April 4th Update; 431 & 434 pre-op breifing photo & crew 91 airman.

This photo is now available for download in "Personnel Downloads" a very large file at 4.7 MB. Many faces are recognizable, please contact me if you recognize any of the airmen.

Photo taken between 30 Aug. 1944 and 7 April 1945.

431 and 434 Squadron are briefed for a mission to Essen.

(Above photo with caption description is located in gallery  "Up and Down Time")

Also added in "Biography" section a member of crew 91; F/O "Gordon" Stacey recounts the night he was shot down and evaded capture.

Alan

Feb 2009 update

Well it has been quite slow, recieved only a few photos since last update. So I have been tidying up site.

Removed "Family Memories" and "Veterans" galleries, I took the remaining photos in these sections and added them to the "Individual" gallery. Hopefully I will be able to update with other photos of these airmen... P/O Bert Brown of crew 140, F/Lt. John Fern of crew 151, along with F/O Ernie Wilkinson from crew 161.

Alan

November 2008 update

This month has been very active on 434 site, numerous inquiries on individuals and crews, and once again trying to catch up.

Added photos and written material on crew 21 (F/O Jones) and crew 168 (F/O Hooper). One interesting submission was WL-W "Wimpy" Lancaster, this is a rare photo with Wimpy flipping burgers, each burger represents a successful mission, to view this a/c see the individual section, crew 168 F/O Hooper. 

WL-W "Wimpy"

Thanks to all whom contributed information and/or photos past couple weeks.

Alan

October 2008 update

Hello,
Past couple months I have been trying to get caught up, I am going to add a section folder for Nose Art & Aircraft of 434 squadron, moving the serial numbers into this also.
A big thanks to Clarence Simonsen for his story on  "Lady Orchid" and her pilot the late F/O Ron Jenkins of Calgary Alberta, see the link at the bottom of the main page, a very well researched document.
Updating some items in the Combat section as well.

See the 1945 section in "Combat" as the Pilot F/O D.J. Cameron crew 152 escaped being shot down but suffered a tragic loss.

Till next time, keep the photo's and information coming. Alan

Busy summer and visit to Nanton Lancaster Museum

Hello,

Here is a brief note on my visit to the Nanton Lancaster Air Museum and some very interesting individuals I met and had conversations with.

Mr. Edmund Kluczny, whom I met up with on a private tour of the Nanton Lancaster.

We entered the Lanc together along with a mechanic on Friday afternoon, Mr. Kluczny was very agile and was able to climb over the spars and other obstacles all the way up into the pilots seat. The mechanic and I were very enlightened on many stories “Ed” was able to recall over a span of 45 minutes. Here are some photo’s as well as his mention in Hugh Halliday’s “Honors & Awards” in the AirForce.ca web site.

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P/O Edmund Kluczny

KLUCZNY, P/O Edmund George (J92663) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.90 Squadron - Award effective 15 March 1945 as per London Gazette dated 27 March 1945 and AFRO 1127/45 dated 6 July 1945. Born at Empress, Alberta, 1921; home in Winfield or Alder Flats, Alberta (cook); enlisted in Edmonton, 4 June 1942. Trained at No.4 ITS (graduated 6 November 1942), No.5 EFTS (graduated 5 February 1943) and No.15 SFTS (graduated 28 May 1943). Commissioned November 1942. No citation other than "completed...many successful operations against the enemy in which [he has] displayed high skill, fortitude and devotion to duty." Public Records Office Air 2/9050 has recommendation dated 14 December 1944 when he was a Warrant Officer (R159445) who had flown 35 sorties (178 hours 21 minutes); commissioned 23 December 1944 with effect from 23 November 1944.

In the past week I have almost completed adding captions to all the previous photos and arranged in chronological order.