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208413 P/O Alan Leach Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 51 Squadron from:Coppull, Lancashire (d.5th Jan 1945) Alan Leach was born in Coppull in 1921, the son of Sylvester and Emma. He was brother to Fred, well known in the village. He was a Pilot Officer in the RAF Volunteer Reserve at the age of 19 and a member of 51 squadron. The aircraft he was flying on 5th January 1945 was a Halifax LV 952, MH – F. It took off from RAF Snaith at 16.47 hours, detailed to bomb Hannover, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. It was shot down at 19.22 by Luftwaffe pilot Georg-Hermann Greiner, and crashed 19.27 at Leinhausen- Soeckern. He and five of the crew were killed and are buried in Hannover War Cemetery, Niedersachsen, Germany. The Crew were: P/O A. Leach (Pilot) Sgt P Neale (Flight Engineer) F/Sgt J S Staples (Navigator) Flt Sgt W G Bowen (Air Bomber) P/O L A Wilson RAAF (Wireless Operator) F/Sgt W M Burton (Air Gunner) Sgt D Ef F Tomsett (Air Gunner) The only surviving crew member was Sgt Thomsett (Air Gunner) Please type your message:      We recommend you copy the text about this item and keep a copy on your own computer before pressing submit. Your Name:             Email Address:       @ **Please type the first part our your email in the first box (eg. john.smith) the @ sign is added automaticallly, please type the second part in the second box (eg. gmail.com). Do not enter your full email in each box or add an @ sign or random spaces.** Please type in the code shown here:    If you are unable to read the code please click here. If you have received an error message for incorrect code, please click to refresh the code before resending. This should overcome the error message.