The Rev. David Youngson has submitted the following:
1164937 Sergeant CLUFF Edward Burgess
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
44 Squadron
He was a member of the crew of an Avro Lancaster Bomber 1 R5493 KM-M based at RAF Waddington. They were on a gardening (mining) sortie in the Lorient area of France when they were attacked by German flak off Ile de Croix with the loss of the aircraft and all crew. He died on the 24th March 1942 and is Remembered on the Runnymede Memorial, Surrey, Panel 80.
Editor’s note: The Lancaster was the first of her class to be lost during the war after six hours service.
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1942; W.R. Chorley; 1994; Midland Counties Publications; ISBN 0 904597 89 X
Edward Burgess Cluff is remembered in Stockton on S138.52
