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Kruger, Carl William

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Personal Information

Rank F/O
Forename(s) Carl William
Surname Kruger
Gender M
Date of Death 30-03-1944
Next of Kin Son of Henry Kruger and Agatha Kruger (née Olfert), of Vegreville , Alberta, Canada. Husband of Violet Matilda Kruger (née Holmes), whom he married at Kelliher, Saskatchewan on 1st August 1941. Father of Robert Charles Kruger, born 17 March 1943.
KRUGER CW

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Avro Lancaster lll
Serial Number ND441
Markings PH-Z

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country Germany
Burial/Memorial Place Hanover War Cemetery
Grave Reference 15. K. 6.
Epitaph

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 1
Panel Number 60

Enlistment Information

Service Number J/22096
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 1
Squadron 12
Squadron Motto Leads the field
Trade Air Bomber
Country of Origin Canada

Other Memorials

Location Kruger Lake, Saskatchewan
Country Canada
Memorial Type Lake
Memorial Text
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Location Wickenby Airfield, Wickenby, Lincolnshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Inscribed Stone Memorial with Sculpture of Icarus & Information Board
Memorial Text Royal Air Force Wickenby No1 Group Bomber Command 1942-1945 In memory of one thousand and eighty men of 12 & 626 Squadrons who gave their lives on operations from this airfieldin the offensive against Germany and the liberation of occupied Europe Per ardu
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Miscellaneous Information

Carl was born at Vegreville , Alberta on 10 January 1916. His father was born in Russia and worked as a Time keeper at Vegreville Lumber Camp and his mother was born at Winkler, Manitoba. He had one married sister Caroline and three brothers: Sgt. John Kruger was serving in the RCAF overseas, Sergeant Henry was with the Canadian Army overseas, and Corporal Norman was in the army, at Regina, Saskatchewan. The schools he attended were Dysart school 1922-1928, Kitchener School in Regina 1928-1930 and Scott School also in Regina 1930-1932. His sport interests were swimming, tennis, cycling and shooting. Work wise he was a newspaper boy during 1929-1932. He was then farming for eight years spending two of them with a J.D. Flegel. Carl then spent a year, 1940-1941, as a hospital nursing orderly.
He enlisted on 20 August 1941, less than three weeks after his marriage. After basic training in Canada he was posted to U.K., arriving on 13 February 1943 and was then at 2 (0)AFU 27 April 1943, 28 OTU 25 May 1943, 1667 CU 9 August 1943 and 12 Squadron 1 October 1943. The next entry in his records shows that he sadly lost his life on 30 March 1944.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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The National Archives

Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/168/6
Summary of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/168/5

Fellow Servicemen

Please note that this list gives all the losses aboard the quoted aircraft and occasionally these may have occurred on an earlier date when the aircraft was not itself lost. Please check the dates of death carefully.

Aikman W M (F/S)
Carey D M (F/L)
Lambert P H (Sgt)
Peppiatt F W (P/O)
Prior J E (P/O)
Smedmore W H F (Sgt)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 30-03-1944
End Date 31-03-1944
Takeoff Station Wickenby
Day/Night Raid Night (45% moon)
Operation Nurnberg
Reason for Loss Aircraft took off from Wickenby at 2200 hrs detailed to attack targets in Nurnberg. Believed to have been shot down by a night fighter, crashing at Dotzlar 4km SSE of Bad Berlesberg. There were no survivors

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Casualty Pack

IBCC is delighted to introduce a unique facility to link the Losses Database to the relevant RAF Casualty Pack on the National Archives website. This project is the result of on-going collaboration between IBCC, the MOD Records Office and National Archives, Kew. This document describes what Casualty Packs are, when they were created, the process of making them available to the public and then goes on to describe the process by which you can view the contents of the packs. Casualty Packs (CPs) were created by the RAF whenever there was serious injury or loss of life associated with operational activity within the RAF. This includes operational flying losses, enemy action due to air raids, road accidents either on station or even off-station if they involved RAF vehicles. Deaths due to natural causes in service or accidents that did not involve RAF vehicles did not generally give rise to a CP.

CPs were originally given a unique reference number by the RAF. Each begins with the letter ‘P’ and is followed by six digits, then an oblique (forward slash) and the finally the year in which the incident took place- for example P396154/42.

The CPs are in the process of being made available to the general public as they are passed from the MOD Records Office, Portsmouth to National Archives, Kew. This process requires some rework to the files which is very time consuming, so the process of making them all available to National Archives will take several years. They are being made available in increasing date order.

Once CPs arrive at National Archives they are assigned a unique AIR81 number, so each CP has both a P-number and an AIR81 number. Both are searchable on the National Archives website under ‘Search the catalogue’ and both are included on the IBCC website.

The AIR81 reference on the IBCC website is a link to the file on the National Archives website. When you click on it, the relevant page will open in a new tab on your browser.

There is currently no plan to digitise AIR81 files, partly because they are fragile and partly because the information they contain can at times be sensitive, even harrowing, since they may contain exhumation reports and even photographs of corpses. Family members wishing to read the AIR81 files relating to their ancestors are advised to exercise caution and be guided by National Archives warnings where appropriate.

There are two means for accessing AIR81 files- to attend in person or to order a copy by post.

To attend in person, the attendee should first create a Reader’s Ticket. This can be done online by following this link: https://secure.nationalarchives.gov.uk/login/yourdetails. Then click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and click Order in Advance. Enter your Reader’s Ticket number and state the date on which you intend to visit. National Archives will have the file ready for you when you arrive, saving you time. When you visit Kew, you must quote the Reader’s Ticket number and take along two forms of ID- one bearing your signature and one bearing your address. When you view the files, you are permitted to take photographs of each page, should you wish.

Alternatively, if you wish to order a copy by post, please be aware that there is a charge for this service based on the number of pages in the file. Click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and then click Request a Copy. There is an £8.40 charge for National Archives staff to access the file and give you a quotation for the copying service. The process takes around 24 days to complete and can be expensive.

IBCC wishes to thank the staff at the MOD Records Office and National Archives for their engagement and assistance in making this facility available to our website users.