LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer James Llewellyn CARRINGTON
Service No: 413167
Born: Moree NSW, 15 October 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 16 August 1941
Unit: No. 467 Squadron, RAF Bottesford, Wiltshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 467 Squadron Lancaster aircraft W5003), Germany, 28 July 1943, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Hamburg Cemetery, Hamburg, Germany
CWGC Additional Information: Son of James and Clara Middleton Carrington, of Quirindi, New South Wales, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Sydney
Remembered: Panel 110, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Penrith City Memorial Park, Penrith NSW
Date: 27-28 July 1943
Target: Hamburg
Total Force: Dispatched – 787, Attacking – 739
RAAF Force: No. 460 Dispatched – 24, Attacking – 23; No. 466 Dispatched – 15, Attacking – 15; No. 467 Dispatched – 17, Attacking – 17
Tons of Bombs Dropped: 2,313
Total Aircraft Lost: 17
RAAF Aircraft Lost: No. 467 – 2
On the night of 27th-28th July Bomber Command operated in maximum force and in forty-five minutes dropped almost exactly the same tonnage of bombs as in the first attack. Forty-one Lancasters and fifteen Wellingtons were sent out by the RAAF squadrons and aided by good weather, all except one attacked. More enemy searchlights were observed but again the apparent result of the Window counter-measure was that they seemed unable to seek or hold aircraft accurately. Some aircraft were coned, but to the surprise of the crews they were not then subject to the usual fierce gun fire. Wing Commander R E Bailey DSO DFC (42093) (RAF) of No. 466 Squadron and other pilots were more impressed with the “incredible column of smoke, resembling a cumulo-nimbus cloud” which rose to 22,000 feet and obscured the target-indicator bombs. Against weak defences and an already blazing target, crews found little difficulty in attacking, although some like Pilot Officer Symonds DFC (409611) preferred to dive 6,000 feet in order to see clearly on the bombing run. Black, sooty specks covered the windscreens and turrets of other aircraft, and fires in Hamburg could be seen for 200 miles on the return journey. Again no night photography was possible but a German report states:
The continuation of the first attack by daily and nightly nuisance raids made the enemy’s intention to destroy Hamburg systematically quite plain. Therefore the fact of a fifth raid . . . was not surprising. Its magnitude and consequences however were far beyond all expectations . . . . The main weight of the attack this time was at the left shore of the Alster. Within half an hour the whole left side was in a terrible situation by a bombardment of unimaginable density and almost complete annihilation of those town districts was achieved . . . . Tens of thousands of small fires united within a short period of time to conflagrations which developed to fire – storms of typhoon-like intensity in the course of which trees of three-foot diameter were pulled out of the ground.
Herington, J. (John) (406545) Air War Against Germany and Italy 1939-1943, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1954 – Pages 586-7
Lancaster W5003 took of from RAF Bottesford at 2234 hours on the night of 27/28th July 1943 to bomb Hamburg, Germany. Bomb load 1 x 4000 lb (pound) (1,800 kg), 2 x 500 lb (225 kg) bombs, 48 x 30 lb (14 kg) and 900 x 4 lb (2 kg) incendiaries. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. Eighteen aircraft from the Squadron took part in the raid and two of these including W 5003 failed to return. In a 1946 report by the Missing Research & Enquiry Service it was stated “The aircraft was attacked by a night fighter near Heide, Germany, when heading north west from Hamburg, height about 15,000 feet. The aircraft exploded in mid air.
The crew members of W5003 were:
Sergeant Herbert Bradley (620509) (RAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Eric Clive Brookes (1482399) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) PoW
Pilot Officer James Llewellyn Carrington (413167) (Pilot)
Sergeant Stanley Drake (1480717) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner) PoW
Sergeant William Green (1081353) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
Sergeant Henry Victor Hawkins (658138) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer)
Flight Sergeant Michael Rodney Warr King (1315580) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
No. 467 Squadron lost Lancaster W4946 (Pilot Officer James Thomas Buchanan (405998) (Pilot)) on 28 July 1943.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/7/156
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line