208038 Wing Cdr. Victor Rundle Oats Royal Air Force 21 Squadron from:St Just-in-Penwith, Cornwall (d.12th Mar 1945) Victor Rundle Oats took over command of 21 Squadron on 9 February 1945. He flew a number of missions with his navigator, Flight Sergeant F. C. Gubbings, in the Munich and Cologne areas, at night. The squadron took part in Opertion Clarion, the destruction of German traffic centers in smaller cities; the marshalling yard in Hildesheim was targeted in the afternoon of February 22, 1945. Due to good weather and clear sight the marshalling yard was heavily damaged, the city itself received considerable damage: 102 houses were completely destroyed, and 106 houses and two churches (St. Bernward's Church and St. Lamberti Church) suffered severe damage. 998 houses and four churches, among them the Cathedral and Saint Michael's Church were slightly damaged. About 250 people were killed. One aircraft and crew was lost during the raid.
On 12 March 1945 the squadron was sent out to bomb road and rail communications East of the Ruhr leading to Magdeburg. Oats' and Gubbings' Mosquito VI, no. SZ963, failed to return. Eyewitness accounts stated that Mosquito attacked the Frankenberger Bahnhof (Railway station) and then the Thonet Werk (Industrial). During this attack it was noted that the aircraft was on fire and flying very low. The crew must have realised the danger and Oats tried desperately to gain altitude so that they would have sufficient height to bale out. Instead, the aircraft flew on a curved course towards Willesdorf but crashed on the Linnerberg, between Bottendorf and Willesdorf. The crew were found the next day and laid to rest by an old Oak tree at the Linner Mill. The two crew members were later exhumed and re-buried at Hanover War Cemetery.
During the potato harvest of 1963 a small watch was found, engraved with the initials V. R. Oats RAF 15.4.36. on the backplate. This watch had stopped at 10 minutes past 12. The people who found the watch were the Doels family, who contacted the then priest of the village Dr. Gustav Hammann who was a keen and well known local history researcher. He contacted the families of Oats and Gubbings and in 1969, Lieutenant Colonel Gilesa Oats, Victor's brother, travelled to Germany to receive the watch. During 1994 searches were made of the crash site area. A year later one of the engines was recovered and, a year later, the second. About three tons of material has been recovered so far.
There is a memorial to Victor Rundle Oats in the parish church of St Just-in-Penwith, Cornwall, his home town.
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