ED603: Recovered Memory (Part I)
Created | Updated Oct 1, 2023
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Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster was Britain's best heavy bomber of the Second World War. Powered by four Rolls Royce Merlin engines, the same as the Spitfire, it had the largest bomb bay and could carry the most bombs of any bomber used in the conflict, including the heaviest bombs, the 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) Grand Slam earthquake bombs. It was also capable of precision bombing, famously used to destroy the German battleship Tirpitz as well as the famous Bouncing Bomb Dambusters raid. Despite over 7,300 being built, only 17 are known to survive today1.
Actions taken during wartime cannot really be judged after 80 years of peace. As the war in Europe progressed and air raids against Britain worsened, Britain's head of Bomber Command, Arthur Harris, believed that Lancaster bombers can end the war. He used nighttime raids to both destroy Germany's ability to fight the war by destroying its war industry, and destroy homes to break the German people's morale in the hopes that this will lead to Germany's surrender. While with hindsight we know that the Allied invasion of D-Day turned the tide of war, at the time the most recent attempts at a seaborne invasion, Gallipoli and Dieppe, had both been catastrophic failures. It was a commonly held view that only an intensive bombing campaign had the chance of ending the war. While the death toll on both sides was immense, with bomber crew losses expected to be 5% per mission, the war and heavy bombing raids continued.
One of the problems needing addressing was how to improve bombing's accuracy. The most experienced crews were promoted to an elite force, known as Pathfinders. They would fly to the target first and highlight it, using Target Indicators (flares) and incendiary bombs to cause fires that the main bombing force following could see and use as a beacon for where to drop their own weapons. Through the help of the Pathfinder force and radar system OBOE2, RAF bombers' accuracy increased dramatically.
One of Our Aircraft is Missing
On the night of 12-13 June 1943, brand-new straight out the factory Lancaster ED603 was crewed by an elite Pathfinder crew on a mission to Bochum, a city famed for its coal mines and steel industry. This was part of the Battle of the Ruhr, where the RAF were determined to destroy Germany's industrial heartland, and had stopped having moral qualms if industrial workers were killed or injured in the process. This raid consisted of 430 aircraft, including 12 Lancasters acting as Pathfinders, with 24 losses including 14 Lancasters, which equates to 4.8% and so under the accepted loss rate of 5%. The raid was judged to be a success and despite cloud cover, the bombs were dropped accurately due to the work of the Pathfinders. On the return flight Lancaster ED603 was detected by German radar and the highly skilled and decorated German air ace Rudolf Sigmund successfully shot the Lancaster down from his Messerschmitt Bf-110 as his 17th confirmed kill3.
ED603 was over the IJsselmere or former Zuider Zee at the time of the crash, and on hitting the water the impact made the aircraft flip onto its back and sink. The Lancaster had a crew of seven and none survived. As only 10% of aircrew survived bailing out of a Lancaster, that was far from unusual. The first body washed ashore a week later on 20 June near Workum, wearing the uniform of a Canadian Flight-Sergeant and Bomb Aimer, but he remained unknown until 1947 when he was identified by dental records. Two days later three more bodies washed ashore, and each man was buried in the cemetery closest to where his body lands. Pilot Eric Tilbury was buried in Stavoren's St Nicholas Church, Harold Howsam is also buried in Workum and Gordon Sugar is buried in St Gertrudis Church in Hindeloopen. The bodies of three of the crew were not found and are believed to still be on the aircraft.
The Crew
- Pilot: Flight Officer Eric Arthur Tilbury
Born: Chadwell Heath, London, October 1917. Completed 51 operations. Buried: Stavoren Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery. - Flight Engineer: Pilot Officer4 Arthur Bertram Smart DFM (Distinguished Flying Medal)
Born: Darjeeling, India, January 1914. Completed 45 ops. Body never recovered - Navigator: Pilot Officer Harold Elvin Howsam
Born: Bigby outside Barnetby, Lincolnshire, March 1961. Completed 42 ops. Buried: Workum Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery5 - Bomb Aimer: RCAF Flight Sergeant Arthur Gordon Fletcher
Born: Ridgetown, Canada, June 1922. Completed 30 ops. Buried: Workum Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery - Radio Operator/Air Gunner: Flight Sergeant Raymond Edward Moore DFM
Born London, January 1922, married 1941, son Graham born 1942. Completed 40 missions. Body never recovered. - Air Gunner: Pilot Officer Gordon Robert Sugar
Born: Barton Mills, Suffolk,July 1921. Completed 40 ops. Buried: Hindeloopen Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery - Dorsal Air Gunner: Pilot Officer Charles Frederick John Sprack DFM
Born: Brading, Isle of Wight, September 1919. Completed 55 missions. Body never recovered.
Charles Sprack
Charles Sprack was my distant cousin – the exact relationship is complicated and certainly involves a number of removeds and numbers that no-one really understands, but 'distant cousin' should suffice, being truthful if vague.
Charles was the son of gardener Harry Sprack and Dora Reed, with a sister, but sadly Dora died in 1933 when he is 14 and when his father remarried a widow who already had two children. His relationship with his father deteriorated and he ran away to sea, becoming a bell boy on the RMS Empress of Australia. He made at least three trans-Atlantic voyages but later in the 1930s is back on the Island, doing an apprenticeship with renowned shipbuilders, JS White6 who were renowned for their fast destroyers. Two Second World War era destroyers built by J Samuel White's still survive, ORP Błyskawica, the world's oldest-surviving destroyer is in Gdynia, Poland, and HMS Cavalier is in the Chatham Historic Dockyard. However in June 1939 when still serving his apprenticeship at White's, he got into trouble with the law, being found accused of stealing food. Instead of appearing before the magistrate, he joined the RAF7 where the law could not touch him.
He found his place in the RAF, and after two years as an electrician he trained as an air gunner in 1941. He participated in all three of the RAF's Thousand Bomber Raids in spring 1942 and first shot down an enemy fighter on 7 September 1942, shooting another over Berlin in January 1943. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal and after completing his tour of duty of 30 operations was offered the chance to enlist as a Pathfinder, which meant a promotion and more pay, though with a longer tour of duty of 45 operations8.
He was engaged at the time of his death.
Discovery to Recovery
In 1995 the crew of fishing vessel VD-64 unexpectedly found an engine in their nets. After removing the identification plate they threw the engine back into the sea. The plate, when studied, revealed that it was from the left outer engine of Lancaster ED603. There followed a period in which amateur divers discovered the aircraft spread over an area 40m×40m wide travelled to the site to take souvenirs, which was not illegal at the time (but is now), with some of the finds from the aircraft displayed at the Air War Museum at Fort Veldhuis. In 2006 it was reported that human remains are present at the site.
The SMAMF – Stichting Missing Airmen Memorial Foundation, or Missing Airmen Memorial Foundation in English, have been actively engaged in supporting the recovery process of this aircraft. In 2007 and 2008 calls for the municipal government of Súdwest-Fryslân to fund the aircraft's recovery are rejected due to the cost, but in 2018 the National Programme for Aircraft Recovery is launched with a centrally-funded sum of €15 million. As ED603 is believed to contain human remains, it is considered a priority out of 40 air wrecks whose positions are believed known in Netherlands, in the hope of discovering at least some of the 220 missing Allied airmen believed to be in the IJsselmeer.
In early September 2023 the recovery of the aircraft was begun, with a giant metal cage known as a cofferdam erected around the location of ED603 and 6 metres of water inside the cofferdam pumped out. After 80 years underwater the first remains of the aircraft were discovered. The process of recovery is expected to take about 6-7 weeks, with a thin layer of sand scraped off at a time and the sand is sieved, thoroughly investigated for parts of the aircraft, human remains and checked with a Geiger counter9, and then stored in barges so that when the recovery is finished the sand will be returned to its original location before the cofferdam is dismantled and water is allowed back on site.
After being underwater for 80 years, and having been attacked by souvenir-hunters for 30, much of the aeroplane's remains are now essentially scrap, with some identifiable parts that may well be kept in a museum.
Now that I have established the background, next time I will discuss my trip to the Netherlands on the invitation of the Dutch government to attend the programme they set for families of the crew of Lancaster ED603.
