-fighter crashing south of Bonn, Germany into Laacher See lake. P/O V.M. Morrison, Sgt.s J.L. MacLachlan (RAF) and J.W. Platt (FAF) were also killed. Sgt.s H.G. Dryhurst (RAF), A.A. Roberts (RAAF) and B.F. Hughes (RNZAF) were taken Prisoners of War.
Flight Sergeant Air Gunner Carey has no known grave, his name is inscribed on the Runnymede Memorial, Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey, England.
This information has been available to the family and general public since 1992.
To quote the last paragraph, Lt.-Gen. Yvon Blondin, Commander of the RCAF states: “We must not cease to honour the sacrifice of those who came before us, and in doing so provide a sense of closure to the families and to their brothers and sisters in arms.”
The name of Flight Sgt. Carey is also inscribed in granite on our 300-foot RCAF Second World War Memorial wall that is being built by the CATPM memorial committee and will be unveiled Sept. 10, 2014.
In 2010, the Memorial Project Committee of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum began an ambitious project to create a permanent public tribute to all members of the Royal Canadian Air Force and all Canadians serving in any Commonwealth air force who lost their lives during the Second World War.
The RCAF Second World War Memorial, to be located on the grounds of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon, will also pay tribute to Royal Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel who lost their lives in or near Canada during this period.
Flight Sgt. Carey has been honoured and so are 19,185 others who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.
ARCHIE LONDRY
CATPM Memorial
Chairperson and
Second World War veteran