June 1945
June 1945 commenced with showery weather and during the first week crews of Six-thirty flew various Air Tests and on 4th June five of the squadrons aircraft and crews participated in incendiary dropping off the East Coast to dispose of more of the remaining stocks of volatile incendiary bombs.
The 5th and 8th June brought a cross country flight over the Ruhr On 7th June the squadron despatched seven aircraft to drop incendiaries into the North Sea and on the 9th carried out 48 similar flights and on 14th June two aircraft of 57 Squadron and two of 630 Squadron carried out “Ruhr tours”
(photo thanks to Aircrew Remembered)
On 8 June 1945 the award of the French Croix de Guerre was announced to Flight Lieut “Pancho” O’Dwyer who had completed his tour and been posted away from the squadron in January 1945.
Even more wet and windy days followed with occasional training missions until 15th June 1945 when four aircraft were detailed for another round of incendiary dropping.
Sadly one crew failed to return. The last news from the crew was at 11:47 hours when they reported having dropped their incendiaries and that they were turning for home. A search mission followed by 6 aircraft of 630 Squadron supported by 2 Warwicks, 1 Walrus and a Hight Speed Launch of 16 Group, but no trace could be found and no wreckage was seen floating. That evening a search mission was planned for early the following morning with 13 aircraft of 57 Squadron flying. At 22:05 hours a dinghy search was flown by 280 Squadron.
Lancaster III, PB344 (Codes LE – R)
Pilot – F/O George Hamilton Cowan. Age 22 †
Flight Eng – F/S David Porter Currie. Age 24 †
Navigator – F/S Wilfred Ernest Smith. Age †
Bomb Aimer – F/S Jonah Rhodes. Age 25 †
Wireless Op – F/S Frederick Reynolds. Age †
Rear Gunner – F/S James Porter. Age 20 †
The entire crew are commemorated on Runnymede Memorial. George Cowan’s operational crew included David Currie, Wilf Smith, Fred Reynolds and Jim Porter, together they had completed 28 operations over enemy territory only to sadly be lost on a bomb disposal flight. Confusingly Jonah Rhodes is shown as a member of 51 Squadron on the Memorial.
In fine weather on the following day a dinghy search was flown by ten aircraft commencing at 04:50 hours but it was without result. At 09:10 hours ten aircraft from Spilsby commenced a search to the south of the area previously searched, but sighted nothing. Nothing was heard from George Cowan’s crew again but some wreckage was sighted between 12:37 and 15:54 hours in an Air Sea Rescue search 105 nautical miles off Flamborough Head by 44 and 207 Squadron aircraft.
On 18th June a signal was received from HQ No.5 Group that the squadron was to prepare to move to RAF Skellingthorpe, the Advance Party to move on the 24th June, the Main Party on 25th and the Rear Part on 26th, work immediately commenced. The rolling program of training missions continued and on 19th June one aircraft toured the Ruhr Valley, several completed training missions whilst one took aerial photos of East Kirkby airfield. Incendiary dropping into the North Sea re-commenced on 20th and 21st June. After several days of frantic activity it was announced on 22nd June that with packing virtually complete, the move to Skellingthorpe was cancelled. Both squadrons at East Kirkby commenced some elements of training for “Tiger Force”, the RAF Heavy Bomber force expected to be despatched to the Far East.
(photo thanks to Ian Lawton)
In thunder storms and generally poor weather the squadron was stood down until 25th June when two further aircraft toured the Ruhr and high level bombing exercises resumed. The remainder of June was rainy, foggy and hazy although training flights continued until the end of the month. New British personnel continued to arrive to replace the Commonwealth aircrew who were quickly being posted in large numbers to Holding Units pending repatriation to their homes. In early June both flight commanders, Squadron Leaders Marcel Cuelenaere DFC RCAF and Lawrence Pilgrim DFC were posted away, Pilgrim back to 44 Squadron to train for “Tiger Force”. Their replacements being Squadron Leader Ian George Fadden DFC BEM previously of 61 Squadron who had earned a BEM for gallantry crash landing a Wellington in the Western Desert while serving with 148 Squadron in October 1941 and Squadron Leader Terry Forshaw a pre-war regular pilot. 630 Squadron completed 308.15 non-operational flying hours during the month.
No. 630 Squadron 