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Jones, Mervyn

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Personal Information

Rank Sgt
Forename(s) Mervyn
Surname Jones
Gender M
Age 20
Date of Death 14-07-1943
Next of Kin Son of John and Harriet E. Jones, of Morfa, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire.
JONES M 104

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Avro Lancaster II
Serial Number DS660
Markings KO-P

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country France
Burial/Memorial Place Grevillers British Cemetery
Grave Reference 18. E. 25.
Epitaph TO A GOOD LIFE CAME A SUDDEN END HE DIED AS HE LIVED EVERYONE'S FRIEND. FATHER

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 2
Panel Number 191

Enlistment Information

Service Number 1653104
Service Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Group 3
Squadron 115
Squadron Motto Despite the elements
Trade Flight Engineer
Country of Origin United Kingdom

Other Memorials

Location Lancaster Industrial Estate, Witchford, Cambridgeshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Stone Pillar with inscribed Slate Tablets & Metal Plaques
Memorial Text In honour of those who served during the Second World War 1939 - 1945
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Miscellaneous Information

Mervyn was the youngest of 6 children. A pupil of Morfa Boys School, he was a top scholar, maintaining top marks throughout his school years. He loved all sports and excelled at gymnastics and football. He was a gentle and loyal man, whose friendships were maintained throughout school and into adult life. As a son he was totally respectful of his loving parents and had very close relationships with his siblings - he was especially caring and kind to his disabled older brother. He spent much of his free time with his nieces and nephews whom he loved dearly - and spoke to anyone that would listen, telling them how special they were to him. Mervyn left school at 14 and worked alongside his friends at the local tin works before joining the Air Force. Mervyn loved books, inscribing each one with the lines “black is the raven, black is the rook, but blacker is the one who steals this book”. His parents, knowing his passion for learning and reading bought him the complete Encyclopaedia Britannica, which he treasured. Mervyn spent a lot of his spare time drawing and kept a little book of his work. He especially loved drawing the aircraft he saw and later drew the Lancasters that he flew in. He wrote home regularly, always thanking his family for sending money and came home as often as his leave allowed. His letters to his mother and father always sounded positive, but to his best friend Ken, he would tell him he was finding the training tough. He told Ken that his saving grace was meeting up with two fellow Welshmen, who he maintained a friendship with and they visited each other’s homes and met respective parents. Ken would send him stamps as money was so tight - so that their communication didn’t cease. His love for his mother was such that for a long time he convinced her that he was in no danger and that he was assigned as ground crew.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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The National Archives

Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/890/14
Summary of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/890/13

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.

Armstrong C (P/O)
Murphy D (Sgt)
Newton J A T (Sgt)
Williams P (Sgt)
Yates F L (F/O)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 13-07-1943
End Date 14-07-1943
Takeoff Station East Wretham
Day/Night Raid Night (83% moon)
Operation Aachen. 374 aircraft, 20 losses (5.3%). A strong tail wind led to the main force arriving early and when PFF marked the target, so many aircraft were waiting that the town appeared to erupt into flames. Almost 3000 buildings were destroyed including apartment blocks, so the number of dwellings destroyed was some 16828. The cathedral, the town hall and many other civic amenities were also classed as severely damaged.
Reason for Loss Shot down by a night-fighter and crashed near Grevillers, France

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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.