World War 11 Casualties

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Rush Francis William

http://www.basher82.nl/Data/stompetoren/rush.htm

We would like to thank Stevin Oudshoorn for his kind permission to use data from his website

 Francis William Rush was born 20^th May 1914 in Hobart Tasmania , son of Francis John and Myrtle Elsie Rush.  They later moved to Battery Point Tasmania.  

Francis was a Clerk before he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on the 13^th May 1940.  He became a pilot on a Lancaster bomber with 7 Squadron.  

His crew consisted of  

F/O Francis Rush (Pilot)

F/O William Scott (Bomb Aimer)

F/O Clive Luther (Mid Upper Gunner)

Sgt John S. Ogg (Flt Engineer)

Sgt Kenneth Wightman (Navigator)

Sgt Henry Bushell (Wireless Operator)

Sgt William Buntain (Rear Gunner)  

F/O Francis Rush, F/O William Scott and F/O Clive Luther were Australians, the rest of the crew were all English.  

On December 16^th 1943, they took off from their base at Oakingdon in Cambridgeshire in their Lancaster .  The target was Berlin and this was the 6^th mission in what was called the Battle of Berlin.  Bomber Command paid repeated visits to the German capital late 1943 through early 1944  

Their Lancaster was claimed by Lt. Heinz Rolland at 18.02 near the city of Alkmaar .  The whole crew, except one was killed.  Sgt. John Ogg bailed out of the Lancaster and was found by a farmer.  He was taken to Broek where he was given civilivan clothes and a Dutch ID card.  The resistance tried to get him back to England via the escape routes.  After Christmas they took him to Amsterdam , but an attempt to move him further along the line was unsuccessful.  Sgt. Ogg stayed in Rotterdam , working on a farm, until the liberation.  

At practically the same time that F/O Rush’s plane was shut down, another Lancaster of 7 Squadron, captained by W/O Watson, was shot down north east of Lemmer.  

On 4^th May 1994, the people of Stompetoren dedicated this plaque to the crew that lie buried in the town.

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