Roll of Honour

22/23 October, 1943; KASSEL:
Eight Pathfinder 'visual markers' found the centre of Kassel after the H2S 'blind' marker overshot the target. The consequences proved to be horrendous for this German city. The bombing, by nearly 570 was so concentrated that a firestorm was created, but not on the scale of the Hamburg storm in July.
Bomber Command paid heavily for their success with 24 Halifaxes and 18 Lancasters failing to return. Sadly two of the missing Lancasters were from 49 Squadron

One of the missing aircraft was JB413; it crashed near Wunsdorf, with five members of the crew surviving. Sadly their pilot, P/O Philip Taverner and the 20 year old Australian rear gunner, F/Sgt Edwin Parker, were both killed; they too have their graves in Hannover War Cemetery.

Lancaster JB413
P/O P.A. Taverner Pilot (Killed)
Sgt W. Kemp F/E (P.o.W.)
Sgt I. Spence NAV (P.o.W.)
Sgt R.H. Norman W/AG (P.o.W.)
Sgt N.C. Dunbabin A/G (P.o.W.)
Sgt R.K. Drinnan RCAF B/A (P.o.W.)
F/S E.E. Parker RAAF A/G (Killed)
Crew on their 3rd operation

F/S Parker is remembered on a memorial in William Farr School, Welton, Nr Lincoln.