Roll of Honour

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Name FRANKLIN
First names Geoffrey Edward
Rank F/O
Service RAF
Service number 142089
Crew position Navigator
Age 31
Date of death 29/07/44
Cemetery St Martin-sur-Oreuse Cemetery Yonne France

Photographed by Malcolm Brooke


49Sqn Association
1: F/L W L Powell
2: F/S D C Stephens
3: F/O G E Franklin
4: Sgt I A Mitchell (B/A but not with JB701)

28/29 July, 1944; STUTTGART:
If cloud and bad weather had caused problems on the previous raid, then the bright moon conditions that prevailed over France this night were to prove an even greater hazard to the bombers. As the force of nearly 500 aircraft headed for Stuttgart, German night-fighters were waiting, and in the ensuing air battle 39 Lancasters were shot down. Fiskerton had 12 aircraft airborne.
F/Lt William Powell (JB701) and crew were all killed when their Lancaster was shot down by a JU88 nightfighter over France. The flight engineer and rear gunner have separate graves, but the remaining five crew members are in a collective grave; all seven rest in St Martin-sur-Oreuse Cemetery, Yonne.

FTR JB701 (EA-G)
F/L W.L. Powell Pilot (Killed)

Sgt J.F. West F/E (Killed)
F/O G.E. Franklin NAV (Killed)
F/S D.C. Stephens W/OP (Killed)

Sgt G.E. Kirkpatrick A/G (Killed)
F/O A.S. Cole B/A (Killed)
Sgt T. Moore A/G (Killed)

Crew on their 17th operation

The crew are remembered on a memorial in the local French churchyard.