John Bruce Atkinson was the only son of Mary Ann Lendrem. A Flight Engineer on flight ED415 his Lancaster bomber was shot down by a Messerschmidt night fighter flown by Lt Heinz Bock, III./NJG1. The plane exploded at altitude breaking up crashing at Ruchheim, 10km W of Ludwigshafen on the run in to Mannheim.
Lt Bock died a few months later when his plane crash landed on returning to base.
"My brief sweet life is over; My eyes no longer see; No Christmas Tree, No Summer walks, No pretty girls for me; I’ve got the chop, I’ve had it: My nightly ops are done; Yet in another hundred years, I’ll still be twenty one."
Ralph W Gilbert
RAF Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire
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