WIX Archives

Sad loss for Canada S/L Ken Brown - DamBuster

Posted by Lee Walsh on Thu Jan 02, 2003 05:55:53 PM

Just had a call from one of his good friends. The Telegraph in the UK has this to say {nothing in the Cdn papers}:

Squadron Leader Ken Brown
(Filed: 02/01/2003)

Squadron Leader Ken Brown, who has died in British Columbia aged 82, was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal - generally regarded as second only to the VC - after he captained a four-engined Lancaster bomber in the Dambusters raid in 1943.

The award recognised not only his exceptional leadership of a crew of six (all, like Brown himself at this time, sergeants), but also his superb airmanship at very low levels on the way into, and out of, Germany. Although his aircraft was badly shot up during the operation, Brown managed to bring it and his crew safely home.

Wing Commander Guy Gibson (who himself was awarded the VC after the raid) had built up No 617 Squadron to implement Bomber Command's audacious plan to launch Dr Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb into the walls of the dams servicing the Ruhr Valley, Germany's industrial heartland.

The crews which flew on the mission were hand picked, and then trained, by Gibson; and although later, on a visit to Canada, Gibson was careful to stress the value of the contribution to the raid made by Canadian aircrew, he was known to have had his reservations about using them.

Indeed, after Gibson had dismissed one of four Canadian pilots in the squadron, Brown (himself Canadian) wondered how long he himself would last; he had already incurred Gibson's wrath on several occasions, and knew only too well that there was little future for those who failed to measure up to his exacting standards.

It was, therefore, in itself a tribute to Brown's flying skills that he was retained long enough to take off from Scampton, in Lincolnshire, at 12 minutes past midnight on May 17 1943.

His was one of the last of Gibson's force of 19 Lancasters and 133 aircrew to head for Germany and, at 2.50 am, he saw Pilot Officer Warner Ottley's Lancaster crash, exploding on impact.

As a member of Gibson's reserve force, Brown was not briefed to attack the main targets, the Moehne and Eder dams. Thus when he spotted, from his altitude of only 150 ft, three trains beneath him, he shot them up; in the process, his aircraft was hit by ground fire.

Shortly afterwards Brown received a call from base ordering him to attack a subsidiary target, the Sorpe dam. As it happened, this was concealed by a swirling mist; and Brown had difficulty during his approach, both in avoiding a church spire and in getting right his line and height for his attack. He had to keep pulling his aircraft over the hills and returning for another attempt to release his bomb.

In all, Brown made eight perilously low runs (at 60 ft) without finding his opportunity to attack. But, after dropping incendiaries to set alight the woods on either side of the lake, thus illuminating his target, he made his final run. At 3.20 am he dropped his bomb and signalled "Goner". Brown reported that his weapon had fallen about 10 ft from the earth dam, creating a spout of water 1,000 ft high; but it had failed to cause breaches similar to those achieved in the concrete structures of the Moehne and Eder dams.

Having set course for home, Brown then decided to take a look at the Moehne, in which his flight engineer, Sergeant Baz Fearon, noted two large breaches. As the Lancaster approached the coast of Holland, dawn was beginning to break, and Fearon remembered that the ground fire was rising towards them "like scarlet beads". The aircraft was holed behind the wireless operator's seat, and the fuselage was riddled like a sieve on the starboard side where a shell had exploded, piercing the bomber's skin with shrapnel.

Flak pursued the Lancaster until it was out of range over the North Sea. Fearon, aware that Brown was by now exhausted, took over the controls and, although not trained as a pilot, flew the machine as far as Lincoln, before handing back control to Brown for the landing at 5.33 am. Of the 19 aircraft which took off, only 11 managed to press home their attacks, and eight failed to return; 53 men were killed, and three were shot down to be made prisoners of war.

Kenneth William Brown was born on August 20 1920 at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in Canada. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 and, after getting his wings, was posted to No 44, a Lancaster bomber squadron, in February 1943. After surviving raids on such heavily-defended targets as Berlin and Essen, he joined No 617 in the spring of 1943.

A year later, by which time he had been commissioned, Brown was posted as an instructor to the Lancaster Finishing School, and served with other RAF units until 1945, when he returned to Canada, soon to be followed by his English bride. After receiving a permanent commission in the RCAF, he completed his service at the Winter Experimental Establishment at Watson Lake and Churchill, flying a variety of aircraft ranging from the Lancaster and the Mosquito, to Meteor and Vampire jets.

Brown also flew in Canada's first jet aerobatic team at Edmonton, Alberta, and, in 1949, bought a surplus Spitfire with a view to entering an air race.

In 1968 Brown left the RCAF with the rank of squadron leader, and joined the air section of Canada's Department of Transport. He spent 12 years there before retiring to British Columbia.

Ken Brown, who died on December 23, married Beryl Blackband in 1944. They had four sons and a daughter.

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