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Hall, Serbert Norman

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Personal Information

Rank Sgt
Forename(s) Serbert Norman
Surname Hall
Gender M
Age 34
Date of Death 03-04-1943
Next of Kin Son of to John B. Hall and Elizabeth Hall of Oshawa, Ontario.
HALL SN

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Handley Page Halifax II
Serial Number DT617
Markings VR-G

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country Netherlands
Burial/Memorial Place Olst (Duur) General Cemetery
Grave Reference Grave 6.
Epitaph

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 2
Panel Number 175

Enlistment Information

Service Number R/65638
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 6
Squadron 419 (Moose)
Squadron Motto Moosa aswayita
Trade Flight Engineer
Country of Origin Canada

Other Memorials

Location Outside Former St. Georges Hotel, Teesside Airport, County Durham
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Inscribed Slate Memorial Tablet on Stone Memorial
Memorial Text A memorial to Nos 419, 420 and 428 Sqns RCAF who flew from RAF Middleton St George during WW2
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Miscellaneous Information

Serbert was born on 10 April 1908 at Darlington, Durham County, Ontario. His father was a clerk and was born in Brooklyn, Ontario. He was deceased by the time of Serbert's enlistment. He attended Centre Street Public school, Oshawa 1915-1920 and then Oshawa High 1920- 1922 (Matric). Serbert enjoyed golf and swimming. He worked mainly at General Motors of Canada- in the Purchasing Department 1926-1929, in the body and metal riveting dept. 1930-1932 and then spent 1932-1935 as a labourer and was back at General Motors later in 1935.
He enlisted on 28 May 1940 and embarked from Canada on 3 November 1941 for the U.K. He arrived at 3 PRC on 14 November 1941, 407 Sqn 21 November 1941, 1658 CU 5 January 1943 and 419 Squadron 28 February 1943. He lost his life a little more than a month later.
There is some doubt as to the exact spelling of his first forename. It is various spelt as Serbert, Siebert, Seibert and Sebert.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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The National Archives

Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/1822/30
Summary of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/1822/29

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.

Agar B W (F/S)
Boyd P D (F/O)
Langley J B (Sgt)
Lawry G W (F/O)
Macdonald H T (P/O)
Ransome L H (Sgt)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 03-04-1943
End Date 04-04-1943
Takeoff Station Middleton St. George
Day/Night Raid Night (1% moon)
Operation Essen. 348 aircraft, 21 losses (6.0%). The weather was uncertain so PFF had a plan to mark either using sky or ground markers. In the event the conditions were clear but both kinds of marking were used, causing confusion amongst the main force. Nevertheless, bombing was accurate, making this the most successful attack on Essen so far.
Reason for Loss Shot down by a night-fighter and crashed at Duur, near Deventer, Holland

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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.