Trafford

There were three big raids on the night of the 2nd/3rd February 1945 -
Wanne-Eickel; Wiesbaden and Karlsruhe.   In all Bomber Command lost a total
of 34 aircraft that night, each with a crew of 7 airmen - a few survived
the crash and were taken prisoner, but most were killed.

Eric was the pilot of a Lancaster Mk 1 - No. PA223 VN-D.

He took off from R.A.F. Skellingthorpe at 1940hrs for the Karlesruhe
mission.  The aircraft exploded and crashed approximately 4 km S.W. of
Hochfelden (Bas-Rhin), a small town some 25 km N.N.W. from the centre of
Strasbourg.    Eric and five other members of his crew died, but one other
survived (F/S. J.E. Tolson R.C.A.F.), and managed to get back to
Skellingthorpe.   Four of the crew were R.A.F., the other three were
R.C.A.F.