RAFVR Service number 542814
Avro Lancaster III / ND913 / A4-M2, aged 25
115 Squadron
Flight Engineer
Take off station Witchford
Night Raid Operation Homberg- Meerbeck oil plant.

Operations:
Homberg- Meerbeck oil plant (Rheinpreussen synthetic oil installation). 158 aircraft (149 Lancasters and 11 Mosquitoes) of which 20 Lancasters were downed, mainly due to night-fighter activity. Caused severe damage to the plant, resulting in output dropping from 6000 tones of fuel per day to as little as 120. The 8th Air Force also hit this target.

While flying home, the Lancaster with nickname 'Popeye' was intercepted by the night fighter crew of Oberleutnant Hanneck, Unteroffizier Sacher & Unteroffizier Glöckner of the 5./NJG 1, who had taken off from Deelen airfield at 00:01 hrs, in Bf 110 G-4 G9. The Lancaster crashed 01:45 at Papendrecht, on the north bank of the Merwede river and opposite Dordrecht.

Son of William Retford Luton and Lucy Jane Luton, of Brislington, Bristol.

RAFVR Service number 542814
Avro Lancaster III / ND913 / A4-M2, aged 25
115 Squadron
Flight Engineer
Take off station Witchford
Night Raid Operation Homberg- Meerbeck oil plant.

Operations:
Homberg- Meerbeck oil plant (Rheinpreussen synthetic oil installation). 158 aircraft (149 Lancasters and 11 Mosquitoes) of which 20 Lancasters were downed, mainly due to night-fighter activity. Caused severe damage to the plant, resulting in output dropping from 6000 tones of fuel per day to as little as 120. The 8th Air Force also hit this target.

While flying home, the Lancaster with nickname 'Popeye' was intercepted by the night fighter crew of Oberleutnant Hanneck, Unteroffizier Sacher & Unteroffizier Glöckner of the 5./NJG 1, who had taken off from Deelen airfield at 00:01 hrs, in Bf 110 G-4 G9. The Lancaster crashed 01:45 at Papendrecht, on the north bank of the Merwede river and opposite Dordrecht.

Son of William Retford Luton and Lucy Jane Luton, of Brislington, Bristol.