Name
Gordon Cecil Major
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
11/08/1943
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sergeant
1336854
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
57 Sqdn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
t DURNBACH WAR CEMETERY
Coll. grave 6. K. 4-8.
Germany
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He had attended Norton Road School in Letchworth and later was employed by Messrs G.W. King, engineers of Hitchin. He was a keen member of the Home Guard and was one of the first men in the original Civil Defence Volunteers when it was formed in 1940. He was in the Headquarters Platoon.
He volunteered for the R.A.F. in 1941 and was given the Service Number 1336854 and posted to 57 Squadron. At the time of his death he had made 30 operational flights, latterly as an Air Gunner in Lancaster bombers. He was killed during an operational flight having initially been reported as missing.
He left the Squadron base in Scampton at 21.42hrs in Lancaster III ED992 DX-O for an attack on Nuremburg. The aircraft crashed at Rummelsburg which is 4km north-north-west of Bad Tolz and 18km east southeast of Durnbach. All eight members of the crew were killed. 653 aircraft took part in the raid and 16 were lost. 577 people were killed on the ground and there was severe property damage.
He is buried in the Bad Tolz British Military Cemetery in Germany.
He was the son of Mrs D. Major of 23, Bedford Street, Hitchin.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘Bomber Command Losses’ by W.R. Chorley, ‘Bomber Command War Diaries’ by M. Middlebrook & C. Everitt, Herts Pictorial dated l 7th August 1943
