Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 211

W ORLD W AR II

S T . E DWARD ’ S S CHOOL , O XFORD R OLL OF H ONOUR

Name GAVIN JOHN LYNES (Pilot Officer)

Lef SES 1932

Set / House C

Roll Number 2680 Died 09:05:1941

Arrive SES 1931

Where PLANTLUNNE, GERMANY Serving with 304 (POL) SQN, BOM CMD, R.A.F.V.R.

Age 26

Buried Commonwealth War Cemetery, Reichswald Forest, Kleve Remembered The St. Edward’s School WW2 Memorial

Born Nottingham 1917, the son of a clergyman. He was at the school just one year and very little is recorded of him. He joined the RAFVR in 1940 and qualified as a Pilot Officer, posted to 99 Squadron Bomber Command and awarded the DFC in the same year, having already flown 32 missions over Norway, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy. In 1941 he was transferred to 304 Squadron, a mostly Polish-manned team and was killed over Bremen in May 1941 during a mission. His aircraft was hit by a enemy night fighter meaning that he had to dive to a very low height to drop his bomb load, which he managed to do before crashing at Plantlunne near Linden-Ems, Germany. One member of the crew survived and was taken prisoner. After his death there was a long situation-report written about his war record and especially a bombing raid in August 1940 when his target was the transformer station at Kelsterbach. Despite his aircraft malfunctioning over the Dutch coast, he decided to press on and despite the target being covered by clouds, dived down below them into the teeth of anti-aircraft fire to drop his bomb load. This meant several passes over the target, the last at 100 feet when he was able to see the target in flames.