Page 6 - Dennis R. Girling

576 Squadron, RAF Fiskerton

Dennis’s 10 flights from Fiskerton (5 training and 5 operational) were taken in 8
different aircraft. Each has its own history, and there is a brief outline here.

Dennis’s first flight from Fiskerton was in UL-N2, known as Nan-squared. This
machine, serial number ME801, became famous within the squadron and the RAF
as it went on to complete over 100 ops (114, to be exact) – an extremely rare
occurrence when the average number of ops completed by Lancasters was below
20, and a feat achieved by only 35 out of some 7377 built. This was merely a cross-
country training exercise, and he never flew it again. Ironically, having survived the
war and 114 ops, ME801 was involved in a crash in October 1945 and was damaged
beyond repair, so was Struck off Charge and written off. But I’m pleased to have
discovered Dennis’s small involvement in this piece of aviation history.

The first ever op Dennis went on was in UL-W2 – William2, serial number PD309.
Curiously, this was not with his ‘regular’ crew, but was piloted by Pilot Officer
Herbert. It is believed that Dennis was a late replacement for the crew’s regular
engineer, a Sergeant Heller, who maybe went sick late in the day. The raid was to
the Wanne Eickel oil refineries (in Western Germany, now incorporated into the city
of Herne), and the aircraft and crew returned safely and undamaged from the target.
But the story of PD309 doesn’t end there. As detailed elsewhere in this website, the
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aircraft was lost on 16 January 1945, although thankfully all of the crew escaped,
as the Lancaster slammed into a field in Belgium. In 2011, the wreckage was
recovered, with the engines largely still intact. These would have been the same
engines that Dennis started and monitored on his very first operation.
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Flight numbers three and four for Dennis at Fiskerton, on 10 and 11 November
respectively, were made in UL-R2, which at the time was the designation carried by
Lancaster serial number PD312. The first of these was a pre-raid cross country
exercise and the second was a raid on Dortmund, his first with Flying Officer
Callington in charge. It appears to have been uneventful and all returned safely.
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Dennis didn’t fly in R2 again, but PD312 was not to survive. It was shot down on 3
February on a raid on Wiesbaden. Four of the crew were initially reported safe, and
the remaining three were later found to be safe as well.

The next two flights were both operational, and were taken in UL-X2, which was
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serial number PB753. These were on 16 and 18 November and involved raids
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respectively on Duren and Wanne Eickel again, presumably to finish the job started
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on the 9 . There’s no record of anything particularly eventful on these raids, and
PB753 survived to the end of the war.

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Flight number 7 was on 21 November, again operational, to Aschaffenburg, this
time in D2, which was NG119. The raid, Dennis’s last op with 576 Squadron, was
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also uneventful. Sadly, NG119 was not to survive, It was lost on 3 February 1945
on the same raid that also accounted for R2, PD312, only this time the crew did not
escape, and they were all killed. They lie buried together at the Commonwealth War
Cemetery at Hotton, in Luxemburg.