Maxwell, Brian (Flight Sergeant)

Prisoner of War 1945-February-21

Male Head

Birth Date: unkown date

Born:

Parents:

Spouse:

Home:

Enlistment:

Enlistment Date: unkown date

Service

RCAF

Unit

223 (B) Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
Alae Defendunt Africam Wings defend Africa

Base

RAF Oulton

Rank

Flight Sergeant

Position

air gunner

Service Numbers

R/191140

Target
Google MapRadio Counter-measures to Hannover Germany

Took off from Oulton at 22:36 in Liberator Mk VI Sqn code: 6G-J Bomber Command on a Radio Counter Measures mission (dropping chaff) in the direction of Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Shot down by a night fighter and crashed SE of Dortmund, Germany.

Killed: Flight Sergeant Desmond Bryant RAF KIA Venray War Cemetery Ref : VII. E. 6., Holland. Flight Sergeant John Henry Kendall RAF KIA Venray War Cemetery Ref : VII. E. 5. Flying Officer John Willard Thompson RCAF J/38084 KIA Pilot Venray War Cemetery Ref : VII. E. 1. Sergeant Edwin Eric Whittaker RAF KIA Venray War Cemetery Ref : VII. E. 3. Flight Sergeant Ronald Mark Wood RCAF R/176382 KIA Venray War Cemetery Ref : VII. E. 4. Flight Sergeant Ronald Wynn RAF KIA Venray War Cemetery Ref : VII. E. 2.

POWs (includes Maxwell) all were kept in hospital until liberation in May, 1945: W/O William Francis Baker RAF POW camp not listed. W/O Ronald Albert Victor Palmer RAF POW camp not listed. Flight Sergeant George Robert Graham RAF POW camp not listed. Flying Officer Ronald Walter Johnson RAF POW camp not listed.

Library and Archives Canada Service Files (may not exist)

Liberator serial: TS520

(DND Photos via James Craik) (Source Harold A Skaarup Web Page)
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


YouTube Liberator bomber

Wikipedia Wikipedia Liberator bomber

unvetted Source Harold A Skaarup Web Page