RAFVR Service number 1569017
Avro Lancaster III / ND913 / A4-M2, aged 21
115 Squadron
Air Gunner
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 Ernest and Margaret R. Middleton, of Sherburn, Co. Durham.

RAFVR Service number 1569017
Avro Lancaster III / ND913 / A4-M2, aged 21
115 Squadron
Air Gunner
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 Ernest and Margaret R. Middleton, of Sherburn, Co. Durham.