“I have never delivered a speech to which I have had such a positive, genuine and heartfelt response,” says Darlington MP Peter Gibson. “People in Westminster were stopping me for days after – people I didn’t think knew who I was – and saying they had read it or watched it and that I was doing the right thing. It has been really lovely.”
At the end of November, Mr Gibson drew the attention of the House of Commons to the sacrifice of Pilot Officer William McMullen who, on January 13, 1945, gave his own life to save those of hundreds of Darlingtonians down below – and, as ever, the anniversary of his bravery will be commemorated tomorrow.
McMullen (above) was at the controls of his Lancaster bomber as it returned to RAF Middleton St George from a training exercise when an engine caught fire over Acklam. With flames marching up the wing, McMullen ordered his six-man Canadian crew to abandon ship, although he refused to follow them, shouting as his last colleague jumped: “There’s only me for it. There are thousands down below.”
He managed to turn the stricken plane to the south, away from its westward path towards the town centre. It skimmed above the rooftops of houses in the Yarm Road area and, having cleared the last of them, plunged nosefirst in a fireball into a field belonging to Lingfield Farm.
The explosion lit up the night sky and, by the glare of the flames, the parachutes of his colleagues could be seen drifting gently and safely to earth as they landed between Elton and Sadberge.
McMullen was killed instantaneously.
Royal Canadian Air Force Lancaster bomber J-Jigg, KB762, on the south side of RAF Middleton St George. In the background is the medieval church of St George. McMullen's Lancaster was KB793. Picture courtesy of Jim Cave
Because it was a training exercise, McMullen, who had only arrived at Middleton St George on December 23, 1944, has never been given a posthumous bravery award – although the townspeople christened him “the gallant airman” and raised money for his family back in Toronto.
Mr Gibson was granted an Adjournment debate in the Commons on November 25 to press the case for an honour for McMullen.
In response to Mr Gibson’s speech, Defence minister Andrew Murrison said he was unable to change the rules, but said: “All who have been privileged to hear this debate will now have the details of the events of January 13, 1945, etched firmly on their minds… No praise can be high enough for his actions that day.”
The Deputy Speaker said at the end of the proceedings: “I have chaired many Adjournment debates, but none better than today’s. The word ‘hero’ is bandied around and abused, but not in William McMullen’s case… He has now been properly recognised in Parliament and his name will live on in Hansard.”
His name lives on in Darlington, too. At 8.30pm tomorrow, people will gather at the memorial at the McMullen Road junction with Allington Way to remember how at 8.35pm exactly 78 years earlier, McMullen’s plane had caught fire and how at 8.49pm it had crashed into the field behind them.
Everyone is very welcome to attend.
RCAF Lancaster J-Jigg KB762 on the dispersal pad at the south side of RAF Middleton St George with the church of St George in the background. Picture courtesy of Jim Cave
FATE decreed that Pilot Officer William McMullen would only serve with the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 428 Squadron at RAF Middleton St George for 22 days and would die without taking part in an offensive operation.
He was at the airfield at the same time as Flight Lieutenant Harry Cave, who served with 419 Squadron of the RCAF for seven months from September 1944 to March 1945, and took part in 31 operations over Germany as the Allies, to support the success of the ground troops after the D-Day landings, tried to bomb the enemy out of the war.
Flt-Lt Harry Cave, centre, with his crew behind the rear turret of KB721 in mid to late April 1945. Flt-Lt Cave flew seven operations from RAF Middleton St George in this plane
Flt-Lt Cave would have taken part in even more operations had he not been sick with pneumonia throughout January 1945.
If, of course, he had survived them. The two squadrons at Middleton St George both contributed a dozen or so aircraft to each of these operations and usually at least one failed to come home.
Squadron 419’s war is being researched by Flt-Lt Cave’s son, Jim, in Vancouver. His work shows that Flt-Lt Cave was at the controls of Lancaster KB865, call sign E-Easy, on the night of 5/6 March 1945.
It was one of 1,100 Allied aircraft in the skies over Germany that night – although the biggest danger to them was not the enemy but the weather. Seven Canadian bombers from Yorkshire airfields crashed shortly after take-off, killing 40 airmen, due to ice.
A rare wartime colour photo showing Lancaster KB712, V-Smitty Love, on April 15, 1944, at RAF Middleton St George. The Canadian-built plane was flown by Flt-Lt Harry Cave on a "sea sweep" on October 16, 1944. Twelve days later, KB712 crashed, killing its crew
E-Easy was “up” from Middleton St George at 4.13pm and “down” at 2.27am – Flt-Lt Cave, only 24-years-old, was at the controls of the plane for ten-and-a-quarter hours, with the lives of his eight-man crew in his hands.
He was one of 714 bombers that night targeted at the German industrial town of Chemnitz. E-Easy dropped its bombs – one 4,000lb, seven 500lb – from 16,000ft at 10.02pm and headed back to MSG.
Flt-Lt Cave arrived safely, although two of MSG’s crews – about 10 per cent of those who had taken off – did not. KB778, flown by Flying Officer W Mytrak, was overwhelmed by ice and flew into a mountain in the Ardennes on the way out; on the way home, Flying Officer CL Reitlo lost control of KB845, again probably due to ice, and crashed near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.
The loss report card of Flying Officer W Mytrak, whose plane crashed in Buckinghamshire on March 6, 1945, returning home from an operation over Chemnitz. Pilot Mytrak survived the crash, although three of his crew were killed. Pictures all courtesy of Jim Cave
In total, 97 Canadian fliers lost their lives that night, nine of them from MSG.
Of course, those on the ground took a pounding, and the Allied tactics of pummelling German towns and cities, set out by Commander-in-Chief Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris, are controversial.
However, by the end of March, with Germany on the brink of collapse, the operations at MSG were scaled down, and Flt-Lt Cave left the airfield to begin his journey home to Canada.
With the air war over, the two MSG squadrons were stood down at the beginning of May 1945, and there was a great ceremony on May 31, 1945, in front of TV and press cameras, and attended by Sir Arthur Harris, to wave off the first of the Lancasters as they flew back to Canada.
A photographer from The Northern Echo captured this image on May 31, 1945, of the first Lancaster bombers to return to Canada at the end of the Second World War
Waving off the first Canadian Lancaster bombers to leave RAF Middleton St George on May 31, 1945, as the Second World War came to an end
Air Vice Marshal Clifford McEwen, of the Royal Canadian Air Force, and Air Marshal Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris, head of Bomber Command, wave off the Canadian Lancasters from MSG on May 31, 1945
In the course of the war, 1,266 airmen operating out of RAF Middleton St George had been killed. Most of them were Canadian. On Friday, while we remember the heroics of one of them, William McMullen, we shall bear in mind all of the gallant airmen who served there and gave their lives there.
A television cameraman captures the first of the Canadian "kites" to leave RAF MSG on May 31, 1945
- With many thanks to Jim Cave for his research and pictures
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