Dennis | George Charles
Biography
Son of Robert H. and Edith E. Dennis
Sergeant George Dennis was one of the crew of the Lancaster NG251 that crashed in Dölzig, near Leipzig by anti-aircraft fire by the 14th Flak Division of the German Army.
The crew consisted of:
Pilot / F/Lt. J.P. Morris 130129 RAF / Venray War Cemetery the Netherlands
Flight Engineer / Sgt. A.G. Furber 3025228 RAF / Venray War Cemetery the Netherlands
Navigator / F/O. A. Leonard 160715 RAF / Overloon War Cemetery the Netherlands
Bomb Aimer / Sgt. H.J. Bailey 1601442 RAF / Venray War Cemetery the Netherlands
Wireless Operator / Sgt. W. Roberts 2206786 RAF / Venray War Cemetery the Netherlands
Mid Upper Gunner / Sgt. G.C. Dennis 2204350 RAF / Overloon War Cemetery the Netherlands
Rear Gunner / Sgt. T.J. Hooper 2217010 RAF / Berlin War Cemetery Germany
On 6 December 1944, the aircraft took off from North Killingholme for an operation against the IG Farben Leuna chemical paint factory near Merseburg.
IG Farben was one of Nazi Germany’s largest synthetic oil and chemical plants. The factory employed 35,000 – 50.000 workers including about 10,000 prisoners and forced labourers.
This made the factory a prime target for the Allied bombing offensive against German oil production.
The 14th Flak Division was responsible for protecting the factory and had thousands of troops and workers working to defend it. Many bomber flights were carried out but many planes were also shot down. A great loss of Allied men.
Allied air raids contributed significantly to Germany’s defeat in World War II by depriving the country and its troops of vital resources. On 4 April 1945, production at Leuna ceased completely.
Dennis was temporarily buried at Margraten CCC-6-146 and later on reburied at Overloon War Cemetery.
GEORGE’S FAMILY BACKGROUND
George Charles Dennis was born on 2 March 1925 in the Haslingden district of Lancashire which is north of Manchester. His parents were Robert Henry Dennis (born 22/3/1898 in Haslingden) and Edith Emily Preece (born 4/3/1898 in Wrexham, Denbeighshire). They had married in Haslingden in 1924. They had three children, all in Haslingden: George Charles in 1925, Gwennie (known as Betty) in 1928 and Marion in 1930.
Little is known of George’s early life. However, family remember being told that he liked to act. A programme for an operatta named Bold Robin and the Babes performed by children at Christ Church, Walmersley, Sunday School survives which shows him playing the part of the Village Crier. He later attended St Paul’s Bell Senior School in Bury. A report card for George, aged 13, and dated 29 July 1938 shows that he came 5th in his class of 37 pupils with particularly good results in Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Science and Crafts. Even in his less good subjects he was noted for trying hard.
By September 1939, the family were living at 59 Thrush Drive, Bury, Lancashire. George’s father was working as a Consol Operator in the shoe making industry.
GEORGE’S MILITARY CAREER
It seems that George joined the Royal Airforce Volunteer Reserve on 20 January, 1943. His Attestation record shows that he was a “Lining Clicker” which was a trade in the shoe industry. By autumn 1943 his Airman’s Service Book shows he was undergoing sight tests and receiving inoculations. His father was given as his next of kin and was still living at the same address as in 1939.
George’s Flying Log Book shows that he started his air gunnery training at No 1 Air Gunnery School at Pembrey on 30 January 1944. RAF Pembrey was just west of Swansea in Wales. He was flying Avro Anson aircraft. These were considered obsolete for front line combat roles – but were used instead as multi-engine aircrew trainers.
He took his first four flights on 11 February. They were generally of between 30 and 60 minutes. He clocked up 18 hrs 50 mins of day flying hours on 26 flights on 11 days between then until 12 March with a variety of pilots. In some cases, no rounds were fired but in most the quantity of rounds fired was noted as was the nature of the exercise. The vast majority of rounds he fired were “Quarter X Under” but some were “Beam”, “Beam R.S.” or “Under Tail”. He also practiced taking cine footage, air to sea and air tracer exercises.
His course there finished on 25 March. A summary recorded his final average number of hits to rounds fired as 3.77%. He scored 72% in his exams. and it was recorded that he was “a little uncertain of himself but has worked hard since the intermedium examination”. The following was entered in his log book “This is to certify that 2204850 Sgt Dennis G C has qualified as Air Gunner with effect from 24.3.44.”
He moved on to 83 Operational Training Unit at RAF Peplow on 10 April 1944 where he remained until 1 August 1944. This was located 7 miles south of Market Drayton in Shropshire. 83 OTU’s purpose was to train bomber crews on Vickers Wellington aircraft, including night flying. Here, he clocked up 45 hrs 40 mins of day flying and 38 hrs 10 mins of night flying, though flights only started on 10 June and night flights on 9 July. It total, he flew on 48 occasions on 32 different days. On 28 of the 48 flights, the pilot was Flight Officer Morris. Activities included circuits and landings, “CCG”, high level bombing, cine camera work, cross country flights. It culminated in some night flights of 5 hours or more. His total flying time was now 102 hrs 40 mins. On leaving here, he was assessed as “Average as Air Gunner”.
He then moved on to 1481 (B) Gunnery School for a brief spell from 31 August to 9 September. This was based at RAF Ingham (later renamed Cammeringham) which was 10 miles north of Lincoln. Here he made 6 daytime flights lasting a total of 4 hrs 20 mins, again in Wellingtons. Other RAF crews flew Martinets while towing airborne targets for the bomber gunners to practice their gunnery skills in defending their aircraft.
His next posting was to 1662 Conversion Unit at RAF Blyton. It is located about 5 miles north east of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. He was here from 19 September to 29 September. Here, the objective was to train crews who had so far flown Wellingtons to fly Halifax Bombers. He flew 10 flights in total while here and all but one had F/O Morris as the pilot, whom he had already flown with on many flights while at Peplow. It is possible that a fixed group of crew members were forming here. They clocked up 14 hrs 55 mins day flying and 17 hrs 00 mins of night flying. These included 4 flights of 5 or more hours. Again, they included cross country flights, circuits and landings and bombing practice. On leaving, he was assessed as “Slightly above average as Air Gunner – a capable gunner.”
On 2 October he then moved to No 1 Lancaster Finishing School at RAF Hemswell. Hemswell was 8 miles east of Gainsborough and not far from Blyton. With the arrival of the Avro Lancaster, Hemswell had taken on a training role, becoming the home to No. 1 Lancaster Finishing School. This school was tasked with giving Lancaster experience to aircrews who had just finished their training at a Heavy Conversion Unit prior to posting to an operational squadron. He undertook eight flights here between 15 and 18 October, totalling 6 hrs 45 mins by day and 3 hrs 30 mins by night. Again, now promoted Flight Lieutenant Morris was the pilot for four of these flights. They mainly practiced circuits and landings.
By this stage, George had clocked up 90 hrs 30 mins of day flying and 44 hrs 45 mins of night flying – a total of 135 hrs 15 mins – and was ready to join an operational squadron.
He joined 550 Squadron, based at North Killingholme which is on the Humber estuary north of Immingham in Lincolnshire. Between his first flight here on 2 November until his fatal flight on 6 December, he had 15 flights in total of which 11 were operational. All were in Lancasters and in all he was Air Gunner. Most of these were attacks on facilities in the Rhur Valley, including Dusseldrof, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Wanne Eikel, and Dortmund as well as a couple of attacks on Aschaffenburg and Frieburg in Southern Germany.
On almost all the flights, the crew was as follows:
F/Lt J.P. Morris Pilot
Sgt A.G. Furber Flight Engineer
F/O A. Leonard Navigator
Sgt H.J. Bailey Bomb Aimer
Sgt J.R. Byrne Wireless Operator/Air Gunner
Sgt G.C. Dennis Middle Under Gunner
Sgt T.J. Hooper Rear Air Gunner
During the day on 6 December, F/L Morris’ crew carried out a 15 minute Air Test on Lancaster “A”. At 16.34 they took off in NG 251 J for an attack on the IB Farben Leuna chemical works near Merseburg. However, there was one change for this fatal operational flight. Wireless Operator Sgt W Roberts took the place of Sgt J.R. Byrne.
The Leuna chemical works was one of the largest plants in Germany, covering an area of 1 ¼ square miles, and employing some 35,000 – 50,000 workers in the manufacture of ammonia, fertilisers, chemicals, synthetic oil and other products. The workers included about 10,000 prisoners and forced labourers. There was complete cloud cover so bombing was carried out on flares. The glow of fires was visible for some distance on the return journey and several explosions were reported. Flak was reported as being moderate to intense. It was from this flight which F/L Morris and his crew failed to return, with no news of them being received from after take off. It had been shot down in Dölzig, between Merseburg and Leipzig, by anti-aircraft fire by the 14th Flak Division of the German Army.
Full details of his time in 550 Squadron are contained in a side story along with more details of his fellow crew members.
Excluding the fatal flight, Sgt. Dennis flew a total of 21 hrs 40 mins on daytime operations and 35 hrs 30 mins on night operations in 550 Squadron. In addition he flew 45 minutes during the day on non operational fights and 9 hrs 40 mins at night. His total flying hours, excluding the final flight, was therefore 202 hrs 50 mins.
John Riley Byrne, who was the Wireless Operator who missed the fatal flight, continued with 550 Squadron at North Killingholme. However, he died on a day/night raid to Dresden on 13 February 1945 when his aircraft, Lancaster NF932, collided with Lancaster PA185. It exploded and fell onto farmland near Wragby in Lincolnshire.
THE AFTERMATH OF HIS DEATH
George’s father received a telegram sent from RAF North Killingholme on 7 December telling him that his son was reported missing from operations on the night of 6th/7th December 1944. It was only in a telegram received on 4 September 1945 that he was told that it was believed he had lost his life in that operation. This was followed by a letter dated 7 September reinforcing this message and telling him that “Information obtained from official German documents reveals that the Lancaster aircraft in which your son was flying crashed at 8:35 PM on 6th December, one kilometre west of Dolzig, after having been hit by anti aircraft fire, and that your son and six other occupants were killed. Your son was buried in the cemetery at Dolzig, Germany.” It also stated that “There is unhappily no reason to doubt the accuracy of the German documents.” He also received a letter form the King and Queen offering their sympathy.
At some point during this time, George’s farewell letter was sent to his parents. It read as follows:
“To the best Parents in world, also Sisters
I only hope this letter never has to be posted, but if it has to be, it is God’s wish.
I have been on operations since the 2nd of November and I am now taking a small part in helping to defeat Germany. Many men, women and children have been killed in this war and we have not felt anything much about it, but now it has happened. Please don’t let it worry you too much. I know it will do but try to forget. I am very proud of my family, I hope you are all proud of me.
I am writing this letter with every confidence that I will do my full tour, but when you are in aircrew, you know that you may be in England away from the war in the morning and in the middle of it within the next 4 or 5 hours, but I am doing a job that has to be done.
I am going to enclose all the addresses of our crew, and I want you to drop them a few lines.
I have done two, and I know what it is like over there, what we are doing and they are doing to us.
Well, I will have to close now as I can’t think of anything else to say, but I say again, Please try to carry on as if I am still with you, don’t let it get you down.
I still remain and always will remain your son and we are all sure to meet again some fine day in a world where there are no wars. God bless you all
Your Loving Son and Brother, George”
He enclosed the name and address of the next of kin of J.R. Byrne, H.J. Bailey, T.J. Hooper and A.G. Furber, but not those of J.P. Morris nor A. Leonard.
It seems that the family had trouble locating George’s grave. Their MP wrote to George’s mother on 1 April 1946 saying that the Russian Embassy were unable to supply a photograph of his grave as they were unable to locate it. It took until 31 January 1948 for the Air Ministry to tell them that “It has been confirmed that your son was buried at Dolsig but when the United States Army occupied the area, the coffins of all fallen allied personnel were removed. It was in accordance with this policy that your son’s remains were laid to rest in the American Military Cemetery at Margraten, Holland, but the United States Congress has decided that this cemetery shall be vacated and it has therefore been necessary to transfer your son’s grave to the British cemetery at Overloon, where his final resting place is Grave 8 in Row A of Plot III.” The re-burial at Overloon had actually been made on 1 May 1947.
They then received a further letter dated 10 May 1948. It seems that his initials had been omitted on the temporary cross which was erected and the date of death was incorrectly shown as 5/12/44 instead of 6/12/44. They were assured that these matters would be corrected when the cross was replaced by the permanent headstone.
The inscription on his permanent headstone reads: “In silence we remember his loving. Mam, Dad, Betty, Marion and Auntie Nelie.”
George’s sister Marion went on to marry Geoffrey B M Tankard in Bury in 1951 and his other sister Betty married Albert Angus in 1953, also in Bury.
Robert H Dennis died in 1966 and Edith Emily Dennis in 1982, both in Bury.
