HAUNTING TRIBUTES
Fallen aircrews are remembered 75 years after move to airfield where turbines have replaced bombers
Bomber Veteran Geoffrey Towers, 93, who served with 158 Squadron, which saw huge losses during the Second World War, stands by the memorial at Lissett. He was there for a memorial service held at St James Of Compostela, in the East Yorkshire village.
THE PROPELLERS now are on the 12 wind turbines that turn peacefully outside the East Riding village of Lissett.
And yesterday, they gathered to remember when the roads there were runways, and when it was Halifax bombers that dotted the landscape.
It was 75 years since the RAF’s 158 Squadron had decamped there from its old base at Rufforth, to the west of York.
By the time they left at the end of the Second World War, twoand-a-half years later, 851 of their number would be dead.
Only three of the survivors, now aged in their 90s, were well enough to attend the squadron’s annual memorial weekend. Their descendants made up the numbers.
158 Squadron was part of Britain’s Bomber Command, an operation whose 44 per cent mortality rate was among the highest of the Second World War.
“They flew Halifaxes out of Lissett and they were involved in all of the major bombing operations, so whenever you read about a thousand-bomber raid over occupied Europe, there would have been 158 people taking part,” said Kevin Bryett, chairman of the 158 Squadron Association, which organises the memorial event each year.
At the little church in Lissett, a mile from the gleaming metal statue bearing the names of all 851, the members gathered yesterday morning for a memorial service, before a squadron lunch at the Expanse Hotel on Bridlington’s Marine Drive. A letter of greeting from the Queen was read to them.
The RAF left Lissett in 1947. Until the 8ft high statue was unveiled a decade ago, barely a trace remained of the sacrifice that had taken place there.
“You can still see parts of the runway, and bits of the admin block are still there, but the main part of the airfield is now the wind farm,” said Mr Bryett,
It is important we never forget the sacrifice made by the 158. Kevin Bryett, chairman of the 158 Squadron Association.
whose father, Alan, was a bomb aimer with 158 Squadron.
He was shot down over Berlin in 1943 and taken to the prisoner of war camp, Stalag Luft 3, where he helped to organise the Great Escape that Steve McQueen would later immortalise on screen. Flt Lt Bryett was among the “penguins” – nicknamed after the appearance of their bulging greatcoats – who transferred away the soil as the tunnels were dug, scattering sand on the floor to disguise the activity from the Germans.
“He was lined up ready to go out when the Germans discovered the tunnel. Then he was put on the long march when they took everybody from the east back towards Germany,” said his son. Flt Lt Bryett, who is 96 and was not well enough to attend yesterday, named his boy after his pilot, Kevin Hornibrook, who helped him bail out when their plane was hit but did not himself make it back to Lissett.
“Like many of his comrades, he didn’t speak about his experiences for many years afterwards,” said Mr Bryett Jnr.
Lissett, and the old base at Rufforth, were among many wartime units in the region.
“Yorkshire and Lincolnshire were awash with similar fields with bombers going out,” said Mr Bryett. “The vast majority of casualties were aircrew, but there were a number who were also killed in a bomb dump explosion. One woman was taken up on a training flight without any permission, and died when it crashed.”
The location for the squadron lunch was significant, he said.
“It is so important that we never forget the sacrifice that was made by the veterans of 158, many of whom would have spent their final night relaxing in a pub in Bridlington before flying out on a raid, never to return.”