21/09/2026
VERY SPECIAL CANADIAN VISITORS TO SYWELL AVIATON MUSEUM
Saturday 12th September 2026 saw two very special visitors to the Museum who had travelled all the way from New Brunswick, Canada.
Michelle & Luc Poirier were visiting us on their honeymoon to view some very special relics. Michelle’s great, great, uncle was Pilot Officer Joseph L.W. Cassie.
After training in Canada and the UK, he was transferred to 428 (Ghost) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force, RAF Middleton-St-George, County Durham.
Having ‘crewed up’ their first operation was on the 23rd July 1944 to Kiel. Their usual aircraft was Avro Lancaster X KB768 NA*E - E for ‘Elsie’. Indeed they flew some 27 out of 34 operational sorties on her and she got them home each time. Her crew was:
P/O K.W. Aldridge Mid Upper Gunner Montreal, Canada.
F/O W.W. Tynan – Pilot, Vancouver, Canada.
P/O E.W. Pritchard – Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, Winnipeg, Canada
P/O G.M. Sharp, Rear Gunner, Winnipeg, Canada
P/O Robert Smail – Flight Engineer, Selkirk, Scotland.
F/O J. Brock – Navigator, Vancouver, Canada.
P/O J.W. Caissie Bomb Aimer/Front Gunner, Cocagne Cape, Canada
Their last flight in Elsie was on the 28th November 1944 when they were tour expired.
On the evening of the 5th/6th December 1944, a replacement crew took Elsie out to bomb Soest in Northern Germany.
En route to the target at around 1900hrs on 5th December she was involved in a mid-air collision with Handley Page Halifax B.VII OW*N LW200 itself crewed by Canadians (and an RAF Flight Engineer) from 426 (Thunderbird) Squadron RCAF based at Linton-on-Ouse in Yorkshire. Having fallen to earth near Yelvertoft, Northants, the subsequent fire and ignition of their bomb loads scattered aircraft wreckage over a wide area. All 14 crew members, the complement of both aircraft were killed.
Recovered some years later were three artefacts from KB768. Part of its tail fin with ‘fin flash’ evident, part of the rear turret crew door and part of a wing flap. They lead a somewhat nomadic existence until coming in to the possession of Yelvertoft and Lilbourne History Group who kindly donated them to the Sywell Aviation Museum in 2022. It was these that the Poirers came all that way to see.
Here for the first time is a photograph of ‘768 with Joe and his crew kindly (provided by Michelle)and his last log book entry. For them, she was a ‘lucky ship’ and all of them survived the war.
Such is the lottery of war that sadly her luck ran out only a week later and her new crew perished, together with that of the Halifax.
AVRO LANCASTER KB768, 428 SQUADRON RCAF, RAF MIDDLETON ST GEORGE
Flt.Lt. H.A.Shewfelt. RCAF – Pilot.
Flt.Officer J.Reid. RCAF – Navigator.
Flt.Officer S.W.Pechet. RCAF – Air bomber.
Flt.Sgt.A.G.Baxter. RCAF – Wireless op. & Air gunner.
Flt.Sgt.J.E.Virag. RCAF – Wireless op. & Air gunner.
Fg.Officer E.Cooper. RCAF – Rear gunner.
Sgt.C.N.Collingwood. RAF – Flight engineer.
HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX LW200, 426 SQUADRON RCAF, RAF LINTON-ON OUSE
Fg.Officer A.V.Carter. RCAF – Pilot.
Fg.Officer A.E.Downing. RCAF – Navigator.
Flt.Sgt. E.J.F.Harwood. RCAF – Air bomber.
Fg.Officer R.B.Dowding. RCAF – Wireless operator.
Sgt.W.J. Murrell. RCAF – Mid upper turret gunner.
Sgt.L.T.Myron. RCAF – Rear gunner.
Sgt.D.L.Bourner. RAF – Flight engineer.
We will remember them.
With thanks to the Poirier family.
