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1206592
F/O. Derek Howse
Royal Air Force 51 Squadron
from:Harborne, Birmingham
(d.26th Jun 1943)
I again visited the graves of the crew of a Halifax - JD261 - that was lost on a raid on Gelsenkirchen and put a British Legion cross on all crew man's graves of this aircraft that included my wife's uncle, Flying Officer Derek Howse.
I am of Dutch birth and married the niece of D G Howse. My father was in the Dutch Resistance and so I have been brought up on the history of this conflict that affected my family too.
The attached photo is of some crew members, one on the extreme right being D G Howse. One can not fail to be moved by the smiles of young and brave men standing by their aircraft.
If there are any family members of these men reading this, then I hope that they might care to identify who the others in the photo are, please.
133877 Flying Officer Derek Howse served as an Air Bomber with the 51st Squadron Royal Air Force during WW2 and was killed, age 22, on the night of 25/26th June 1943. He is buried in Eindhoven (Woensel) General Cemetery. Derek was the Son of George Henry Howse, and of Mary Howse, of Harborne, Warwickshire.