The crew was transferred
to the newly formed 463 Sqn RAAF on 25
November 1943, operating out of Waddington,
Lincolnshire.
His crew
consisted of:
P/O Charles
Schomberg (pilot)
F/L Hubert Petts (navigator)
F/O Leonard Calderwood (mid up gunner)
F/S James Harden (bomb aimer)
F/S Donald McDonald (tail gunner)
F/S Wilfred Millar (wireless operator)
Sgt Harry Steels (engineer)
On 23/24
December 1943 the flew missions to Berlin,
while the first mission had to be aborted
due to a failure of the oxygen installation.
After a mission to Stettin on 5/6 January
1945, during which they were forced to
jettison their bombs when their bomber iced
up, it was again to Berlin, on 30/31 January
and 15/16 February. This last mission had to
be aborted due to engine overheating. The
next two mission, on 19/20 February to
Leipzig and 1/2 March to Stuttgart both had
to be aborted due to engine trouble and a
malfunctioning tail turret.
Two weeks
later, on 15/16 March they flew to Stuttgart
again, this time completing the mission. The
next two mission, on 18/19 April to Juvisy
and 20/21 April to La Chappelle were both
completed.
Due to the
many problems this crew had with their
planes, P/O Schomberg was said to have "a
Gremlin in his pocket", ground crew slang
for saying your crew was problem prone.
On 22 April
1944, P/O Schomberg celebrated his 23rd
birthday. That same night crew
took off from their base Waddington in
Lincolnshire in Lancaster LL892 LO-J on a
mission to Braunschweig (Brunswick).
The plane
encountered problems probably on the way to
the target. An eyewitness in the town of
Wagenborgen saw the plane come over: "The
aircraft came from the direction of
Groningen and was on fire. It was very low
and made a lot of noise. We were surprised
to hear the next day that it crashed all the
way near Nieuwolda." This means the plane
flew in an easterly direction.
The Lancaster
crashed at high speed in a field behind a
farm of the Dokkum family near Nieuwolda.
There was a huge explosion on impact,
probably because the bombs were still on
board. The Lancaster disappeared in the
ground completely. No attempt was made to
salvage the plane. The Germans only salvaged
a few pieces of wreckage and a propeller.
The remains of
the crew were buried together in a communal
grave in Nieuwolda.
(picture by
Wim Bastiaanse)
(picture by
Wim Bastiaanse)
