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Carson, Douglas Alexander

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Personal Information

Rank P/O
Forename(s) Douglas Alexander
Surname Carson
Gender M
Age 20
Date of Death 18-07-1944
Next of Kin Son of Thomas John Carson and Helen Blythe Carson (née Rodger), of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
CARSON DA

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Handley Page Halifax III
Serial Number LV985
Markings ZL-K

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country France
Burial/Memorial Place Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery
Grave Reference XXV. E. 6.
Epitaph

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 2
Panel Number 141

Enlistment Information

Service Number J/90068
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 6
Squadron 427 (Lion)
Squadron Motto Ferte manus certas (Strike sure)
Trade Air Gunner
Country of Origin Canada

Other Memorials

Location Roman Rd, Leeming, North Yorkshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Brass plaque set into a stone plinth into which is carved with the Canadian maple leaf and the Yorkshire rose.
Memorial Text This memorial is dedicated to those men and women who served at RAF Leeming during World War II, including those from the Royal Canadian Air Force Squadrons, whose members came from all parts of the Commonwealth from 1942 to 1945; 405 Vancouver, 408 Goose
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Location Opposite old Main Guardroom, RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Stone Memorial & Metal Plaques
Memorial Text In commemoration of those men and women of many nations who served at RAF Leeming during the second world war.
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Miscellaneous Information

This crew was about two-thirds of the way through their tour
Douglas was born on 31 May 1924 at Victoria, British Columbia. His father was born in Ontario and worked as a Chief Engineer and his mother was born In Edinburgh, Scotland. He had two brothers Thomas and Roland and one sister. He attended Cedar Hill School in Victoria. 1930-1938 (general) followed by Mount Douglas school, 1938-1940 (general). He enjoyed all sports. Douglas worked in the Stock Room of Begg Motor, Victoria between 1940-1941 and then at Hudson Bay-Victoria in the hardware stock room between 1941-1942. This was followed by working as a Joiner’s Improver at Yarrow’s Ltd until enlisting on 7 December 1942.
After training and being posted to the U.K., Douglas embarked from New York on 8 October 1943 and he arrived at 3PRC on 17 October. He was then at 22 OTU on 16 November 1943, 61 Base 24 February 1944, and 427 Squadron on 12 April 1944. It was from there on 18 July 1944 that Douglas sadly lost his life at the age of twenty years.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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The National Archives

Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/1846/14
Summary of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/1846/13

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.

Blair R W (F/O)
Haley W S (P/O)
Kelly T R (F/O)
McFadden T J A (F/O)
Unruh V A (P/O)
Willson D G (P/O)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 18-07-1944
End Date 18-07-1944
Takeoff Station Leeming
Day/Night Raid Day
Operation Mondeville- east of Caen- to attack a German stronghold on the battle field and in support of Operation Goodwood. The raids took place at dawn with clear conditions and with Oboe marking. This was a combined attack along with US bombers and a total of some 6800 tones of bombs were dropped, with over 5000 attributable to BC. Many German units were badly affected by the raid and this was of immense support to the army operations- arguable the most useful support raid of all. No fighters appeared and flak fire was subdued by army and naval fire and as a result 6 aircraft were lost.
Reason for Loss In a statement, F/O Southcott said that his aircraft and LV985 attacked during the last minute, running up wing to wing. He knew the pilot and crew of LV985 exceptionally well. The aircraft was hit with exceptionally heavy flak. One wing and both motors fell off immediately then the aircraft went into a terrific spin. The next thing he saw was the aircraft breaking up completely and falling to earth in pieces. He said from his own experience and from a human point of view it was impossible for anyone to escape alive.

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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.