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Lost WW2 bomber crews remembered in German service

 

Circa 1940: Royal Air Force ground staff prepare to load a bomb onto a Handley Page HalifaxImage copyrightHulton Archive/Getty Images
Image captionOne of the services was to honour the crew of a Halifax bomber like this one, who died on a bombing raid of Germany
Services are being held at a German war cemetery to remember 10 previously unknown RAF airmen, whose remains were recently identified.
The re-dedication services are taking place at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Berlin 1939-1945 war cemetery.
A Lancaster and a Halifax bomber crashed while on bombing raids over Germany in January 1944.
New headstones were carved to replace those which previously had no names.
Members of the families of the airmen have attended the service after the MoD appealed for relatives to come forward earlier this month.
Lancaster JB640 took off for Berlin on 2 January 1944 with seven crew on board, but was never heard from again.
The other seven-man crew, on Halifax LK709, failed to return from a bombing raid on the German capital on 28 January 1944, when the aeroplane crashed into a lake.
Four members of the Halifax crew already had named graves in the cemetery.
The ceremonies were organised by the Ministry of Defence's Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) based at Imjin Barracks, Gloucester.
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The men on Lancaster JB640

  • Pilot Officer John Donald Range Cromarty (aged 23) - from Liverpool.
  • Flt Sgt Dennis Frederick Burtenshaw (20) - from Sydney, Australia. Later lived in south London.
  • Flt Sgt Leonard Norman Lapthorne (21) - from Birmingham.
  • Flt Sgt Reginald Joseph Collens (31) - from Croydon, south London.
  • Flt Sgt Kenneth Sidney James Chapman (20) - from Westbury, Wiltshire.
  • Sgt Frederick Edwin Woolven (23) - from Arundel, Sussex.
  • Sgt Norman Henry Colebatch (20) - from Walsall.

The men on Halifax LK709

  • Pilot Officer William Proffitt White (23) - from Shotteswell, Warwickshire.
  • Flt Sgt Norman Thompson Steele (21) - born in Ashington, Northumberland.
  • Flt Sgt Arthur Binnie Walker (21) - from Glasgow.
  • Sgt Thomas Ernest Edwards (22) - from Durham.
  • Sgt Leslie Raymond Bright (22) - from London.
  • Sgt Kenneth Bray (21) - from Grimsby.
  • Sgt David Winston Jenkins (22) - from Swansea.
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