Failed to Return

Lancaster ME503

The P/O S W Nielson crew were posted to 550 Sqdn from 71 Base w.e.f. 17.2.45:

However when Lancaster ME503/BQ-R was lost on the 7/8 March 1945 on a raid on Dessau Sgt Evans (MU/AG) was not flying and the replacement MU/AG was Sgt Laveleye:

The aircraft crashed close to the village of Sollnitz, south-east of Dessau. Two of the crew survived as PoWs and were repatriated to 550 Squadron following liberation of the PoW camps they were in, the remaining five members of the crew were killed.

Other information about the flight and the target available here.

The entry on the 550 Squadron Roll of Honour is available here.

Sgt G Evans (MU/AG)

Sgt Evans was the original MU/AG on the P/O S W Nielson crew through OTU/HCU and on posting to 550 Squadron, but between arrival and their first op Sgt Evans was admitted to Station Sick Quarters (SSQ) with appendicitis. It is not known whether the op to remove it was done in SSQ or in a local hospital, but due to slow healing of it, he missed flying ops with his crew. On 2nd and 7th March his place, in the Nielson crew, was taken by Sgt Delaveleye, who was, thus, lost when the aircraft was shot down (see the Dessau op, ME503 details here).

Many thanks to Graham Platt for providing this additional information on Sgt Evans. The information was in fact obtained first-hand from Sgt Evans during a visit to the IBCC Spire. Sgt Evans, his wife and sister-in-law were at the Spire opening event. Sgt Evans was looking for Delaveleye's name, and when asked whether it was a friend, he ran his finger across the name and said "That should have been me ..." and then told of the events related above.

Sgt Charles A DeLaveleye (MU/AG)

Sgt C A DeLaveleye
Thanks to Steven Volckaerts for making the photo available

Sgt Charles De Laveleye had a very interesting father. Charles was the son of Victor De Laveleye (https://gw.geneanet.org/adelaveleye?lang=fr&pz=antoine&nz=de+laveleye&p=victor&n=de+laveleye). Victor was an Olympian (tennis for Belgium in the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympiads), then in 1926 became a councillor in an area of Brussels (Saint Gilles) and eventually a national politician, rising to chair the Liberal party and become Minister of Justice before WWII. He fled to England via France in 1940 and took charge of BBC Radio Belgique, broadcasting to the occupied low countries. During one of his broadcasts in early 1941, he asked all Belgians to chalk a V (for Victoire/Vrijheit) on walls and to greet each other with a V hand-sign as a symbol of resilience and resistance - this also spread across occupied Europe and some 7 months later was adopted by Churchill. See https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/where-does-v-for-victory-come-from. There is a park in Brussels named in his honour.

After liberation, Victor De Laveleye served as Minister for Public Education from September 44 to February 45 despite already being seriously ill. He passed away in December 1945 aged 51.

Once again many thanks to Graham Platt, researcher at Bomber County Aviation Resource, for this information.

Recent Research

The aircraft was attacked by a night-fighter during a camera run over target, set on fire and crashed shortly thereafter about 1.5 km (1 mile) east of Sollnitz, 10 km SSE of Dessau.

	Letter to father of P/.O Nielson from Casualty Section, RAAF Image kindly made available by Jörg Helbig: source NAA/Canberra A 705/166/29/222 P/O Searn Wrist Nelson RAAF
	Investigation Report Image kindly made available by Jörg Helbig: source NAA/Canberra A 705/166/29/222 P/O Searn Wrist Nelson RAAF
	Investigation Report, pg 2 Image kindly made available by Jörg Helbig: source NAA/Canberra A 705/166/29/222 P/O Searn Wrist Nelson RAAF
	Letter, Australian Military Mission, Berlin Image kindly made available by Jörg Helbig: source NAA/Canberra A 705/166/29/222 P/O Searn Wrist Nelson RAAF
	Station Narrative No.12 Image kindly made available by Jörg Helbig: source NAA/Canberra A 705/166/29/222 P/O Searn Wrist Nelson RAAF
	Station Narrative No.12, pg 2 Image kindly made available by Jörg Helbig: source NAA/Canberra A 705/166/29/222 P/O Searn Wrist Nelson RAAF
	Station Narrative No.12, pg 3 Image kindly made available by Jörg Helbig: source NAA/Canberra A 705/166/29/222 P/O Searn Wrist Nelson RAAF

Reports around the same time mention another aircraft being shot down, this is PD363 of 576 Sqdn, which was downed at DESSAU-ZIEBIGK (in the NW sub of Dessau). One of the aircraft was shot down by Oblt. Peter Spoden 6./NJG 6 and the other one by Oblt. Erich Jung 5./NJG 2 - but which night-fighter pilot got which bomber is not known for certain; both claimed a four-engine hit directly over target.

Station Narrative No. 13

Station Narrative No. 13 is included in the Station Operational Record Book and records the interrogation of Sgts Finnigan and Stevens on 10 April 1945 following their release from PoW camps:

	Neilson crew, Dessau, 7/8 Mar 1945 Interrogation of Sgt Finnigan & Sgt Stevens on release from PoW camps
	(pg. 2 of 2)