Date:	Monday 1 January 1945
Time:	c. 11.00
Type:	Avro Lancaster Mk I
Owner/operator:	9 Sqn RAF
Registration:	NG223
MSN:	WS-D
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 7
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Dortmund-Ems canal near Ladbergen, Steinfurt, North Rhine-Westphalia -   Germany
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Bardney, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Avro Lancaster B.I NG223/WS-D of 9 Squadron, RAF: Destroyed 1 Janiuary 1945 on combat operations, with the loss of four of the seven crew on board. Four killed in action, three survived to be taken PoW.

Took off from RAF Bardney. Lincolnshire at 08:10 hrs to bomb the Dortmund-Ems canal near Ladbergen. Believed to have been shot down by flak near the traget area. The dead of the crew now rest in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.

According to the following excerpt from the biography of Percy Edward Bates, from his old school, Winchester College (see link #5):

"Their mission on New Year's Day 1945 was to bomb the Dortmund-Ems Canal near Ladbergen in Germany. A vital transport route for the German war effort, the Canal had been hit repeatedly but was always quickly repaired. At 8.10am Bates and his crew took off in Lancaster I NG223 WS-D for their 9th mission. They started their attack at 11am with 102 Lancasters and two Mosquitos bombing the canal from a cloudless blue sky. The area was extensively damaged and delay-action bombs were exploding well into the following day. Five Lancasters were lost, three over the target. One of them was Bates'. The heavy and accurate German flak was lethal for aircraft in straight and level flight as Lancasters had to be in order to aim for their target. As Bates and his crew concentrated on making the bomb-run as perfect as possible, three shells burst behind them. Just as Bates called 'Bombs gone' - the signal that Pilot Officer Peter Reaks, flying the aircraft, could begin to take evasive action - the front of the plane was hit by a shell. Bates was killed instantly together with three other crew members. The three crew members who survived owed their lives to their rudimentary parachutes and were all taken prisoner.

At the time of his death, Bates was aged 31 and held the acting rank of Flying Officer. Wing Commander J M Bazin, the squadron commander, spoke of Bates in the highest terms, 'A very keen and efficient air bomber, most popular with everyone in the Squadron. His loss was a great blow to us all'. Possibly because of the age gap between him and the rest of his crew, Bates tended not to socialise much with his fellow crew members and when they went to their local pub, he preferred to stay behind to play chess with the ground crew. He owned a large American car and Wing Commander Bazin, who only had a bicycle, asked him not to park it near the squadron offices.

He, and the other crew members, are buried of the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery. Flying Officer Bates lies in grave 18.C.12. The family's chosen epitaph reads 'With Christ/Which is Far Better'"

Crew:
Pilot: Flying Officer Peter William Reaks RAFVR 182747 (NCO:1600352) [Killed] (NCO:1600352 Commission Gazetted: Tuesday 26 September, 1944)
Flight Engineer: Sgt Thomas Scott RAFVR 1569472 [Killed]
Navigator: Flight/Sgt Frank Alton RAF 1581274 [PoW]
Bomb Aimer: Pilot Officer Edward Percy Bates RAFVR 189351 (NCO:65883) [Killed] (NCO:65883 Commission Gazetted: Tuesday 6 February, 1945)
W/Op/Air Gunner: Flight Sgt Stanley William Guy Currigan RAFVR 1800502 [Killed]
Mid Upper Gunner: Flight Sgt V S Pearce RAF [PoW]
Rear Gunner: Flight Sgt W G Bamforth RAF 22323 [PoW]

Pilot Officer Edward Percy Bates - whose promotion to a Commissioned Officer at Warrant Officer rank was awaiting official promulgation - was the son of Sir Percy E Bates GBE, 4th Baronet Heston and Lady Bates of Heston, Cheshire. As can be seen from the above note, the promotion to Warrant Officer was adwarded posthumusly, on 6 February 1945, five weeks after his death.

Ladbergen is a municipality in the district of Steinfurt, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated near the Dortmund-Ems Canal, approximately 25 km south-west of Osnabrück and 20 km north-east of Münster.

1. Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 1945.
2. Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database
3. https://www.militaryhistories.co.uk/canal_raids/loss_details/loss_ng223
4. https://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/details.php?uniq=NG223
5. https://www.winchestercollegeatwar.com/RollofHonour.aspx?RecID=10&TableName=ta_wwiifactfile&BrowseID=2
6. 9 Squadron RAF Operations Record Book for the period 1 to 31 January 1945: File AIR27/129/1 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C2502761
7. CWGC: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2041354/peter-william-reaks/
8. CWGC: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2041769/thomas-scott/
9.CWGC: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2036798/edward-percy-bates/
10.CWGC: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2035974/stanley-william-guy-currigan/
11. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56032447/edward_percy-bates
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._9_Squadron_RAF#1945
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bardney#Second_World_War
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dortmund%E2%80%93Ems_Canal#Towns_along_the_canal
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladbergen

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
24-Jan-2017 21:28	Red Dragon	Added
24-Dec-2017 12:31	XindelX	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Destination airport, Narrative, ]
15-Jan-2025 16:58	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative, Category, ]
07-Feb-2025 14:30	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative, ]