At St Christopher’s church was the funeral of ex Flt Sgt Edward McRae aged 93 a veteran of 50 Squadron RAF Bomber Command he volunteered in 1944 he was the mid upper gunner in a Lancaster he completed 19 missions over Europe.
Crash report from the War Office 1945:
BOMBER COMMAND
Ferry flight in connection with Operation EXODUS
50 Squadron, RAF (Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire – 5 Group)
Lancaster I PD339/J – took off (from Wing, Buckinghamshire?) at about 1640 and 15 minutes later south of Northampton hit a tree while turning steeply to avoid cables, crashed on 26/04/1945 and burned out on Hardingstone Lodge Farm. Of the seven crew only the two RAF air gunners survived, injured. The four RNZAF airmen were buried on 2 May at Botley, just west of Oxford. Operation EXODUS involved a large-scale airlift to repatriate some 75,000 recently liberated British prisoners of war from Continental airfields to Britain. Lost on the first day of the 12-day operation, it is believed that PD339 was returning to its base after transporting one of the first batches of prisoners from Brussels to Wing Airfield Buckinghamshire.
Crew are:
F/O C J Evans RNZAF (killed)
Sgt D H Millichip (killed)
F/S T R THWAITES RNZAF (killed)
F/S R F Carrodus RNZAF (killed)
F/S I J Loveridge RNZAF(killed)
Sgt E R McRae (survived)
Sgt G A Fuller (survived)
