Name
Owen Harwood Martin
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
05/11/1944
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Warrant Officer
1377847
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
10 Sqdn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
REICHSWALD FOREST WAR CEMETERY
Coll. grave 1. C. 13-15.
Germany
Headstone Inscription
INTO THE MOSAIC OF VICTORY THIS PRECIOUS PIECE WAS LAID
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin, Hitchin Boys’ Grammar School Memorial (WW2)
Biography
He attended the Hitchin Grammar School from 1932-1939 and secured a School Certificate. On leaving school, he qualified for the Post Office Stores Department in London and in mid-1939 was employed at the Mount Pleasant Branch of the Post Office. His main interest was in Scouting, and he became a troop leader of the Brand Street Troop and rendered good service at a time when adult scouters; were away on war duties.
Owen joined the R.A.F. and was allocated the Service Number 1377847 and was sent for training as an Air Gunner in South Africa in 1941. He saw service in the Far East including India and returned to Britain in 1944 and later went on operations in mainland Europe.
On the 14th July 1944 he was in a Halifax III HX 338 NP-W of 158 Squadron based at Lisset north of Hull. The outer starboard engine caught fire during a training flight and crashed into St. Bride's Bay off St. David's Pembrokeshire. The pilot, co-pilot and a gunner were killed but Owen, as the rear gunner, managed to parachute to safety, landing on a cliff-top amid a number of cows.
On the 6th October 1944 he joined 10 Squadron from No. 41 base and was destined to fly on only two operational flights. The first of these was intended to be an attack on Cologne on the 30th October 1944. His bomber took off at 18.05hrs but 45 minutes later had to return as its "G’ equipment was defective. Its bombs were jettisoned at 19.59hrs.
On the night of the 4th/5th November 1944 Halifax bomber Mk 3 LM716 ZA-Z took off at 19.34hrs from Melbourne in Yorkshire to attack the steelworks at Bochum in Germany. Owen was the rear gunner. The aircraft was part of a force of 749 of which 384 were Halifaxes and 23 of these were lost that night. The mid-upper gunner, who bailed out, was the only survivor and was taken prisoner.
Owen was buried in Plot 1, Row C, Collective Grave 13-17 in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery. Several of the crew were buried in this communal grave. There is a private inscription on the stone reading ·”Unto the mosaic of victory this precious piece was laid".
A photograph of him appears in the Pictorial newspaper dated 24th March 1941. His parents lived at ‘Cartref', Grays Lane, Hitchin and his mother was a notable teacher at St. Mary's School. Many boys and girls of that era owed a great deal to her skills. He was their second son, and his brother John was reported missing in Malaya in 1942.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Hitchin Grammar School Chronicle, Mr Geoffrey Cooling, who knew him, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘Bomber Command Losses’ by W.R. Chorley, Herts & Beds Express dated 28th Mar 1942 & 29th July 1944, Herts Pictorial dated 24th Mar 1941
