|
|
|
28th April 1944On this day:
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
|
Remembering those who died this day.
- Burgum Robert Edward. Sgt. (d.28th April 1944)
- McIvor Robert Austin. F/Sgt (d.28th Apr 1944)
- McLay John Milton. F/O. (d.28th Apr 1944)
- Rigden Stanley. Sgt. (d.28th Apr 1944)
- Sharland Robert George. F/O. (d.28th April 1944)
- Silverman Alexis Louis. Ft Lt. (d.28th April 1944)
- Stevenson Benjamin. Pte. (d.28th April 1944)
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.
- 18th 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 263925 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 28th of April 1944? There are:30 items tagged 28th of April 1944 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 28th April 1944
|
Sgt. Stanley Rigden. Royal Canadian Air Force, 419 Sqd.. (d.28th Apr 1944) My uncle flew from Teeside with the 419th RCAF Sqdn, and was killed on 28th April 1944. His name was Stanley Rigden a Sgt (Flt Eng). He was married to my mother's sister and had a son who he never saw. Andrew Cadman
|
Sgt. Robert Edward Burgum. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 51 Sqd.. (d.28th April 1944) Wilf Matthews
|
F/O. John Milton McLay. Royal Canadian Air Force, 432 Squadron. (d.28th Apr 1944) Flying Officer John McLay was my father's cousin. My father told me about him when I was a child. He was in the RCAF and served as a navigator on bombers. He was shot down and killed in 1944 and that's all I knew about him until I started to research him and his war service.
I know almost nothing about John’s childhood. He was born and grew up in Lion’s Head, Ontario. It is a very small village about 150 miles north of Toronto and surrounded by mainly farmland and to the east Georgian Bay.
John enlisted in the RCAF in 1939 and was promoted to Flying Officer after his training. He was part of 432 squadron and was flying in Halifax BIII bombers in 1944. On the night of April 27 1944, 432 Squadron along with 419, 431, and 434 Squadrons were tasked with bombing the railroad marshalling yards at Montzen, Belgium. After midnight on the 28th April, John’s Halifax was attacked by a German nightfighter piloted by Major Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer aka. The Night Ghost of St. Trond. His Halifax crashed near Verviers, Belgium. John is buried at Heverlee War Cemetery Belgium.
John McLay’s aircraft, Halifax BIII number MZ588 call sign QO-W was brand new to the squadron and this was it’s first and only combat mission. I do not know how many mission my father’s cousin flew. Of course I never knew him but I would have liked to have known him.
David McLay
|
F/O. Robert George Sharland. DFC. Royal Air Force, 156 Squadron. (d.28th April 1944) In 1944, seven young airmen took off in a Lancaster bomber from an RAF airfield in the East of England. Their target was Friedrichshafen, in the far south of Germany. It was about as far as a Lancaster could fly; a journey of 8 hours there and back before it would run out of fuel. Their mission was to bomb factories where inmates from Dachau concentration camp were forced to work in an underground bunker,making parts for tanks and V2 rockets. It was part of the RAFs mission to destroy the Nazis industrial capacity, end the war and ultimately deliver Europe, from the tyranny of the Third Reich.
On board were Kenneth Franklin, a 21-year-old shepherd from Napier New Zealand; John Dodds, 28 from Australia; and from England, Cecil Eaton the commanding officer of the squadron and a comparatively old man at 32; Leslie Glasspool, the Squadron Leader, aged 25, Philip Wadsworth aged 22, who had just had a baby son; Colin Kidd, aged 30; and my uncle Robert Sharland (Flight Gunnery Leader), aged 21, who had been married for 23 days.
After 4 hours of flying, their plane was hit by a Luftwaffe nightfighter over Neuhausen. The plane crashed to the ground and exploded with the loss of all seven men. They are now buried in Durnbach Military Cemetery. RIP my Uncle Bob and comrades.
Miriam Sharland
|
F/Sgt Robert Austin McIvor. RCAF, 419 (Moose) Squadron. (d.28th Apr 1944) F/Sgt Robert Austin McIvor R147417 DFC J15712 was a pilot based at Middleton St George now Teeside airport and flew Halifax's from this base for 419 RCAF Moose Squadron which included VR JH 954 R and was KIA 28th April 1944
|
|
