The Stewart
Family. Neil is in de middle row, second
from left, next to his father.
(picture courtesy of the Stewart family.)
He became an air gunner on Halifax bombers
with 428 Sqn RCAF from Middleton St. George
airfield. His crew consisted of:
Sgt Arthur
William Gotham RAF
F/O Alan Whamond Woolverton
F/O Gerald Alfred Smith, RCAF
F/S Herbert Sutton Lister RAAF
Sgt Cecil William Sherratt, RAF
Sgt Edward Charles Webb, RCAF and
air gunner, WOII Neil Macintyre Stewart,
RCAF
In the night
of 19/20 February 1944 this crew
participated in an attack on Leipzig. They
boarded Halifax II JD 271, coded NA-M, and
took off at 23.56 on the evening of the 19th.
This was to be one of the most devastating
raids for Bomber Command of the war.
Part of the
operation was a diversion in which a smaller
force layed mines in and near Kiel Harbour. The German
controllers only sent part of their force of
fighters to a Kiel mine laying diversion.
When the main bomber force crossed the Dutch
coast, they were met by a another part of
the German fighter force, and those German
fighters which had been sent north to Kiel
hurriedly returned. The bomber stream was
thus under attack all the way to the target.
There were further difficulties at the
target because winds were not as forecast
and many aircraft reached the Leipzig area
too early and had to orbit and await the
Pathfinders. 4 aircraft were lost by
collision and approximately 20 were shot
down by flak. Leipzig was cloud-covered and
the Pathfinders had to use sky marking. The
raid appeared to be concentrated in its
early stages but scattered later.(1)
It is not known how
Halifax JD 271 met its demise in which the
whole crew lost their lives. The plane crashed into the IJsselmeer
off Andijk as only the remains of three of the crew were
recovered on the IJsselmeer coast.
Newspaper
article regarding Neil's death. (courtesy of
the Stewart family.)
Air gunner
Warrant Officer II Neil Stewart is buried in Andijk, just north of Enkhuizen.
Australian crew member Herbert Lister was
recovered and was first buried at Wevershoof,
but is
now buried at the Canadian Military Cemetery in
Groesbeek, near Nijmegen. F/O Woolverton is buried at Enkhuizen
General Cemetery.
The rest of
the crew is still missing and are
commemorated at the Runnymede Memorial.
(picture
courtesy of the Stewart family.)
