Date:	Monday 8 January 1945
Time:	04:15
Type:	Avro Lancaster Mk III
Owner/operator:	467 Sqn RAAF
Registration:	JB286
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 7
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Eye, Soke of Peterborough, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Waddington
Destination airport:	Munich

Narrative:
During the night of 7-8 January 1945 645 Lancasters and 9 Mosquitoes of 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 Groups, RAF Bomber Command, attacked Munich and claimed a successful area raid, with severe damage to the central and some industrial areas. This was the last major raid on Munich. Some 503 people being killed on the ground, 984 injured and a further 70,000 being made homeless. 9 Lancaster were lost (58 KIA, 5 POW), four more crashed in France (28 KIA, 2 WIA) and two in England (9 KIA, 5 WIA).
_________________________

One of the losses of this raid was the Lancaster III JB286 PO-L of 467 Sqn RAAF that took off at 1707 hrs from Waddington. After ten hours in the air, it crashed at 0415 hrs on the 8th and exploded near the village of Eye, 3 miles northeast from the centre of Peterborough. No bodies were found and it is thought likely the crew abandoned the aircraft while over the sea. None was ever found and they are all commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. Their average age was twenty-one.

Crew:-
Pilot : Flying Officer William Andrew McNamee RAAF Aus/426422 [Killed]
Flight Engineer : Sergeant Henry William Kirsh RAFVR 1812555 [Killed]
Navigator : Flight Sergeant Herbert John Williams RAAF Aus/427218 [Killed]
Bomb Aimer : Flight Sergeant John Danckert Gloury RAAF Aus/430372 [Killed]
Wireless Operator : Flight Sergeant Stephanos Servos RAAF Aus/434029 [Killed]
Mid-Upper Gunner : Flight Sergeant Laurance Julius Saulwick RAAF Aus/431186 [Killed]
Rear Gunner : Flight Sergeant Maxwell Bright Bruckner RAAF Aus/431195 [Killed]

Remains of Lancaster JB286 were discovered during excavation of a landfill site at Eye in June 1995. The engines and propellor bosses are now in the Fenland and West Norfolk Aviation museum at Wisbech.

http://aircrewremembered.com/mcnamee-william.html
"The Bomber Command War Diaries", by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, ISBN 1-85780-033-8
"Royal Air Force Bomber Command losses, vol 6. Aircraft and Crews Losses 1945", by W R Chorley, ISBN 0-904597-92-X
http://www.galgos.co.uk/211601/209801.html
http://bombercrew.com/467/gloury.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye,_Cambridgeshire
http://www.maplandia.com/united-kingdom/england/east-anglia/city-of-peterborough/eye/
Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
09-Jan-2017 06:40	Laurent Rizzotti	Added
07-Jan-2024 08:00	Rob Davis	Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]