6 Group Unavailable
Cummings with his complete original crew of McInerney, Lingley, Rees, Torrance, Giddings and Clarke took off ten minutes before midnight, climbing into a dark sky lit only by the blue exhaust flames of 102 Squadron Halifaxes. It was cloudy and snowing sporadically, but the visibility was generally good with light winds out of the north-northeast. There were 823 aircraft in the bomber stream this night.
Crews reported heavy engagement from night fighters along the route. It was a running fight to and from the target. Five 102 Squadron aircraft returned to base early with various technical problems that prevented them from reaching the target and releasing their bombs"” fuel flow, engine and radio problems and one because it was damaged by flak that had also their injured radio operator. Tail winds were stronger than had been predicted and many bombers arrived early and had to orbit the target awaiting the Pathfinders, further increasing the likelihood of being picked off, either by flak or fighters. In the end, 78 of the bombers were shot down this night, accounting for nearly 550 men. When the last Halifax chirped down on the Pocklington runway at 7:30 am that morning, two of the squadron aircraft were not among them"” "B" for Beer, Flying Officer W. Dean commanding and Ken Cummings' "H" for Harry (JN927).
Halifax JN972 was shot down and had crashed into a moor in the vicinity of Sulingen, Germany, about 40 kilometres south of Bremen. Of the crew of "H" for Harry, only two survived. What had happened wasn't known until Owen McInerney was interviewed following his release from a Prisoner of War camp in May of 1945. In addition to McInerney, the navigator, Les Giddings, the wireless operator survived both the crash and POW camp. The main escape hatch for the Halifax forward compartments was on the floor below the Navigator's seat, so it makes sense McInerney would be out quickly. The Wireless Operator was the next closest. The Pilot was above this level and needed to squeeze down a couple of steps to access the hatch. The Engineer's closest escape was aft through the crew door. Luckily for me as a researcher, McInerney was a Canadian so his post war account of the event was in Cummings' service file.
McInenery reported that the aircraft, hit by a night fighter or possibly flak, was spinning out of control and that Cummings had ordered the aircraft abandoned. He saw the Wireless Operator Lingley drop through the escape hatch, then followed him. Just before he went he looked up and saw that the Bomb Aimer Clarke was ready to follow him from his position in the nose and he saw Cummings coming down the steps as the aircraft began to spin more violently. And that was the last anyone ever saw of Ken Cummings, brother of the first Canadian to die in the war. As aircraft captain he was the last to attempt to get out of his dying aircraft.McInerney's account was to the point and unadorned as it should be for a humble and straight forward airman making a report, but it belies the utter chaos of the moment. Unspoken are the terrors of the engines howling, the claustrophobic and nearly pitch-black compartment lit only by a small task light, the choking smell of cordite, aluminum, smoke and fear, the massive pull of centrifugal force as the giant Halifax spiralled in the black void, the vibration so extreme that focus is impossible, the flying grit and maps, the dry mouth, the fumbling for hatch and parachute harness, the shriek of the icy slipstream through the open hatch, the muffled shouts of men attempting to save their lives.
The next day, a captured McInerney was reunited with Giddings who told him that he saw both gunners Torrance and Reese ready to follow him out of the rear door when he leapt free. They were unable to get out of the spinning aircraft however and they died when the aircraft hit the ground. Though Lingley had made it out, he was also killed "” perhaps his parachute failed to open.
source: from THE FIRST by Dave O'Malley of Vinatge Wings
Killed: Flight Sergeant George Charles Clark RAF KIA Hanover War Cemetery Ref: 12. C. 5. Pilot Officer Kenneth George Cummings RCAF J/19803 pilot KIA Hanover War Cemetery Ref: 12. C. 4. Sergeant Norman Frank Lingley RAF KIA Hanover War Cemetery Ref: Coll. grave 12. C. 6-8. Sergeant Robert Patrick Rees RAF KIA Hanover War Cemetery Ref: Coll. grave 12. C. 6-8. Sergeant John Torrance RAF KIA Hanover War Cemetery Ref: Coll. grave 12. C. 6-8.
POWs: Sergeant Leslie George Kingsley Giddings RAF POW Stalag 357 Kopernikus. Flying Officer Owen Patrick Joseph McInerney RCAF J/22486 POW Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria.
