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McInerney, Owen Patrick Joseph (Flight Lieutenant)

Prisoner of War 1944-February-20

Male Head

Birth Date: unkown date (age )

Home: Edmonton, Alberta

Service
RCAF
Unit
102 (B) Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
Tentate Et Perficite (Attempt and achieve)
Base
Pocklington
Rank
Flight Lieutenant
Marshal
Air Chief MarshalA/C/M
Air MarshalA/M
Air Vice MarshalA/V/M
Air CommodoreA/C
Group CaptainG/C
Wing CommanderW/C
Squadron LeaderS/L
Flight LieutenantF/L
Flying OfficerF/O
Pilot OfficerP/O
Warrant Officer 1st ClassWO1
Warrant Officer 2nd ClassWO2
Flight SergeantFS
SergeantSGT
CorporalCPL
Senior AircraftmanSAC
Leading AircraftmanLAC
Aircraftman 1st ClassAC1
Aircraftman 2nd ClassAC2
Position
Navigator
Service Numbers
J/22486
1813

Halifax B/GR.Mk.II JN972

Bombing Leipzig Germany 1944-February-20 to 1944-February-20

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: F/Sgt George Charles Clark RAF KIA Hanover War Cemetery Ref: 12. C. 5. P/O Kenneth George Cummings RCAF J/19803 pilot KIA Hanover War Cemetery Ref: 12. C. 4. Sgt Norman Frank Lingley RAF KIA Hanover War Cemetery Ref: Coll. grave 12. C. 6-8. Sgt Robert Patrick Rees RAF KIA Hanover War Cemetery Ref: Coll. grave 12. C. 6-8. Sgt John Torrance RAF KIA Hanover War Cemetery Ref: Coll. grave 12. C. 6-8.

POWs: Sgt Leslie George Kingsley Giddings RAF POW Stalag 357 Kopernikus. F/O Owen Patrick Joseph McInerney RCAF J/22486 POW Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria.

Crew on Halifax B/GR.Mk.II JN972

Handley Page Halifax

(RAF Photo, 1942)(Source Harold A Skaarup Web Page)A Royal Air Force Handley Page Halifax Mk. II Series I (Serial No. W7676), coded TL-P, of No. 35 Squadron, RAF, based at Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire in the UK, being piloted by Flight Lieutenant Reginald Lane, (later Lieutenant-General, RCAF), over the English countryside. Flt Lt Lane and his crew flew twelve operations in W7676, which failed to return from a raid on Nuremberg on the night of 28/29 August 1942, when it was being flown by Flt Sgt D. John and crew.

The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester.

The Halifax has its origins in the twin-engine HP56 proposal of the late 1930s, produced in response to the British Air Ministry's Specification P.13/36 for a capable medium bomber for "world-wide use." The HP56 was ordered as a backup to the Avro 679, both aircraft being designed to use the underperforming Rolls-Royce Vulture engine. The Handley Page design was altered at the Ministry to a four-engine arrangement powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine; the rival Avro 679 was produced as the twin-engine Avro Manchester which, while regarded as unsuccessful mainly due to the Vulture engine, was a direct predecessor of the famed Avro Lancaster. Both the Lancaster and the Halifax would emerge as capable four-engined strategic bombers, thousands of which would be built and operated by the RAF and several other services during the War.

On 25 October 1939, the Halifax performed its maiden flight, and it entered service with the RAF on 13 November 1940. It quickly became a major component of Bomber Command, performing routine strategic bombing missions against the Axis Powers, many of them at night. Arthur Harris, the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Bomber Command, described the Halifax as inferior to the rival Lancaster (in part due to its smaller payload) though this opinion was not shared by many of the crews that flew it, particularly for the MkIII variant. Nevertheless, production of the Halifax continued until April 1945. During their service with Bomber Command, Halifaxes flew a total of 82,773 operations and dropped 224,207 tons of bombs, while 1,833 aircraft were lost. The Halifax was also flown in large numbers by other Allied and Commonwealth nations, such as the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Free French Air Force and Polish forces. Wikipedia

YouTube Halifax Heavy Bomber WWII

General Harold A Skaarup Web Page

Wkikpedia Wikipedia Halifax Bomber

Museum National Air Force Museum of Canada

CASPIR Aircraft Groups:
RCAF On Strength (5), RCAF 6 Group (1596), RCAF 400 Squadron (1443), Canadian Aircraft Losses (1562), Canadian Museum(2)
last update: 2023-12-08 20:34:11

Halifax B/GR.Mk.II JN972


102 (B) Sqn- Squadron (RAF) Tentate Et Perficite (Ceylon)

No. 102 Squadron RFC was formed in August 1917 and served on the Western Front in WWI as a night bomber unit equipped with FE2b aircraft. It continued in this night bomber role until the cessation of hostilities. The squadron was disbanded on July 3, 1919. It was re-formed on October 1, 1935 as a bomber unit, at Worthy Down, Hampshire, where it remained until it moved to Finningley, Yorkshire in September, 1936. Further moves were to Honington, Suffolk in July of 1937, and to Driffield, Yorkshire in July 1938. The squadron originally flew Handley Page Heyford aircrft, but re-equipped with Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys before the outbreak of WWII. While the squadron remained based at Driffield, detachments were sent to Villeneuve, France between October 1939 and February 1940. There were also detachments seconded to Coastal Command at Kinloss, Scotland in November and December 1939.

The squadron's first operation was on the second night of the war, when it dropped leaflets over the Ruhr in Germany. The first bombing attack was on the night of 12/13 December 1939, when a seaplane was attacked at its base at Sylt, Germany. When Italy entered the war on 10/11 June, 1940, the squadron flew from Jersey airport in the Channel Islands to attack Turin. Between August and September 1940 the squadron was based at Leeming, Yorkshire.

The squadron was seconded to Coastal Command from September to October 1940, flying from Prestwick, Scotland. It moved to Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire in October and November of 1940, and then to Dalton, Yorkshire in November 1941. In June of 1942 the squadron moved to Topcliffe, Yorkshire and in August moved to Pocklington, from which it flew until the end of hostilities, as a member of No. 4 Group of Bomber Command. From December 1941 until the end of the war, the squadron flew Handley Page Halifax aircraft. Although most of their missions were bombing sorties, the squadron also transported 134,280 gallons of petrol to Belgium to help fuel the Second Army in September/October 1944.

One of the remarkable airmen who flew with the squadron was P/O Leonard Cheshire, later G/C and VC holder. His aircraft P5005 N-Nuts was very badly holed on an attack to an oil refinery at Wesseling, Germany on the night of 12/13 November 1940. The aircraft suffered a huge hole on the port fuselage, but Cheshire was able to stabilize it and brought the aircraft home, to be awarded an immediate DSO. Overall in the course of the war, the squadron dropped 14,118 tons of bombs and laid 1865 mines. Among the awards gained by squadron personnel were 5 DSOs, 115 DFCs, 2 Bars to DFC and 34 DFMs.

The squadron was transferred to Transport Command on May 7, 1945 and was disbanded on February 28, 1946.

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