Air Force Lookups - if you need help

[charlotteCH]

Darren, Welcome to rootscaht.

My brother Flt Sgt Charles Haley Hargreaves Aus 421596 was a Lancaster pilot and stationed T Binbrook at the time of the Nurneberg raid march 30 1944 when he was shot down and killed..
What are you looking for in info?

charlotte

[binbrook74]

Hi there
Many thanks for your reply so quickly.
I am interested in anything binbrook related as like i said i am collecting all information for a future publication on the base.
Do you have any photos or anything binbrook related which i could possibly have a copy of as trying to contact former 460 sqn crew is proving to be very hard .
Thanks again
I cand send you my email address if that is any good ,
Cheers
Darren

[binbrook74]

I know 3 of 460 sqn a/c were lost on that raid last night .

[charlotteCH]

Haley was one of the three...shot down over Grafenburg There is a book on that raid.. by Martin Middlebrook I think his name was ... if you want the name of the book I could ask my other brother for it...

kyt, hope you don't mind me chatting to Binbrook74 on the thread...?

[binbrook74]

I think i have that book somewhere but just moved house so boxes to unpack still.
I shall have to look to see if i can find some pics of your brothers plane .

[charlotteCH]

When you unpack, if you do find anything about Haley, I'd be glad to know.  Kyt has been great in helping but one never knows what tiny bit of new info fleshes out exisiting data.
It's 64 yrs ago but seems like yesterday that the cable came.

charlotte

[liverpool annie]

Hi Darren and welcome to RootsChat !

You've probably seen this already ( maybe even yours !!  ) ... but I'll post it just in case !!

http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/binbrook.htm !

Annie 

[liverpool annie]

I found this Charlotte !

On the evening of March 30,1944, 782 bombers preparing to depart for Nuremberg.

The stream this night was to be 68 miles long. It was designed to pass over Nuremberg in 17 minutes, to concentrate the destructive power of the raid.

It was dusk by the time the last Bombers lifted into the sky. When the planes got above the clouds though, and started to form up into the stream, all the air crews were struck by the same unfamiliar and unwelcome feeling. In the moonlight they were fully exposed and vulnerable.

Some navigators turned on their new H2S Radar, not realizing that instantly gave away their position to German Fighter Squadrons.

On the night of the Nuremberg raid, 96 bombers failed to return. 545 Airmen died, more airmen killed in one night than died during the entire Battle of England

http://www.feldgrau.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=8572

[charlotteCH]

Thanks Annie... terrible story..
I read somewhere that 3 Aus pilots at Binbrook, when the briefing was over and they knew about the weather report and no cloud cover, went to see the CO to protest... now that's pretty extremeb behavious i'd think. My brother had a strong character but wasn't a trouble maker when it came to duty, but he was very rational ... my guess is he was one of them.

I'd love to be able to relocate that reference. Silly me didn't note it at the time.