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Greatrex, Douglas Thomas

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Personal Information

Rank P/O
Forename(s) Douglas Thomas
Surname Greatrex
Gender M
Age 20
Date of Death 27-04-1944
Next of Kin Son of Alfred Greatrex and Mary Sophia Greatrex (née Turner) of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
GREATREX DT

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Avro Lancaster II
Serial Number DS719
Markings LQ-U

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country United Kingdom
Burial/Memorial Place Runnymede Memorial
Grave Reference Panel 250.
Epitaph

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 2
Panel Number 172

Enlistment Information

Service Number J/88692
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 6
Squadron 408 (Goose)
Squadron Motto For freedom
Trade Air Gunner
Country of Origin Canada

Other Memorials

Location Village Centre, Linton on Ouse, North Yorkshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Stone Memorial and inscribed slate tablet
Memorial Text In memory of 408 (Goose) and 426 (Thunderbird) Squadrons of R.C.A.F
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Miscellaneous Information

Douglas was born on 4 September 1923 at Vancouver. His father had worked as a ship builder and was born at Barrie, Ontario and his mother was born in Belfast, Ireland. He had three brothers, Robert, Davey and John and two sisters Margaret and Violet. The schools which Douglas attended were General Wolfe 1930-1938 and Vancouver Tech. 1938-1942 from which he graduated. He enjoyed playing tennis, baseball and hiking. Before enlisting Douglas was working for Boeing Aircraft, Sea Island, during 1942.
He then enlisted on 2 November 1942 and after initial training Douglas was posted to the U.K. from Halifax, on 26 August 1943 and arrived at 3 PRC on 2 September 1943. He went on to 24 OTU on 21 September 1943, and arrived at 408 Squadron on 25 January 1944. At the age of 20 this young man sadly lost his life on 27 April 1944. Only eight months later, just before Christmas, both parents also sadly died within six days of one another on the 18th and 24th of December.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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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.

Butson G F (WO2)
Gilbert J H (Sgt)
Hendry R E (P/O)
Potter J M (WO1)
Rognan E R (F/O)
Shove F S (1st Lt.)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 26-04-1944
End Date 27-04-1944
Takeoff Station Linton-on-Ouse
Day/Night Raid Night (20% moon)
Operation Essen. 493 aircraft, 7 losses (1.4%). Accurate marking and concentrated bombing. The local report states 313 dead and 1224 injured, but no further detail.
Reason for Loss Crashed near Wissenkerke, Holland

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Since 1945 the brave men and women who gave their lives whilst in the service of Bomber Command, to protect our country have been largely ignored and forgotten by successive governments.

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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.