Victor Samuel Flack is one of only two pilots flying on Black Thursday whom we do not have a picture of. Please contact us if you know of one.
This crew flew on BLACK THURSDAY in Lancaster JB361-OF-B, B-Bertie.
This was a very unlucky crew. With the exception of R G Boston, the bomb aimer, who by some miracle survived, the main crew were killed on 6th January 1944 when their Lancaster JB191 was brought down. The rear gunner on that night was John Roberts, who was standing in from the Wakley crew. He is buried with the rest of the crew in Berlin 1939-45 Cemetery. Geoffrey Wood, Flack’s rear gunner on Black Thursday, had moved to Emerson‘s crew and was killed with him on 21st February 1944 in a horrific crash at RAF Station Bourn.
CREW ON BLACK THURSDAY
Pilot: P/O Victor Samuel Flack
2nd Pilot: F/L Roderick Stanley Emerson – Killed 21-Feb-44, crash at Bourn, buried in Cambridge City Cemetery
Flight Engineer: Sgt John Alfred Hare
Navigator: F/O Kenneth Peter Rand
Bomb Aimer: F/O RG Boston – Became a POW after 6-Jan-44 crash
W/Op: W/O: Robert Ferguson
Mid-Upper Gunner: F/S Harry Norman Dunnett, RCAF
Rear Gunner: F/S Geoffrey Walter Wood – Not flying on 6-Jan-44, when his replacement was Sergeant John Roberts. Killed 21-Feb-44, crash at Bourn, buried in Cambridge City Cemetery
LOSS OF THE FLACK CREW
The crew were lost on 5/6 January 1944. It appears that the aircraft was brought down near Lueskow as the crew were first buried in the Parish cemetery there. As Lueskow is 32 miles north-east of Stettin, this would tie in with the target that night which was Stettin. Stettin, now in Poland, was at that time in Northern Germany.
The only survivor, R G Boston, the bomb aimer, probably went out of the forward hatch. After capture by the Germans, Boston was seen by a medical officer at Anklam who told him that all the others were dead.
On his return home from PoW camp, Boston gave the following information about the loss of the aircraft:
“When I left my position in aircraft this officer [Flack] was still at controls, this was my last sight of him. German medical officer at Anklam said rest of my crew were dead. Do not know anything of any others, but all members of the crew would have found it extremely difficult to abandon aircraft.”
The crew were later reinterred at Berlin War Cemetery.
ANY INFORMATION ON THIS CREW? PLEASE CONTACT US.