Page 7 - Dennis R. Girling

They were:

Flying Officer R. C Sowerbutts - Pilot
Flying Officer M. D. Groundwater - Flight Engineer
Flying Officer H. J. O’Connor - Air Bombardier
Sergeant H. W. Porter - Navigator
Flight Sergeant H. J. Knightbridge - Wireless Operator
Sergeant G. Lester - Mid Upper Gunner
Sergeant R. E. Streatfield - Rear Gunner

(Squadron records show the Mid upper Gunner that day as Warrant Officer
Hiscocks), but as he appears frequently on subsequent records,
this is clearly an error)

Dennis’s remaining three flights in 576 Squadron were all training flights, on 23 ,
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24 and 26 November. The first two were made in Z2, LM651, and Q2, NF976,
neither of which is listed as having been lost, so it is safe to assume they survived to
the end of the war.
His last Fiskerton flight was taken in M2, serial number NN750. A month later, this
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aircraft was also lost. Returning from a raid on Wiesbaden on 28 December 1944,
the aircraft crashed near Manston in Kent, killing all but one of the crew. Attacked by
a night fighter, the elevators were rendered inoperable, but despite an incredible
effort by the crew to get the aircraft back to England, it proved impossible to land,
stalled and crashed. The flight engineer, Sergeant P. D. Lake, was the only one to
survive. The crew members who perished were:

Flying Officer D. Fletcher - Pilot
Sergeant L. Angus - Air Bombardier
Sergeant C. G. Campbell - Navigator
Sergeant L. J. Bull - Wireless Operator
Pilot Officer G. Warren - Mid Upper Gunner
Sergeant J. Norris - Rear Gunner

Pilot Officer Warren, a Canadian, has a lake named after him in northern Manitoba.
All R.C.A.F. personnel who lost their lives have a lake or similar feature named in
their honour.
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On 30 November 1944, Dennis and his crew returned to Hemswell as part of
‘A’ Flight, 150 Squadron. His time at 576 Squadron was at an end. By the end of
the war, half of the Lancasters he flew at Fiskerton had been lost, and of those,
almost half the crew’s had been killed.