|
|
|
17th December 1942On this day:
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
|
Remembering those who died this day.
The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please
Add a Name to this List
|
|
|
The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
Announcements
- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 22nd April 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263973 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
- Looking for help with Family History Research?
Please read our Family History FAQ's
- The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
If you enjoy this site
please consider making a donation.
Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our
Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
|
We are now on Facebook. Like this page to receive our updates.
If you have a general question please post it on our Facebook page.
Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them.
The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion
Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
|
|
Want to know more about the 17th of December 1942? There are:15 items tagged 17th of December 1942 available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
|
Stories from 17th December 1942
|
Sgt Geoffrey Beckett. Royal Air Force, 44 Squadron (Rhodesia). (d.17 Dec 1942) Geoffrey Beckett was my great-uncle. He was born, with his twin sister Jean, on 11 March 1921 in Sheffield, the youngest son of Edward Fisher Beckett and Lottie May Moore.
I do not know when Geoffrey signed up, or for how long he had been flying before his death. The information below is gathered from various sources.
17/18 December 1942
Minor Operations: 27 Lancasters of 5 Group were sent on raids to 8 small German towns and 16 Stirlings and 6 Wellingtons of 3 Group attempted to attack the Opel works at Fallersleben. This type of limited operation proved to be a costly failure. 9 of the 27 Lancasters were lost and, at Fallersleben, only 3 aircraft bombed the target, in cloud conditions, and 6 Stirlings and 2 Wellingtons were lost from this part of the night's operations. Fifty aircraft were dispatched to lay mines from Denmark to southern Biscay - 1 Lancaster was lost - and there were 5 OTU sorties to France. Total losses for the night: 18 aircraft out of 104 dispatched, 1.3 per cent. I know from checking further that Geoffrey's plane was the Avro Lancaster I, registration W4126, KM-B and that he was based in Waddingham in Lincolnshire.
Geoffrey was a Sergeant and was the Air Gunner (mid upper) and the rest of the crew was possibly as follows;
- F/O. Lawrence Gerard Lyons McNamara - Pilot
- F/O. Raymond Norman McCleery - Air Obs
- F/O. James William Loree - Air Obs
- Sgt. Kenneth Robert Macleod - Wireless Operator/Air Gunner
- Sgt. Gordon William Jones - Air Gunner (rear)
- Sgt. G A Read - Flight Engineer
- Sgt. Stanley Holmes - Navigator
There is some confusion in my mind as originally I had assumed that as Sgt Holmes was buried in the same place, and died on the same date (as per the CWGC site) that he was part of the crew - and this seemed to make sense as he was a navigator, but another site does not include him, but does include Sgt Read.
I had always assumed that all of the crew were killed, but I've now discovered that Fl/Eng: Sgt. G.A. Read was a P.O.W. No: 27313 at Camp: Stalag Lamsdorf (344) in Poland. It is understood that W4126 was hit by Kriegsmarine flak and crashed at 18.45 hrs on the island of Texel. Sgt. Read on his release stated that the aircraft was on fire when he baled out. The Germans provided a funeral with full military honours on Tuesday, 22nd December. Nicola Roberts
|
PO. Robert Pickersgill. Royal Navy, HMS Firedrake. (d.17th Dec 1942) Robert Pickersgill died aged 27, he was born in Jarrow in 1913, son of Robert and (nee Pinder). He was the Husband of Hilda Pickersgill (nee Howitt) of Leeds. He is remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial and is commemorated on the WW2 Roll of Honour Plaque in the entrance of Jarrow Town Hall. Vin Mullen
|
Sig. Stanley F. "Stun" Bedford. British Army, 11th LofC Coy. Royal Signals. (d.17th Dec 1942) Stun, Stanley Bedford was my grandfather's youngest brother.
At the outbreak of WW2 he worked as a clerk in the offices of the GLC (remember that?).
He joined the Royal Signals as a Dispatch Rider (DR) and served with the 11th Line of Communication Signals in North Africa during Operation Torch.
Stan was killed on 17th of December 1942.
The circumstances are as yet undiscovered.
His grave lies in the Bone Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Annaba, Algeria.
His wife Rosa had a son Donald, whom he never saw.
Shortly after the war she emigrated to Canada.
He was the son of Thomas and Ada Bedford, my great-grandparents. Mick O'Gorman
|
|
