Charles McGough – Trinity School War Memorial

Key Information

Name: Charles McGough

DoB: 06/07/1912

Regt: Sergeant 1001910, 44 Sqdn., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

DoD: 20/09/1942 30

Buried/Commemorated: MAUBEUGE-CENTRE CEMETERY

Academic Career: CS 1924-27

Other:

Biographical Information

Family Background

Family Background:

Son of John and Margaret McGough, of Carlisle; husband of Mary McGough, of Carlisle.

Children John and Eileen.

Address 1924: 4, Kendal Street

The following information was supplied by Dave Cottam in 2011: On the WWII Memorial in the old Creighton is the name of Charles McGough. He was my mother’s first husband. His son, John, now aged 72, lives in Summerland, BC, Canada and his daughter, Eileen, sadly passed away recently, aged 69, in Morecambe.

My cousin, Jeff Steel of Melbourne, Australia, undertook major research into Charlie’s life and produced a book, for the family, in 2004 called ‘A Portrait of Charlie’. I should be very pleased to let you have a copy, assuming that you have not already heard from one of my relations on the subject.

Incidentally, Charlie’s wife (my mum), Mary Cottam (nee Scott), is alive and well in a residential home in Morecambe, aged 97 and still has Charlie’s picture on her dressing table.
Academic Record
War Record

Posted 26 Sep 2010 by Jeff Steel

His wife Mary, returned home on 30th May 1940 to discover that Charlie had ‘joined up’ in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He passed through the training sausage machine at Padgate, Squires Gate and Yatesbury and served as a wireless operator with 10 Group, Fighter Command. In August 1941 he volunteered for Air Crew and passed out as a wireless operator/ air gunner at Upper Heyford.

At this point he would have known that it was unlikely that he would survive the war.

He was posted to 44 Squadron, RAF Waddington in Lincolshire as a replacement for crews killed on a famous raid on Augsburg. His first raid was the Cologne 1,000 raid on 31 May 1942.The first ten or so were in Hampdens; the remainder mainly as a mid-upper in Lancasters.

He took part in further raids on Emden, Essen, Bremen and Cologne in Hampdens. He then took part in raids in Lancasters on Tours (leaflet raid); Duisburg, Dusseldorf, Essen, Kassel, Terschelling (dropping mines), Wilhelmshafen, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Bremen and Nuremberg. On the Bremen raid Charlie and his rear gunner, Shorty Burford, shot down a German Ju88 night fighter which was trying to shoot them down. On the night of 18th September his crew had dropped mines into the Kattegat in attempt to sink the German battlecruisers Prinz Eugen, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

The next night, with very little sleep they were on Munich. He would have been appalled to know that this raid disrupted a high-powered chess tournament and also destroyed Schneiders’ Brewery. They also bombed a lady known as ‘Piepmatz’ Herget. The plane, Q-Queenie, R5554 was hit by flak over the target. One engine was disabled. The plane limped as far as northern France where it was intercepted by Hauptmann Wilhelm Herget from Florennes Luftwaffe base flying a Bf110. He was Piepmatz’ brother. There was no alarm given. The Lancaster burst into flames immediately; Charlie was not wearing a parachute and had no chance to escape. He, the pilot, rear gunner and bomb aimer were all killed. Herget visited the survivors the next day at the Luftwaffe base Valenciennes to ensure that they were being looked after. He gave a packet up cigarettes each to Charles Churchill (wireless operator) and Lionel Wildey (navigator) and said ‘such is war’.

Charlie was a newsagent; Herget was a printer. They would probably have preferred to buy each other a beer.

Above 1943 Reichskanzlerei, Berlin. Wilhelm Herget is the Luftwaffe pilot who shot down Charlie’s plane. This photo was taken short after he had met Adolf Hitler to receive the award of Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves. He was shot down himself six times and survived the war.

Below maps of Charles McGough’s Lancaster raids, Hampden Raids and his final raid.
Other
Sources

The Creighton Register

CWGC

Dave Cottam

Much of the information on Charles comes from relative Jeff Steel of Melbourne, Australia, who undertook major research into Charlie’s life and produced a book, for the family, in 2004 called ‘A Portrait of Charlie’. We are very grateful to have been given access to this.

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11 September 1942

Waddington Lincs

RAF squadrons produced humorous cartoons to celebrate their raids. This one was from a raid on Dusseldorf. Time was running out – he was killed a week later

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1942 Charlie McGough

1942 photo above

Carlisle

Taken during Charlie’s last leave in August 1942. He said to Evelyn Steel ‘I don’t think I’ll be back again.’ Casualties were such that in 1942 only 5% of the squadron would survive. Nevertheless, he still looks cheerful and proud of his air-gunner brevet

From picture on ancestry

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