A leap into the clutches of the Nazis

November 6, 2003 by Ian Darling, The Journal

Newcastle-born George Darling was one of many Allied airmen shot down over occupied Europe during the Second World War. In the first of a two-part Remembrance Day special, his nephew, Canadian journalist Ian Darling, tells the story of the crew of bomber HR685.

On a clear, moonlit night on June 21, 1943, Flight Lieutenant Tom Lane steadied his Halifax bomber as he and his crew approached the target: Krefeld.

This industrial city in western Germany was about to experience how serious the Allies were about destroying Nazi Germany. Newcastle-born Warrant Officer George Darling, the bomb aimer, was in the nose of  the plane, looking through the bombsights. He was ready to give directions over the intercom to Lane, the pilot. "Left. Left. Steady, skipper." He then pressed the black knob at the end of the bomb-release cord and uttered the words Lane was waiting to hear. "Bombs away, skipper." The aircraft released incendiary bombs that created an inferno and flares that lit up the target for the other bombers that were following.

Quickly, the pilot turned the plane, HR685, around and started the return journey to Royal Air Force Station Graveley, near Cambridge. Taking the normal evasive action, Lane moved the bomber up and down, and weaved it from starboard to port. By doing this, he hoped to avoid coming into the firing line of a German night fighter. The clock moved into the morning hours of June 22.

Suddenly, at about 17,000 feet and not far from the Dutch coast, cannon shells blazed through the sky from the rear, starboard side. A night fighter. The first burst missed. Flying Officer Don Alexander, the tail gunner, could see what was happening. "Dive port, skipper," he said. The night fighter aimed a second burst of cannon fire, hitting the port wing between the two engines. HR685 shuddered and flames  streamed out of the wing. 

Flight Sergeant Jimmy Rogers, the engineer, tried to extinguish the flames, but they continued to stream out. "Bail out," the skipper said. Lane gripped the control lever hard, holding the bomber on a straight and level course long enough for the members of his crew to put on their parachutes. On their  way out, Darling and Flt Lt Peter Jackson, the navigator, came up to the cockpit. They gave Lane the thumbs-up sign, then bailed out. Within a few seconds, Lane realised he was trapped. A bomber pilot was held in his seat by straps that formed a harness. A metal pin held the harness together. In order to leave his seat, a pilot had to remove the pin.

"I can't find my Sutton harness pin," Lane said over the intercom. Flt Sgt Roy Macdonald, the mid-upper gunner, had been near the cockpit during the flight because his gun turret on top of the plane had been removed to enable it to go faster. He was about to disconnect his intercom and leave through the front escape hatch when he heard the skipper. Risking his life by remaining in the bomber, Macdonald went back to the cockpit, pulled out Lane's harness pin, then exited the aircraft.

As soon as he thought everyone was out, the skipper crossed over the co-pilot's seat, went down the two steep steps to the main deck and moved toward the escape hatch. Before he could leave the plane, his parachute partly opened. Clutching it, he scrambled through the two-foot-square hatch. This was not easy for a six-foot man wearing a bomber jacket, and, as Lane went through the hatch, his leather gloves were torn to shreds.

The rear wheel skimmed over his head, just missing him, but he was out of the plane. Then, to his west lay a hazard for which he had not been trained: the North Sea. A prairie boy from Manitoba in Canada, Tom Lane couldn't swim.

Based on the location of the crash site, German war records show that the pilot of the night fighter was Captain Hans-Dieter Frank. After firing at HR685, he flew off to find other bombers. During that night, he shot down six Allied planes.

From the Allies' perspective, the raid was successful, even though 44 of the 705 bombers did not return. In their book, The Bomber Command War Diaries, Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt offer some grim statistics: 1,056 people killed, 4,550 injured, 72,000 homeless. The bombers destroyed the centre of Krefeld.

News of the raid rapidly crossed the Atlantic. Quoting the British Air Ministry, a Canadian Press story from London later that day said the bombers struck with "one of the heaviest loads so far released on any German target". Flyers described the smoke from the fires as being more than three miles high. Berlin radio did not specifically mention the Krefeld raid but said the attacks on targets in western Germany were "terror raids directed mainly against the civilian population".

The ground staff at the Graveley base quickly realised something had gone wrong on HR685. Marked "secret," the Operations Record Book noted that the plane left at 23:13, then said, "This aircraft is missing and nothing was heard from it after taking off." The base sent telegrams to relatives of the crew, including George's father, Percy Darling, whose family had owned a grocery store known as Darlings in the Grainger Market, Newcastle, for several generations. It read: "REGRET TO INFORM YOU YOUR SON WARRANT OFFICER GEORGE WILLIAM DARLING IS MISSING AS RESULT OF AIR OPERATIONS ON NIGHT 21/22ND JUNE 1943 STOP LETTER FOLLOWS - OC RAF GRAVELEY."

Officers at the base sent letters expressing sympathy. One contained the names and addresses of the next of kin of all members of the crew so they could write to one another. Back on their grain farm in Manitoba, Amos and Alice Lane were informed that their son Tom was missing in action. He was only 22. Amos knew that his son had joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and had been seconded to the RAF, and he knew that his son was a Pathfinder. The Pathfinders had the particularly dangerous job of leading raids. With the best navigational equipment available, they marked the targets for other bombers. The Pathfinders were the eagles of the Allied force, a status recognised through a special badge shaped like the majestic bird that they wore below their medals. A veteran of the First World War, Amos Lane expressed in simple words the meaning of the messages he and his wife had received: "We'll never see Tom again."

Through luck rather than any particular ability to manipulate a parachute, Tom Lane landed in a farmer's pasture near the Dutch village of Dreumel. He had in fact been farther inland than he thought when he looked down from the bomber. Hiding in a cornfield during the day, he watched a woman from a farm house twice milk a cow.

At about 10pm, he approached the farm house and knocked on the door. The woman, along with a man and a teenage boy, appeared not to be completely surprised by his arrival. They may have known that the Germans were looking for airmen. Within minutes, the woman held a pitchfork in front of Lane and the man held a rifle. They marched him off to a village where the local authorities turned him over to the police. The next day, June 23, Lane was taken in a German troop van to Amsterdam and placed in a cell.

A German officer who spoke excellent English interrogated him. "We've been waiting for you," he said. "What took you so long?" The pilot provided the following information: "Tom Lane, flight lieutenant, J-15834 R-80241." He was taken by train to the Frankfurt area of Germany for further questioning. While Lane and other prisoners walked through the Frankfurt train station, the guards pointed their rifles - not at the prisoners but at German civilians on a platform. They wanted to attack the airmen.

After he parachuted into a field of grass, Roy Macdonald, the mid-upper gunner, went to a farm house, banged on the door and yelled until an old man put his head out a bedroom window. "RAF! English! Aviateur Anglais!" The old man got dressed and came out with his bicycle. He beckoned the airman to follow. "Police?" Macdonald asked. The man shook his head. They went to a small house in Dreumel. The man knocked on the door. A policeman appeared. The policeman and his wife offered breakfast, coffee, dry socks and a pair of shoes.

They indicated to Macdonald that they had called someone who could speak English. That person turned out to be another policeman. The second policeman asked what he could do. Macdonald said he wanted to escape to Belgium. "I'm very sorry but you can't go now," the policeman said. "The Germans know you are here and will come for you, and if you are not here they will take 20 men from the village and shoot them."

In similar fashion, all members of the crew, including George Darling, became prisoners of war.