Gerring, George William
Killed in Action 1944-06-24

Birth Date: 1919-August-29
Born: Whitehead, Manitoba
Son of David and Martha Gerring, of Brandon, Manitoba. He was single and employed as an auto parts clerk. He was the brother of Thomas Alfred, Mrs. Riesberry and Mrs. Fish. He enjoyed skating, shootin
Home: Brandon, Manitoba
Enlistment: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Enlistment Date: 1941-09-27
Service
RCAF
Unit
59 Sqn- Squadron
Base
Rank
Pilot Officer
Position
Pilot Officer
Service Numbers
90925
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Liberator MK. V FL977
Bombing 1944-June-24 to 1944-June-24
(C) Sqn (RAF) Ballykelly
At 0415 hrs, on returning from an operational mission in bad weather, the aircraft flew in to Binevenagh at an altitude of about 900 feet when attempting to land at Ballykelly, having previously had to abandon two attempted approaches, the Liberator exploded and all the crew were killed:
FL 977 were on a night anti-sub patrol when they crashed The aircraft struck the mountain fifty feet below the 1,280 foot summit. WOs W.C.Wallace, F.G. Logan, Pilot Officer G.W. Gerring,Warrant Officer H.G. Coombe (RNZAF), and five of the crew, not Canadians,were killed.
source: Malcolm Deeley, Ulster Aviation Society
Liberator FL977
Consolidated Liberator B-24 / F-7

Consolidated Liberator G.R. Mk. VIII, RCAF (Serial No. 11130) ex-USAAF Consolidated (Vultee) B-24L Liberator USAAF (44-50154)
ex-RAF (Serial No. 5009), ex-Indian Air Force (Serial No. HE773).
Currently preserved in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum Ottawa Ontario.
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber flown by the RCAF during the Second Word War. It was designed with a shoulder-mounted, high aspect ratio Davis wing which gave the Liberator a high cruise speed, long range and the ability to carry a heavy bomb load. Early RAF Liberators were the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean as a matter of routine. In comparison with its contemporaries the B-24 was relatively difficult to fly and had poor low speed performance; it also had a lower ceiling compared with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Of the roughly 18,500 B-24s built in the USA during the war, 148 were flown by the RCAF on long range anti-submarine patrols, with the B-24 serving an instrumental role in closing the Mid-Atlantic gap in the Battle of the Atlantic. The RCAF also flew a few B-24s post war as transports.
Roughly half of all (RAF) Liberator crews in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theatre were Canadian by the end of the war. John Muir of Vancouver flew the longest mission of the war: 24hrs, 10mins from Ceylon to Burma and back. (Kyle Hood) Harold Skaarup web page