War Service:
Sergeant
2211742, 15 Sqdn., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
The following information about the circumstances of John’s death comes from Martyn R. Ford-Jones, XV Squadron Historian:
“I used to know …a number of veterans who flew on this raid, a daylight attack against Oberhausen and they all had their own versions as to what happened. A number who “saw it” declared it was a mid-air collision, because two aircraft went down, whilst others stated it was a direct hit by flak (German anti-aircraft fire); the official records state the latter as the cause.
Some many years ago an Australian came over to England to find out how his brother, Pilot Officer Robert Skilbeck, the wireless operator on this same crew, died. Unfortunately, back then, we only had the veterans’ stories to go on, none of which (in my mind) proved correct.
I believe these versions to be wrong. My belief is based on the wartime diary kept by an Australian mid-upper air gunner, who was behind the stricken aircraft in the bomber stream, and recorded it (almost immediately) after the event. As a published author, Reg Heffron, the air gunner allowed me to turn his diaries into a book, which was published in March this year. The book is called “The Easy Boys”, published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd, ISBN 978-0-7643-4789-4. The story of the raid, including details of the crash, including John Shewen’s name are recorded on pages 126, 127 & 128 of the book. Unfortunately, whilst there are photographs to accompany the entry, I do not have a picture of John Shewen.
The bomber aimer on John Shewen’s crew released a 4,000lb bomb which, as it cleared the bomb bay, was hit by an anti-aircraft shell. The bomb detonated, the blast of which encompassed the aircraft from which it had just been released. The crew would have known very little if anything about it.”
