Scotchmer, Thomas Harrison (Flight Sergeant)

Prisoner of War 1943-November-23

Male Head

Birth Date: unkown date

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Enlistment Date: unkown date

Service

RCAF

Unit

115 (B) Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
Despite The Elements

Base

RAF Little Snoring

Rank

Flight Sergeant

Position

Rear Gunner

Service Numbers

R/90034
PoW: 263713

Target
Google MapBerlin Germany

Took off from Little Snoring at 17:40 in Lancaster Mark II (Sqn code: KO-S Bomber Command)on an operation to Berlin Germany.

Sergeant Smith who was found still at the controls of his crashed aircraft is buried in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.

Killed: Sergeant Hugh Smith RAF KIA Reichswald Forest War Cemetery grave 25. G. 18.

POWs includes Scotchmer: Sergeant Colin Deakin RAF POW Stalag Luft L6 Heydekrug. Sergeant Frederick Charles Downs RAF POW Stalag 4B Muhlberg (Elbe). Sergeant James Hennessy Ferguson RCAF R/176230 POW Stalag 4B Muhlberg (Elbe). Sergeant Ernest Miller RAF POW Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria. Sergeant Robert Strong RAF Stalag 4B Muhlberg (Elbe).

Unit Desciption

115 (B) Sqn Despite The Elements ()

No. 115 Sqn was originally formed on Dec 1, 1917 as a heavy bomber squadron and joined the Independent Air Force of the RAF in August 1918. It was disbanded in 1919, then re-formed in June 1937. It formed part of RAF Bomber Command No. 3 Group in WWII. Starting with Handley Page Harrow aircraft, it transferred to Vickers Wellingtons in 1939, which it flew until March 1943, when it transferred to Avro Lancaster B. Mk. II and later B. Mks I and III. Between April 1940 and September 1942 the squadron was seconded to Coastal Command and based at Kinloss, Scotland. It rejoined Bomber Command and flew from Mildenhall, East Wretham and Little Snoring in 1942 and 1943 before settling at Witchford, Cambridgeshire from November 1943 until the end of hostilities.

In April 1940 the squadron made the RAF's first bombing attack on the mainland of Europe, at Stavanger in Norway. In August of 1941 it participated in the service trials of the new navigational aid, GEE, and as a result of its report the device was put into mass production. Overall, in WWII the squadron flew 5392 sorties and dropped about 23,000 tons of bombs. This was the second-highest tonnage of bombs in Bomber Command. The squadron was 3rd in the number of raids in the course of the war. Since it was active over the whole span of WWI, it lost the greatest number of aircraft of any squadron in Bomber Command: it was the only squadron to lose more than 200 aircraft.