Robert Martin Watson and Bomber Command

A few weeks ago (in October 2022) my cousin, Robert Rodger, telephoned and interested me in an internet research project. Several years ago, a plaque memorializing the deaths of men serving in World War 2 from St. Andrew's East, Quebec was stolen (presumably for its scrap metal value) from wall of the local post office. Bob was having difficulty in his local research to find these names and was working to get the plaque replaced.

Bob indicated that he had been named Robert after one of the military members lost in the war.

A week or so later, I got an email from a friend who lives near Hawkesbury, Ontario. Jim Christie is masterful in his ability to find railway and other interesting industrial data from century-old on-line trade journals. This is just one example of the subjects he meticulously researches. Jim sent me a link to a newspaper article in The Review - an online newspaper based in Vankleek Hill, Ontario. Knowing I was related to Rodgers in Lachute, he thought I might know the person in the article. (I was amazed when Jim Christie later found additional information which helps to document key dates in Robert Watson's service history which will appear later in this series.)

In the newspaper article in The Review, my cousin Bob - now in possession of the missing names - was publicizing his efforts to get the plaque replaced. The Review had taken an interest in the story and had researched Robert Watson's service record through Veterans Affairs, Canada. My cousin's efforts to get the plaque replaced, and more information about the local servicemen, were in this story which was published just before Remembrance Day in 2022.

Bob Rodger indicated that another 'farmer's son' from near Geneva PQ, was Harold Maxwell. Research by Jim Christie shows that Sergeant William Harold McQueen Maxell (N) [N = navigator] was lost (age 22) off the coast of Scotland while at #10 Advanced Training Unit, during a cross-country flight. All told, there were 5 airmen flying in the Avro Anson and their bodies were never found. The Anson was flying from RAF Station Dumfries in Scotland. (Visitors to British Commonwealth Air Training Plan museums in Canada will recognize the twin-engined Anson. In an August 1940 British aircraft spotter's guide, the Anson is considered to be a 'coastal reconnaissance bomber' - used by the Coastal and Training Commands - with a normal crew of three.)

 

from: St Andrew's East Consolidated School Reunion; 1989; Jack Entwistle Chair, Org Ctte; self-published.
Both of my paternal grandparents taught at this school.

Robert Watson was born on February 9, 1921, and died on October 3, 1943, while serving as a Sergeant in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and attached to 76 Squadron, a heavy bomber unit of the Royal Air Force (RAF). 

Photo by Mabel Rodger (later Mabel Gagnon) undated.

Here is my great-uncle Douglas (born July 1, 1912) in an undated photo taken by my paternal grandmother, Mabel Rodger (born September 17, 1899). She grew up on this farm, too. Douglas Rodger was my first boss - on the best job I ever had. My father sometimes referred to this farm as the 'cradle of civilization'.

William and Cecilia Watson (the parents of Robert Watson) own the barn and silo behind the tree in the distance. An extensive search of my father's photos has failed to turn up a contemporary photo of their house back then. 

 

from: Veterans Affairs, Canada

Here is Robert Watson, son of William and Cecilia, who lived on the farm shown above.

Probably, this photo was taken at his induction or after basic training.

I think you can see the crest of the Royal Canadian Air Force on his buttons.

Google Maps image, circa 2022.

The map pin shows where Robert Watson is buried.

It is not far from where his bomber came down on his final mission.

Google Earth image, circa 2022.

The square I have lightened, south of Sage, Germany in the image above contains the rectangle 

of the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery where Robert Watson is buried.

Sage War Cemetery, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, undated.

Here is the plan of the Sage War Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Plot 1, Row D, Grave 8 is where Robert Watson's remains were transferred when this cemetery was established after World War 2 was over. (A/G) denotes his specialty as air gunner. 

In subsequent posts, I'll try to explain the work he would have been expected to perform.

Google Maps panorama of Commonwealth War Cemetery, Sage, Germany, by Tim Rademacher, May 2020

I have lightened what I believe to be the grave of Robert Watson, based on the documents above.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Think of World War One soldiers climbing ladders out of their trenches and running across No Man's Land during a military action. Unless these soldiers wrote about their experiences, we can only imagine the 'human experience' of what they experienced in battle.

Most people can picture a World War One soldier going 'over the top' and facing a hail of rifle and machine gun bullets, artillery shells containing high explosive or shrapnel, sometimes poison gas, and barbed wire entanglements as they approached the enemy. 

It is hard to say how many times the 'average' Canadian soldier charged the enemy and how long each battle was. There is no doubt that simply living in rat-infested, muddy, trenches, constantly under threat of enemy infantry attacks, gas attacks, and artillery bombardment was a horrendous, often traumatizing experience for most front-line soldiers.

The battle experiences of the crews of RAF Bomber Command around the period of 1942 to 1945 are a little easier to understand because the equipment and tactics had become quite consistent. They went 'over the top' of enemy territory 30 times to complete their tour of duty. 

Their missions lasted hours - a full mission to Berlin and back would require about 7.5 hours of flying. At this point in the war, most of Bomber Command's missions were conducted at night, without navigation lights lit on the aircraft in the bomber 'stream', and in radio silence. Somewhat like a school of fish, the bomber 'stream' tactic attempted to limit losses of aircraft by overwhelming German defences at one particular point.

Here is a partial list of hazards which these RAF/RCAF bomber crews faced:

Detection and tracking by an integrated network of coastal and inland German radar ground stations.

A succession of optical-ranging or radar-directed anti-aircraft artillery batteries. This defensive system was known as AAA, triple A, Flugabwehrkanone ... or flak for short. A  gun battery's central 'computer' would calculate aircraft altitude and 'lead' the aircraft by directing its guns to fire at an aircraft's projected location in the sky. Generally it took 30 seconds for the shell to reach the altitude of the bomber stream.

Very intense automatic and human-directed flak batteries around key targets (eg. steel mills, ball bearing plants, Berlin). Instead of attempting to target particular aircraft, the flak guns would often work to fill the sky with exploding shells to destroy the aircraft and their crews.

Systems of very powerful searchlights which could 'cone' individual bombers in their multiple beams of blinding light for targeting and destruction by flak.

Attacks by German nightfighter aircraft (usually twin-engine aircraft with specialized crews and heavy weapons) guided to the bombers by air controllers in radar ground stations. 

Airborne radar sets and other electronic bomber-detecting aids were mounted on the German nightfighters as fast as they could be invented and manufactured.

Collisions between the hundreds of darkened bomber aircraft flying together in the 'bomber stream'. An early estimate predicted statistically that only two aircraft would be lost due to collision during a large mission of up to 1000 aircraft. (During a briefing which included the soothing presentation of this calculation, an airman piped up and asked: 'Do you know which two?')

Crews always risked frostbite and hypoxia/death from flying in unheated and unpressurized aircraft. (At 20,000 feet above sea level, a typical air temperature is -25 degrees Celsius. Oxygen systems had to be working at all crew positions on the aircraft above 10,000 feet altitude.)

Bombers were clearly visible to enemy forces when they were ordered on missions on clear, moonlit nights.

When missions were ordered on nights with low cloud, the clouds could be deliberately illuminated by the searchlights on the ground. The dark bombers would be clearly silhouetted against the clouds below them, and nightfighters could proceed with their attacks from above.

Imperfect weather forecasting led to aircraft losses. Aircraft icing, storms and strong headwinds were typical hazards which the planned mission routing sought to avoid using the available forecasts.

Returning bombers, badly damaged by flak and/or with injured crewmembers aboard, might be forced to attempt a landing at any available RAF station in England. They often had to land in thick morning fog. Once they had left occupied Europe, badly damaged aircraft were often forced to ditch in the English Channel with the hope that the crew would be located by fast rescue boats from England - weather permitting.

Bomber aircraft were designed and built as rapidly as possible under wartime conditions. 

• The first mass-produced aircraft of the 'Halifax-type', the four-engined bomber crewed by Robert Watson, was delivered on 11 October 1940. However, design, engine, and component changes were continually being made to the Halifax and all other combat aircraft during the war. There were no 'black boxes' on these aircraft to provide answers if a design or component defect caused the loss of an aircraft and its crew. 

• Watson's last mission was on 3 October 1943 - only three years after the first Halifax's first mission. 

Statistically, considering all RCAF and RAF bomber aircrew who received their final bomber training/orientation at an Operational Training Unit, 51% were later killed in operations.

The bomber aircraft were short-lived assets built quickly for the war. The end date of the war and the outcome of the war could not be foreseen. These giant (for the time) aircraft were not built to have the useful decades-long life of a Boeing 747. 

At the height of the bombing campaign - because of the many hazards listed above - there was a very high rate of loss of aircraft and their valuable, specially-trained crews. Many crews added up the losses around them and observed, fatalistically and mathematically, that they were all destined 'to leave on the same train'. They concluded the only difference between ... cohesive crews with good luck ... and inexperienced crews with bad luck ... was the date on which their train would leave.