I am the cousin of Doug Fairbairn. I have visited his grave in Serazereux Communal Cemetery, near Chartres, France. Here are the details I know:
On the night of the 10th June a Lancaster Mk III bomber (ND.594 ‘P’) flown by Pilot Officer Fairbairn with a crew of 8. The aircraft took off from Grimsby at 22.55 in good weather with 19 other Lancasters from 100 sqdn.
The crews had been placed on standby for the mission early in the day. Orders identifying the target had not been received until 16.00.
Their mission was to bomb the railway near Archeres. To the west of Archeres towards Paris was a marshalling yard and nearby were twin junction switches on the rail network. The operations log for 100 sqdn records the junction was “already a much bombed tactical objective but still passing German military traffic to the Western front”. Indeed the aircraft had been had navigated there four days earlier with P/O Fairbairn and bombed the target on the night of the 6/7th June landing back at Grimsby at 03.05
As the aircraft crossed southern England the aircraft encountered low cloud that continued over the Channel and then the weather cleared. 17 planes reached Archeres and dropped 68 tons of high explosive. I aircraft arrived too late over the target and was forced to jettison its bomb load into the sea on the return.
432 aircraft from Bomber Command - 323 Lancasters, 90 Halifaxes, 19 Mosquitos - attacked railway targets at Achères, Dreux, Orléans and Versailles that night. All targets were believed to have been hit but few further details are available. 15 Lancasters and 3 Halifaxes were lost
2 of those Lancasters were from 100 Sqdn and failed to return to Grimsby.
It was later discovered that the aircraft had crashed at Serazereux 20 kilometres north-north-west of Chartres and about 15 kilometres south-south-east of Dreux. All 8 crew died. They were buried in a communal grave in Serazereuz Cemetery and are the only service personnel in the cemetery. The cemetery is east of the village on the road to the neighbouring village of Ormoy. I have a photograph of the grave.
Below is the flight log:
100 Sqd. 18-Mar-44, Lancaster JB289 HW-T, Ops Munich, F/S DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, P/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt JR Logan took off at 19.45, over target at 22.01, returned 01.10 flight time 5hrs25mins
100Sqd. 22-Mar-44, Lancaster JB289 HW-T, Ops to Frankfurt, F/S DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, P/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall, F/S CL Foster. Took off 19.15, over target 22.12, returned 00.55. Flight time 5hrs.40mins
100Sqd. 24-Mar-44 Lancaster JB289 HW-T, Ops to Berlin, F/S DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, P/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall, F/S CL Foster. Took off 19.05, over target 22.40, returned 02.40 Flight time 7hrs.35mins.
100Sqd. 26-Mar-44, Lancaster ND328 HW-W Ops Essen, F/S DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, P/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder Sgt LE Gibbons Sgt WS Tunstall Sgt RA Bacon. Took off at 20.05 over target 22.07 returned 00.55 flight time 4hrs 50mins.
100 Sqd. 30-Mar-44, Lancaster JB603 HW-E, Ops Nuremburg, F/S DTG Fairbairn Sgt HR Tufton, P/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt JG Woockey. Took off at 22.20, over target 01.22 retunred 05.45 flight time 7hrs 25mins.
100Sqd, 11-Apr-44, Lancaster ND594 HW-P, Ops to Aachen, F/S DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, P/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt FH Taylor. Took off 20.45 over target 22.47 returned 00.40 flight time 3hrs55mins.
100Sqd. 20-Apr-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Cologne, P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt FH Taylor. Took off 23.43 over target 02.10 returned 04.16 flight time 4hrs33mins
100 22-Apr-44, Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Dusseldorf, P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt FH Taylor. Took off 22.43 over target 01.19, returned 03.25 flight time 4hrs 42mins. Notes:H2S U/S.
100Sqd. 24-Apr-44, Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Karlsruhe. P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt FH Taylor. Took off 21.38 over target 00.45 returned 04.10 flight time 6hrs32mins.
100Sqd. 26-Apr-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Essen, P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt FH Taylor. Took off 23.05 over target 01.38 returned 04.00 flight time 4hrs 55mins.
100Sqd. 27-Apr-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Freidrichshaven. P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt FH Taylor. Took off 21.50 over target 02.09 returned 05.50 flight time 8hrs
100Sqd. 30-Apr-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Maintenon. P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt FH Taylor. Took off 21.41 over target 23.55 returned 02.19 flight time 4hrs38 Notes: H2S U/S.
100Sqd. 01-May-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Lyons. P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt FH Taylor. Took off 21.23 over target 01.06 returned 04.34 flight time 7hrs.11mins.
100Sqd. 03-May-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Mailly le Camp. P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt FH Taylor. Took off 21.55 over target 00.18 returned 03.25 flight time 5hrs.30mins.
100Sqd. 09-May-44 Lancaster ND644 HW-N Ops to Merville. F/L P Sherriff , Sgt E Bruce, F/O F Toverey, F/O RM Girvan, Sgt RL Onions P/O GR Dixon, Sgt S Kneller , 2nd Pilot P/O W Castle, 2nd B/A F/O E Grundy. Took off 21.50 over target 23.41 returned 01.05 flight time 3hrs.15mins.
100sqd. 27-May-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Merville. P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall, Sgt HW Gee. Took off 23.38 over target 02.00 returned 03.51 flight time 4hrs.13mins Notes: Bomb sight went U/S while orbiting the target.
100 31-May-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Tergnier. P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall, Sgt HW Gee. Took off 23.41 over target 05.05 returned 5.24 Notes: Abandoned Could not release bombs. All hung up.
100Sqd. 02-Jun-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Bernaval. P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt HW Gee. Took off 23.30 over target 01.27 returned 03.30 flight time 4hrs.
100sqd. 05-Jun-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to St Martin de Varreville. P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt AM Nyland, Sgt HW Gee. Took off 21.40 over target 23.51 returned 01.55 flight time 4hrs.15mins.
100sqd. 06-Jun-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Vire. P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall , Sgt HW Gee. Took off 22.20 over target 00.38 returned 03.05 flight time 4hrs.45mins.
100sqd. 07-Jun-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Foret de Cerisy. P/O DTG Fairbairn, Sgt HR Tufton, F/O F Toverey, F/O JM Wilder, Sgt LE Gibbons, Sgt WS Tunstall, Sgt HW Gee. Took off 23.05 over target 01.43 returned 03.45 flight time 4hrs.40mins.
100Sqd. 10-Jun-44 Lancaster ND594 HW-P Ops to Acheres. 173760 P/O DTG Fairbairn, 1343965 Sgt RS Millar, 151163 F/O F Toverey, 1335126 Sgt PA Kemp, 1800349 Sgt F Sedgwick, Sgt J Hancock, 1517079 Sgt HW Gee, 2nd Pilot 172480 P/O KA Wells. Took off 22.55 Lost Crashed at Serazereaux
