Sgt Derek Morris joined the Royal Air Force on 2nd Mar 1943 just short of his 18th birthday. After qualifying as a Flight Engineer on the Lancaster B Mk 1, he and his crew were posted to No. 218 (Gold Coast) Squadron on 12th of August 1944 based at RAF Methwold. Derek married Nancy May Horler on 20th Sep 1944. The Sqn relocated to RAF Chedburgh on 5th Dec 1944.
The official summary for No. 218 (Gold Coast) Sqn operations on the 31st of December 1944 recorded that 17 aircraft were detailed and briefed for operations this day. They departed RAF Chedburgh at 11.15 hours to carry out a daylight bombing mission on the Vohwinkel Railway Marshalling Yards, Solingen in Germany, with 154 other Lancasters from 3 Group. Two aircraft, NF926 and NG330, either collided or one's bombs hit the other and were seen going down in the target area. Nothing was heard from NF926 and NG330 after take-off.
Crew list for Lancaster B Mk 1, NF926 callsign HA-X
- F/O 175154 RAFVR Roy William Woodrow Captain
- Flt Lt 47598 RAF George Neville Chandler 2nd Pilot
- Sgt 1568847 RAFVR William Neil Watson Navigator
- F/S Aus/428566 John Leslie Stagg Wireless Operator
- F/S 1399446 RAFVR Cyril Henry Robert James Bomb Aimer/Air Gunner
- Sgt 1595839 RAF Joseph Carver Mid Upper Gunner
- Sgt 1629751 RAFVR V. Welbourne Rear Gunner
- Sgt 591938 RAFVR Derek Morris Flight Engineer
Further research has established that NF926, from C flight, was probably a G-H leader as the crew included a 2nd pilot and had a bomb load which included Red Target Indicators (TI). It was reported that after leaving the target area NF926 and NG330 collided. The crew of NF926 were on their 27th mission, 26th for Sgt Derek Morris. The crew of NG330, only on their 2nd mission, perished when their aircraft crashed near Solingen.
Research conducted for the website Aircrew Remembered has established that NF926 crashed at around 14:50 hours on Somerstrasse 6 (apparently a workshop) in Solingen, a few kilometres south of the target. It appears that some of the inhabitants, sheltering in a nearby air raid shelter, heard the thump as the aircraft hit the building. F/O Woodrow (Pilot) and Sgt Watson (Navigator) were found alive but badly injured in the wreckage. F/O Woodrow, still strapped into his seat and trapped by his legs pleaded for help from passers-by who ignored him; except for Fritz Schulze, a German policeman who pulled his pistol and shot them both dead. Schulze was arrested in 1945 and tried for the murder of the two airmen before a British Military Court at Hamburg in Jul 1947. He was found guilty and hanged for his crimes on 14th Nov 1947 in Hameln Prison.
Records reveal that Sgt V. Welbourne, the Rear Gunner for NF926, managed to bail out and was subsequently captured. He was repatriated after the war in Europe ended.
Sgt Derek Morris and the rest of the crew of NF926 were originally buried at the Grafrath Cemetery near Solingan. After the war the Commonwealth War Graves Commission reinterred them at the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery on the 27th Feb 1947.
