Pilot Officer Edward Thompson of 433 (RCAF) Squadron

Pilot Officer Edward Henry Thompson
Flight engineer
433 (RCAF) Squadron
1 February 1945
Age 20

Son of John Henry and Alice Hester Thompson, of West Hampstead, London.

Pilot Officer Thompson is another RAF airman buried in Hampstead cemetery.

433 Squadron was formed in September 1943, initially flying Halifaxes as part of No6 Group. It converted to the Lancaster in January 1945.

The Squadron was based at Skipton on Swale, North Yorkshire.

Pilot officer Thompson was flight engineer on Lancaster NG460, BM-A, on a mission to Ludwigshafen on 1 February 1945. Pilot was 23-year-old squadron leader HK Stinson DFC, of Lindsay, Ontario, who was commander of 433’s A-flight.

This was the first mission 433 Squadron had flown with the Lancaster and seven of its aircraft took part. Stinson’s crew were all officers and are believed to have been veterans of at least 25 bombing raids.

Stinson’s aircraft took off at 1523 and dropped its bombs at 1928 from 17,000 feet.

Damaged by flak over the target, the aircraft encountered turbulence on the return journey and control was lost only a few miles away from its home base.

Two of the crew (Rear gunner P/O R.J.Thompson and bomb-aimer F/O A.W.Belles) baled out from 2,000 feet before the Lancaster crashed near Low House, roughly 1,000 yards NW from the centre of Driffield, Derbyshire. The four RCAF officers are buried in Harrogate (Stonefall) cemetery.

Pilot: S/L H.K.Stinson DFC RCAF
Flight engineer: P/O E.H. Thompson
Navigator: F/O D.J. McMillan RCAF
Wireless Operator: P/O J.T. McShane RCAF
Air gunner: P/O R. Pierson RCAF

Pilot officer JT McShane was 25 and from Kamloops, British Columbia.
Pilot officer Roy Pierson was 21 and from Taber, Alberta.
Flying officer DJ McMillan was 23 and from Orangeville, Ontario.