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Williams, Gordon Ivan

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Personal Information

Rank W/O
Forename(s) Gordon Ivan
Surname Williams
Gender M
Age 21
Decorations
Date of Death 31-01-1944
Next of Kin Son of Fred and Daisy Williams, of Elkhorn, Manitoba, Canada.
WILLIAMS GI

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Avro Lancaster III
Serial Number JB659
Markings OF-J

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country Netherlands
Burial/Memorial Place Haarlemmermeer (Zwanenburg) General Cemetery
Grave Reference Plot B. Row C. Coll. grave 15.
Epitaph HE GAVE HIS LIFE THAT WE MIGHT BE FREE ALWAYS REMEMBERED

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 2
Panel Number 265

Enlistment Information

Service Number R/119950
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 8
Squadron 97 (Straits Settlements)
Trade Air Bomber
Country of Origin Canada

Other Memorials

Location Williams Point, Manitoba; On the southern bank of Copeland Lake
Country Canada
Memorial Type Point
Memorial Text
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Location Bourn Village, Cambridgeshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Village Sign featuring relief of Lancaster JB659 OF-J
Memorial Text Village Sign featuring relief of Lancaster JB659 OF-J
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Location Church of the Holy Spirit, RAF Coningsby, Coningsby, Lincolnshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Stained Glass Window
Memorial Text A stained glass window remembering 97 Sqn in the Church of the Holy Spirit, RAF Coningsby
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Miscellaneous Information

Enlisted against his father's wishes in Souris, Manitoba (his father had served in WWI). Soon after his basic training he began his navigator flight training program on the Anson at the Air Observer School in Prince Albert. Gordon advanced to Central Navigation School at Rivers Manitoba once again flying Ansons. By August of 1942 he had successfully completed his Nav training. In March 1943 he was posted to 14 OTU at RAF Cottesmore. In May of that year he began his flying familiarization on the Wellington. Here he was assigned to a young pilot by the name of Sergeant Alan Hart from Australia and the continued to fly together until posted to their first operational unit- 97 Squadron.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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The National Archives

Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/768/2
Summary of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/768/1

Fellow Servicemen

Hart A R (P/O)
Hicks D F (Sgt)
Boal H J (F/S)
Clifton L (Sgt)
Jones W J (Sgt)
Price C M (F/S)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 30-01-1944
End Date 31-01-1944
Takeoff Station Bourn
Day/Night Raid Night (36% moon)
Operation Berlin. 534 aircraft without diversionary raids. 33 aircraft Lost (6.2%). Initial German attempts to intercept with night-fighters failed and the bomber stream was well on the way to Berlin before they met with any resistance. Complete cloud-cover over Berlin but concentrated damage in the centre nonetheless with additional widely scattered bombs. At least 1000 deaths on the ground, 2 industrial premises completely destroyed and a further 15 seriously damaged. The Propaganda Ministry was hit, as was the railway infrastructure
Reason for Loss Take-off 1710 hrs with 2 x 2000lb bombs and marker flares. Completed the bombing run and was attacked by a night-fighter on the return leg flown by Oberleutnant Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer of 12./NJG 1 (Leeuwarden airfield). The cockpit of the Lancaster was blasted away and fell to earth with the pilot and one of the air gunners still within it. Crashed at 2205 hrs with two engines still running on a farmhouse at Zwanenburg (Noord-Holland), fatally injuring the farmer Cor van der Bijl (he died three days later), and immediately killing his wife Adir and their four youngest children, Harrie (5) Johan (4), Tom (3) and Ida (1 ½) . The bodies of the pilot and air gunner were recovered from the scene and buried locally, as were the farmer and his family. The other airmen were buried deep underground, still inside the fuselage until the year 2001 when the site was excavated by the Royal Dutch Salvage Team prior to the building of a new marina on the site. Many scraps of clothing, a shoe, a few coins and eventually human bones were discovered. A Dutch laboratory was able to determine that remains of all five airmen were present although the DNA was too damaged to allow identification of which individuals each belonged to. Their remains were buried in a single coffin alongside their comrades. One of the propellers was returned to RAF Bourn, 57 years after it left for its fateful journey. A memorial has been erected at the crash site comprising another of the aircraft's propellers. Surrounding it are two Canadian maples, two eucalyptuses, three British oaks, and six Dutch elms- one for each life lost.

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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.