Above: Robert Cameron visiting his son’s grave, and those of the rest of the crew, at Rheinberg around 1965.

This crew flew on 16/17 December 1943, BLACK THURSDAY, in Lancaster JB482 OF-S, S-Sugar. Unable to land due to the fog, the crew abandoned the aircraft and parachuted to safety.

97 Squadron’s ORB gives 12.35 as the time when Pilot Officer Robert Leo Mooney and his crew abandoned S-Sugar “owing to weather conditions making landing too dangerous”. The crew was at first reported as missing, lost at sea. Eventually, however, they all turned up safely and it was accepted that the aircraft, flying on George, the automatic pilot, had followed the correct heading out to the North Sea where its petrol finally ran out and it crashed into the waves. The accident card records the reason for the abandonment of S-Sugar as being lack of petrol.

The crew’s survival on that disastrous night was a piece of great good fortune. Sadly, they were all killed a fortnight later, on 2nd January 1944, when their aircraft was hit by flak near Aachen. They are buried in Rheinberg War Cemetery.

Robert Leo Mooney, the pilot. Photograph courtesy of Peter Westley.

THE CREW

• Pilot: F/O Robert Leo Mooney
• Flight Engineer: Sgt Felix Bernard Grey
• Navigator: Sgt George Albert Johnson
• Bomb Aimer: F/S Jack Worsdale
• W/Op: Sgt Norman Davidson Cameron
• Mid-Upper Gunner: F/S Godfrey Woolf
• Rear Gunner: F/S George Edward Smith

Below: Godfrey Woolf, the mid-upper gunner, in April 1943. Photograph courtesy of Peter Marsh, whose uncle was the young man sitting to the left of Woolf.

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THE LOSS OF THE MOONEY CREW

97 Squadron ORB

1.1.44        20 aircraft Lancaster IIIs are detailed to attack Berlin.  Two aircraft were withdrawn owing to engine troubles.  The remaining 18 aircraft set out to attack the primary target.  Weather was 10/10th cloud at 12,000′, vis good.  Defences moderate H/F to slight – S/Ls ineffective.  Slight fighter activity and many scare crow flares.  No results of bombing were seen and some scattered markers were reported.  It appears that no good continuous concentration was achieved.  One aircraft and crew – Captain F/O Mooney DFM is missing, no news being received since leaving base.

Extract from Bomber Command Losses – 1/2.1.44

Lancaster III  JA960  OF – E.  Op Berlin.  T/O 0051 Bourn.  Homebound hit by flak near Aachen and crashed 0507, local time.  Funerals were held at Aachen on 8 January, since when their remains have been interred in Rheinberg War Cemetery.  F/S Mooney had served with 106 Squadron, details of his award being published on 23 December 1941.  Those for F/S Johnson and F/S Worsdale were gazetted on 8 May 1945.

F/O R.L.Mooney DFM(+), Sgt F.B.Grey(+), F/S G.A.Johnson DFM(+), F/S J.Worsdale DFM(+), F/S N.D.Cameron(+), F/S G.Woolf RAAF(+), F/S G.E.Smith(+)

Memorials

There is a memorial to the crew at the crash site in Belgium. The village is Neu-Moresnet but it is now usually considered part of adjoining Kelmis. It was the Kelmis council that organised and paid for the corrected memorial which is at the crossroads of Rue de Moresnet and Rue Boschhausen.

Information and memorial photographs curtesy of Dr Susan Stewart, who adds:

The stone cross with Jesus replaced the original wooden cross erected by the villagers around the time of the crash. I think that was in the 1980’s when the wooden one rotted. It was this stone replacement that acquired the wrong plane details on the plaque which went unnoticed until I chanced upon the memorial online in 2018. I should imagine the stone replacement for the wooden cross was paid for by Kelmis council as they are unfailing in their gratitude to our servicemen. Most importantly there has been a memorial in place for 80 years. 

Dr Susan Stewart, email to the RAF Pathfinders Archive, 30.12. 2023

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Norman Cameron Memoir

Written by his brother Alan Cameron, this is a touching and comprehensive tribute to his brother, and we are very pleased to have a copy in the Archive’s office. The picture at the head of this page, of Norman’s father Robert visiting his grave, is taken from the memoir.