Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Stuart Lacey EDWARDS (1915-1944)

Flight Sergeant Stuart Lacey EDWARDS was born in Sydney on 3 July 1915.

He enlisted on the 9th of October, 1942 and trained as Airman Aircrew, qualifying as a Navigator.

On the 11/12th of June, 1944, Donald was part of the crew of No 635 Squadron (RAF) Avro Lancaster JB 239 (Pathfinder Force), during a bombing mission of railway installations in Nantes, when the aircraft was shot down by flak near Vertou, France in the Loire Atlantique region while flying in support of D Day Operations.  These operations concerntrated on transport hubs in order to disrupt German reinforcements making their way to Normandy. 

All eight personnel on board perished in the crash

The aircraft crew consisted of 5 RAF and two RAAF members as follows:

Pilot - Cedric John Kenneth ASH (RAF);

2nd Pilot Sqn Ldr Thomas William HOPE (RAF)

Bomb Aimer - Charles Sidney PARKES (RAF);

Navigator - Stuart Lacey EDWARDS (RAAF);

Radio Operator - William Chapman VESSEY (RAF);

Gunner - John James LEISHMAN (RAF);

Gunner - William Stevenson CHAPMAN (RAF) and

(also listed as a Navigator) Ronald Joseph BIRTLES (RAAF).

This crew composition is interesting because there is no flight engineer listed, although as explained below the Engineer may have been Parkes listed here as the Bomb Aimer.  There are also two pilots (presumably SQNLDR Hope was flying as 2nd Pilot as part of conversion coming into the Squadron) and two men listed as Navigator.  In Pathfinder aircraft two men made up their navigation team, rather than having a single Navigator as was normal practice. This set up consisted of a Navigator I, who plotted their course, calculated winds, determined ground speeds, etc. from the information he received from the Navigator II, called the Observer. Navigator I then passed any needed course corrections and air speeds to the pilot to ensure their arrival on time. His partner, the Observer, used electronic aids GEE (Direction finding device following a projected beam) , H2S (ground-mapping radar) and Loran (a radar navigation aid) to determine their actual ground position and passed this information every 6 minutes to the Navigator. He also had the bomb panel which he used when blind bombing was required. Visual bombing was done by the flight engineer. There was no bomb aimer as such, nor any front gunner.

The crew are buried in Nantes Communal Cemtery in a common grave  https://www.aerosteles.net/steleen-vertou-lancaster/b239.