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F/O R H Maule and Crew

F/O Maule and crew were posted to 550 Sqdn on squadron start-up from 100 Sqdn "C" Flight w.e.f. 25/11/43:

Also flying occasional operations with the F/O Maule crew were:

The F/O Maule crew were lost on operations to Berlin on 2 Jan 1944 in DV345, the aircraft catching fire in the air and crashing at Spalding, Lincolnshire with the loss of the entire crew. This was one of two 550 Sqdn Lancasters lost on this operation.

Other information about the flight and the target available here.

The entry on the 550 Squadron Roll of Honour here.

Sgt Patrick Peter O'Meara

Sgt Patrick Peter O'Meara (F/Eng)
Sgt O'Meara was born in 1915 in Tipperary, Southern Ireland, was married and had 4 sons. He moved to England to train as an airline pilot and when war broke out joined the RAF. After his death his wife and family moved back to Tipperary to be nearer her family
Thanks to Kathleen Robinson for the above information and making the photo available

Sgt John Raymond Rounding

Gravestone of Sgt John Raymond Rounding (A/B)
St John of Beverley Churchyard, Harphem, East Yorkshire
Thanks to Eddie Ward for making the photo available

Sgt Edward Skelton

Gravestone of Sgt Skelton (R/AG)
Wold Newton (All Saints) Churchyard
Thanks to Eddie Ward for making the photo available

F/O Georges Marie Ghislain De Menten de Horne

	F/O Georges Menten De Horne Thanks to Steven Volckaerts for making the photo available
	F/O Georges Menten De Horne Family grave at the Melveren Churchyard, Sint Godfriedstraat, Melveren Thanks to Steven Volckaerts for making the photo available

Georges Marie Ghislain De Menten de Horne (Nav) (b 05/05/1913 - d 02/01/1944) was the son of a Belgian Count (Armand de Menten de Horne and Yvonne Pauwels). After his death a memorial service was held in London but it has not been possible to establish what he did in London before he joined the RAF. After the war his body was repatriated from Brookwood Military Cemetery, on October 25th 1949, to Melveren, Belgium.

F/O De Menten de Horne had a brother (Eric) and sister (Odette), and a cousin (Ghislaine); both Eric and Ghislaine worked for the Belgian resistance.

Eric de Horne was active in the Belgian Resistance but in February 1943 the group was discovered by the German intelligence services. Eric was captured, imprisoned and sentenced to death; on 20 October 1943 he was executed in Brussels. After his execution at the shooting range, he was buried there.

In a period of a little over two months the family lost both sons to the war.

Ghislaine de Menten de Horne, who also worked for the resistance, was twice arrested by the Gestapo, but managed to talk her way to release and survived the war. Once the war was over she married a British Agent and she came to England but the marriage eventually failed. For her work in the Resistance she was awarded a number of medals by the Belgian and British governments. Before the war she had been an artist and post-war took up painting again.

The link for F/O G M G de Menten de Horne contains many onward links of interest.