208891 WO Henry Charles Rossiter Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 'A' flight. 115 Squadron from:Laindon, Essex I served with 115 squadron based at Witchford from 15th August 1944 to 9th January 1945. I was the wireless operator of Flt Lt Jenkins's crew of 8. (We had a mid under gunner). In November and December our Lancaster KO-C serial number hk578 was a gh leader bombing through cloud in daylight raids. We were one of the luckier crews surviving without any damage although during night raids we survived several night fighter attacks. One attacking JU88 was damaged by our gunners over Frankfurt I believe. Our crew was also chosen to experiment with the photo flash exploding when bombs burst(That was before we acquired our mid under gunner). Flight Lt Jenkins was awarded the DFC for his cool conduct when under pressure. He now lives in Kansas City, USA and he and I are the only surviving members of our crew. I keep in touch with him. HK 578 survived the war and was eventually demolished.
One sad story. In November 1944 an order was published stating that any crew completing their first tour of 30 ops, if thay had 7 or more French targets among their 30, they were required to do 5 more ops. Flt Lt Davidson RCAF and his crew were in this category and on their 31st were all killed in a collision with our 'A' flight commander Sqdn. Ldr Hugh Castle who also perished along with his crew. Their names appear on the Runnymede Memorial which I have visited. I had several friends among those lost.
Note. I held rank of Fl/Sgt whilst on the squadron.
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