Operation: Homburg, Germany

Date: 8th November 1944 (Wednesday)

Unit No: 218 (Gold Coast) Squadron, 3 Group, Bomber Command

Type: Lancaster I

Serial: PD374

Code: HA:C

Base: RAF Methwold, Norfolk

Location: Hoerstgen, Germany

Pilot: Fg Off. Leslie Markland ‘Les’ Hough 417377 RAAF Age 26. MiA (1)

Flt Eng: WO. John Henry Tales 935065 RAFVR Age 26. Murdered (2)

Nav: Flt Sgt. John Allen Clifford 1494767 RAFVR Age 21. PoW * (3)

Bomb Aimer: Fg Off. John Harding Barron 153827 RAFVR Age 20. PoW ** (4)

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. Henry Charles Burnside 1617065 RAFVR Age 22. MiA

Air Gnr (Mid Upp): Sgt. John Lawson 1595595 RAFVR Age 21. MiA

Air Gnr (Rear): Sgt. Stanley Kenneth ‘Stan’ Lee 1853003 RAFVR Age 19. PoW No. 1190 * (5)

* Stalag Luft 7, Bankau nr. Kreuzburg, Upper Silesia now Bąków nr. Kluczbork in Poland.

** Stalag Luft 1, Barth-Vogelsang, today situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

Note: The Squadron was officially adopted by his Excellency the Governor of the Gold Coast and the peoples of the Gold Coast territories during October 1941.

Above: Fg Off. Leslie Markland ‘Les’ Hough from his service record.

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the 8th November 1944 fifteen (15) aircraft from the Sqn were detailed to join a force of hundred and thirty-six (136) bombers to attack the Meerbeck Synthetic Oil refinery at Homburg in Germany. The aircraft from 218 (Gold Coast) Sqn commenced their take-offs from RAF Methwold at 08:22 hrs.

The planned route into the target brought the bomber stream close to a number of heavy Flak zones, which engaged the aircraft. PD374 was the only aircraft that failed to return from this operation.

It was determined that the aircraft had been damaged by Flak over the target and was seen to gradually lose height, heading for Hoerstgen, some 250 km (154 mls) to the north of Homburg. Four (4) parachutes were seen to open over Kamp-Lintfort, about 4½ km (2¾ mls) east of Hoerstgen. The aircraft was on fire and suddenly nose-dived to crash in a farmer’s field at Hoerstgen between 10:30 and 11:00 hrs.

(1) Leslie Markland Hough enlisted in the RAAF at No. 5 Recruitment Centre at the School of Mines, North Terrace, Adelaide on the 25th April 1942.

His postings thereafter:

No.4 Initial Training School (4 ITS) on Course No. 27 (P) at Mount Breckan, Victor Harbour, South Australia on the 15th June 1942 and promoted to Leading Aircraftman (LAC) upon successful completion on the 17th July 1942;

No.1 Elementary Flying Training School (1 EFTS) on Course No. 28 at RAAF Station Parafield, South Australia from the 25th August 1942 to the 19th November 1942;

No.6 Service Flying Training School (6 SFTS) at RAAF Station Mallala, South Australia on the 23rd November 1942. Upon graduation he was awarded his Pilot’s wings and appointed to a commission and promoted to Plt Off. on the 10th March 1943;

No.4 Embarkation Depot (4 ED) at Adelaide on 12th March 1943. Processed for travelling overseas;

No.1 Embarkation Depot (1 ED) at Ransford, Melbourne on the 31st March 1943. Awaiting embarkation for overseas posting and to ensure he was medically and dentally fit, vaccinated, inoculated and properly equipped;

No.2 Embarkation Depot (2 ED) at Bradfield Park, Lindfield, New South Wales on the 28th April 1943;

Embarked at Brisbane bound for the UK via the United States aboard the US Army Transport (USAT) ‘William A. Holbrook’ on the 6th May 1943:

Disembarked at San Francisco on the 23rd May 1943 and entrained for the east coast the same day. Detrained in Taunton, Massachusetts on the 28th May 1943;

Transferred Camp Myles Standish which was the main staging area for the Boston Port of Embarkation, the same day. Sailed for UK and disembarked on the 7th July 1943.

Posted to No.21 (Pilot) Advance Flying Unit (21 (P)AFU) at RAF Wheaton Aston, Staffordshire on the 15th August 1943;

Attached to the 1521 Blind Approach Training (1521 BAT) flight at RAF Stradishall in Suffolk on the 7th September 1943;

Promoted to Fg Off. on the 11th September 1943;

Posted to No.26 Operational Training Unit (26 OTU) at RAF Wing, Buckinghamshire on the 7th March 1944. Part of 7 Group, RAF Bomber Command to train night bomber crews using the Wellington;

Posted to 31 Base at RAF Methwold on the 31st May 1944.

(2) The fate of WO. Tales was determined by a British Military Court held at the court house in Duisburg from the 10th until the 16th June 1947.

Two German nationals were charged in committing a war crime in that they at or near Röschen, in Germany, on the 8th November 1944, contrary to the laws and usages of war, were concerned in the killing of No.186308 Warrant Officer John Henry Tales, RAF, Prisoner of War.

Note: Röschen is some 17 km (10½ mls) NNE of Kamp-Lintfort and some 15 km (9¼ mls) north of Hoerstgen.

The two (2) accused were:

Wilhelm SCHOENSTEIN, who was a former Schutzstaffel (SS) Obersturmführer (1st Lt);
Wilhelm OPRETZA, who was a former SS-Rottenführer (Pvt).

Additionally the following two (2) German nationals were also involved but were not charged on the available evidence:

Peter CAUMANNS, a former Ortsgruppenleiter (Nazi party local group leader);
Peter MEURS, a member of the Red Cross who was deemed of far more use as a witness for the prosecution.

The court heard that WO. Tales landed near a bakery in Kamp-Lintfort where he was assaulted by CAUMANNS until an unnamed Wehrmacht Leutnant (2nd Lt) from a local Flak battery arrived. This Leutnant then handed over WO. Tales to SCHOENSTEIN and OPRETZA who arrived on a motorcycle and side-car together with a Red Cross man, Peter MEURS whom they had collected enroute.

The party drove off, with SCHOENSTEIN driving the motorcycle, the prisoner in the side-car, MEURS on the pillion and OPRETZKA riding on the rear of the side-car behind the prisoner.

After leaving the village they turned off and rode down a bumpy track where, according to the MEURS, SCHOENSTEIN indicated to OPRETZA that the time had come, whereupon OPRETZA fired two shots into back of the prisoner’s head of which did not immediately kill him. In the claimed ensuing struggle, OPRETZA fell off the side-car, making a remark to the effect that "the b..... wanted to hit me". OPRETZA then fired a further shot which killed the prisoner.

SCHOENSTEIN claimed that he heard two shots and saw OPRETZA falling off the motorcycle after which he saw the prisoner lying in the side-car and bleeding from a wound to his neck. He and MEURS laid the body slowly on the ground and MEURS declared that the prisoner was dead.

OPRETZA claimed that he thought that the prisoner was trying to escape from the moving motorcycle whereupon he unholstered his pistol and held it in his right hand which he lent on the shoulder of the prisoner. He claimed that because of the bad road condition he then lost his balance and fell backwards, during which his pistol discharged two rounds.

According to MEURS he himself lifted the airman out of the side-car and was then told to get back on the motorcycle and they drove off towards Kamp-Lintfort. However, according to the evidence of Dr. Quernhorst, a local doctor, he saw the body being thrown out of the motorcycle side-car.

Both were found guilty and sentenced to twenty (20) years imprisonment at the Werl Prison in North Rhine-Westphalia. SCHOENSTEIN was released on the 23rd December 1950 under a Clemency Order which suspended his prison sentence on Medical Grounds.

The earliest release date for OPRETZA was dated the 7th September 1958. However, he was not named as one (1) of the last two (2) German War Criminals who were released from Wehl prison on the 24th June 1957 so he was released on an earlier unknown date.

(3) Flt Sgt. Clifford landed safely and was transported to Dulag Luft, Oberursel arriving there on the 14th November 1944. No record of his PoW Number has been found.

On or about the 16th November 1944 he was transferred to Stalag Luft 7 at Bankau nr. Kreuzburg arriving there on the 21st November.

On the 19th January 1945, 1,500 prisoners were marched out of the camp in the bitter cold. They crossed a bridge over the river Oderon the 21st January, reached Goldberg on 5th February and were loaded onto a train.

On the 8th February they reached Stalag 3A located about 52 km (32 mls) south of Berlinnear Luckenwalde, which already held 20,000 prisoners, consisting mainly of soldiers from Britain, Canada, the US and Russia.

On the 22nd April 1945 as the Russians approached the camp the guards fled leaving the PoWs to be liberated by the Red Army. Stalag 3A was turned over to the Americans on the 6th May at which time the Senior American Officers (SAO) took over the running of the camp until all the PoWs were evacuated. Flt Sgt. Clifford was interviewed on the 15th May 1945.

John Allen Clifford was born on the 7th April 1923 in Darlington, Co. Durham. He was employed a Clerk prior to enlisting in the RAFVR on the 12th November 1941. John passed away on the 20th September 2012 in Telford, Shropshire.

(4) Although Fg Off. Barron’s “General Questionnaire for British/American Ex PoWs” does not indicate that he was interrogated at Dulag Luft, Oberursel this was probable given his date of arrival at Stalag Luft 1 on the 8th December 1944. No record of his PoW Number has been found.

On the 30th April 1945, the prisoners were ordered to evacuate the camp in the face of the advancing Soviet Red Army, but the Senior American Officer (SAO), Col. Hubert Zemke, refused to give the order. After negotiations between Zemke and Commandant Oberst (Col) Gustav Warnstedt, it was agreed that to avoid useless bloodshed the guards would go, leaving the PoWs behind. The next day, the first Soviet troops arrived.

The Western Allied prisoners took over the camp into self-administration on the 1st May 1945. After protracted negotiations between the Western Allies and the Soviet leadership, the evacuation of the 8,498 inmates of the camp finally took place between the 12th and 14th May 1945. The former PoWs had repaired a runway at the Barth Air Base and aircraft of the 8th Air Force undertook a massive airlift called "Operation Revival". Hundreds of PoWs had meanwhile made their own way west.

RAF PoWs were flown back to England and the American PoWs were flown to Camp Lucky Strike in Le Havre, France, where they were processed and waited for a liberty ship to return to the United States. Fg Off. Barron was interviewed on the 11th May 1945.

John Harding Barron was born on the 9th December 1923 in London. He was a Civil Servant prior to enlisting in the RAFVR on the 23rd March 1942. John passed away on the 6th August 2000 in Slough, Berkshire.

(5) From Dulag Luft, Oberursel Sgt. Lee’s time as a PoW was the same as that of Flt Sgt. Clifford (see Ser. 2 above). Sgt. Lee was interviewed on the 17th May 1945.

Stanley Kenneth Lee was born on the 10th March 1925 in Bristol, Gloucestershire. He enlisted in the RAFVR on the 2nd April 1943. No further biographical information found.

Burial details:

Investigations revealed that three (3) set of remains had been recovered from the crashed aircraft and along with the body of WO. Tales were buried in the Dachsberg Cemetery, which is some 2¼ km (1½ mls) SE of the crash site at Hoerstgen, without a Christian burial or military honours in the Autumn of 1945. The remains were exhumed and removed it was believed by American Military personnel.

Some four (4) weeks later, other military personnel arrived to exhume the bodies. Enquiries with No. 82 Graves Concentration Unit (GCU) and No. 39 GCU failed to reveal any trace of the grave locations of the four (4) missing crew. Despite exhaustive enquires no further information on the location of the bodies or graves were found. It is likely that the four (4) are buried as “Unknown” in one of the American Military Cemeteries.

Above: The Runnymede Memorial (Courtesy of the CWGC)

Fg Off. Leslie Markland Hough. Runnymede Memorial, Panel 257. Born on the 26th November 1917 at Bondi, New South Wales, Australia. Son of Frank (deceased in May 1937) and Sarah Annie (née Markland) Hough of North Adelaide, South Australia.

Plt Off. John Henry Tales. Runnymede Memorial, Panel 212. Birth registered in 1st Qtr of 1918 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Son of Charles Ernest and Edith (née Frost) Tales of Attercliffe, Sheffield, England.

WO. Tales was posthumously appointed to a commission and promoted to 186308 Plt Off. effective 1st October 1944 (London Gazette 5th December 1944).

Sgt. Henry Charles Burnside. Runnymede Memorial, Panel 226. Son of Robert and W. Burnside of Catford, London, England.

Sgt. John Lawson. Runnymede Memorial, Panel 233. Son of Robert and Isabella (née Sewell) Lawson of Houghton-le-Spring, Co. Durham, England.

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the crew and their families. (Jul 2026).

Other sources listed below:

References:

1. IN TIME 218 (Gold Coast) Squadron 1944-45 - Steve Smith ISBN 9 781911 255406.
2. WO 309/2176 - Investigation File.
3. WO 235/333 – Trial Record

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