The target on their eighth operation with 619 Squadron was an synthetic fuel hydrogenation plant at Wesseling near Cologne, Germany and they took off from Dunholme Lodge on the night of June 21, 1944. At approximately 01.20 hours British Standard Time [BST] the following morning, their Lancaster was hit by ground fire and flames engulfed the starboard engine. The aircraft eventually crashed two or three kilometres north-east of Postel Abbey in Bladel Woods, on the Belgian side of the border with Holland.
Despite ME846 being badly damaged Pilot Officer Davis remained at the controls of the aircraft, allowing four members of the crew to bale out successfully, but he, together with the Rear Gunner, Pilot Officer Bowering and the Mid-Upper Gunner, Sergeant Moggridge did not survive the crash. The two gunners are buried at the Schoonselhof Cemetery in Antwerp, Belgium; unfortunately the remains of the pilot and the aircraft have never been found.
Source: 207 Squadron
close up of the crew, L-R: F/Sgt Peter Edmund Knox (Bomb Aimer), Sgt Thomas Newberry (Wireless Operator), Sgt Dennis ‘Geordie’ Belshaw (Flight Engineer), P/O Officer Mark Anthony Hamilton ‘Dave’ Davis (Pilot), F/Sgt Leslie ‘Tag’ Taylor (Navigator), Sgt George Harry Moggridge (Mid-Upper Gunner) and P/O John Earnest Ralph ‘Porky’ Bowering (Rear Gunner). (Source: Jane Knox and Paul Stevenson/207 Squadron web site)
