Howell, Desmond William

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Personal Information

Rank P/O
Forename(s) Desmond William
Surname Howell
Gender M
Age 22
Date of Death 25-03-1944
Next of Kin Son of William Howell and Elsie May Howell (née Somerfield), of Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
HOWELL DW

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Handley Page Halifax III
Serial Number HX284
Markings BM-B

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country Germany
Burial/Memorial Place Reichswald Forest War Cemetery
Grave Reference 23. F. 16.
Epitaph

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 2
Panel Number 185

Enlistment Information

Service Number J/91045
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 6
Squadron 433 (Porcupine)
Squadron Motto Quis 'y frotte s'y pique (Who opposes it gets hurt)
Trade Air Gunner
Country of Origin Canada

Miscellaneous Information

Desmond was born in Aston, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England on 26 July 1921. His parents were both born in Birmingham and his father worked as a Stationery Engineer. He had two sisters, Madge and Joyce. The schools he attended were Prince Edward Public, 1927-1934 and Windsor Vocational 1934-1939 (Mechanical Drafting). Both in Windsor, Ontario. His sport interests were football, baseball, hockey and track events, and his hobby was making model aircraft. Desmond worked for Bendix Eclipse, Windsor, 1938-1940 and then as a Mechanical Draftsman at Ford Motor Company of Canada, 1940-1942.
He enlisted on 13 October 1942 and after training embarked from Halifax on 26 August 1943 for the U.K. He arrived at 3 PRC on 2 September 1943, and then went to 24 OTU 14 September 1943, 61 Base 20 October 1943, 1659 CU 9 November 1943 and 433 Squadron on 11 December 1943. Desmond sadly lost his life on 25 March 1944.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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The National Archives

Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/1862/6
Summary of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/1862/5

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.

Russell W F (P/O)
Walmsley W (Sgt)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 24-03-1944
End Date 25-03-1944
Takeoff Station Skipton on Swale
Day/Night Raid Night (1% moon)
Operation Berlin. 811 aircraft, 72 losses (8.9%). Known as the 'night of the strong winds', a very powerful wind from the north tended to push the aircraft south at every stage of the operation. As a result, the bomber stream became very scattered, allowing fighters to pick off stragglers, although 50 of the aircraft Lost were hit by flak. Around 20000 were bombed out but no industrial premises were hit. This was the last major raid on Berlin of the war.
Reason for Loss Crashed near Legden, SE of Ahaus, Germany

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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.