Harelaw Cemetery
Photo: Dorothy Hall
Memorial at Silverstone: Tony Hibberd
Memorial at Silverstone: Tony Hibberd
Memorial at Silverstone: Tony Hibberd
1515446 Flight Sergeant
T.W. Thompson
Air Bomber
31st March 1944 Age 32
Death Divides
But Memory Clings.
His Duty Well Done
A small plaque in front reads:-
In
Loving
memory of
Will and Tom
From Mother
and Father
At Rest
Simon Glancey has submitted the following:
Flight Sgt Thompson was killed in Halifax III LW478 LK-S go 578 Squadron, which crashed on its return from a mission to Nurnberg. The Halifax was trying to land at R.A.F. Silverstone, but crashed in nearby fields in bad visibility. Of the eight crew, only one survived the crash.
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1944; W.R. Chorley; 1997; Midland Counties Publications; ISBN 0 904597 91 1 page 157
Tony Hibberd has submitted photos of a memorial to the crew at the Silverstone Racing Circuit, Northamptonshire. This reads:
At 22.03 hours on 30 March 1944 a Halifax Mk BIII bomber of 578
Squadron Royal Air Force took off from Burn in North Yorkshire to
take part in the disastrous raid on Nuremburg during which Bomber
Command suffered the greatest loss in a single operation, 96 aircraft
destroyed, 545 airmen killed and 152 being taken as prisoners of war.
Having successfully completed the mission LK-S was forced on the
return to attempt an emergency landing at RAF Silverstone. Making
the run in, the machine struck the high masts of the Assisted Safe
Landing Equipment here and crashed into the adjoining fields.
Miraculously, the Mid Upper Gunner survived, but those killed were:
Squadron Leader Maurice McCreanor
Pilot: age 26
Sergeant Alexander William McLennan
Second Pilot: age 23
Pilot Officer Thomas Arthur Evans
Navigator
Flight Sergeant Thomas Walton Thompson
Bomb aimer: age 32
Sergeant Ronald Maton
Wireless Operator: age 23
Pilot Officer Charles Albert Donovan
Flight Engineer: age 27
Sergeant Donald Alfred Hooker
Rear Gunner: age 19; survived but died of wounds on 9 April 1944
May they rest peacefully in the arms of their God.
Thomas Walton Thompson is remembered in Annfield Plain on A38.01
