Andrew Maxwell

Andrew Maxwell was born on 2nd March 1914 at 50 Lauderdale Gardens, in Hyndland just off of Clarence Drive.

His father, also Andrew, was a cashier and had married his mother, Christina Mary Bremner, in 1907.  They already had a daughter, Dorothy, who was six years older

By the 1921 Census the family lived at 3 Albany Street, in Kelvinside, parallel to Queen Margaret Drive.  This street has since been renamed as Mingarry Street.

Here is roughly the equivalent modern Google Street View:


His father's occupation was still as a cashier, but this Census asked for the person's employer so we know he worked for Farquhar and Pearson, Grain Merchants.

Between 1930 and 1935, the Maxwells moved to a house called Ardmore on Rubislaw Drive in Bearsden, now number 8.

Andrew became a chartered accountant, presumably in the mid to late 1930s and when the war started he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve.

He was a Pilot Officer with 106 Squadron, stationed at RAF Coningsby.  At this time the squadron commander was Guy Gibson, who was to win fame as the leader of the Dambusters Raid the following year.  (When he was recruiting for the new 617 Squadron formed specially for that mission, Gibson chose several pilots from 106 including Hopgood and Shannon.)

On 15th August 1942 he was in a crew of eight, flying an Avro Lancaster bomber to attack Dusseldorf in Germany; Andrew was the navigator.  

This crew had flown together before, at least ten times with 106 Squadron and possibly with another squadron previous to that:

25th June Bremen bombed

27th June minelaying

2nd July Bremen bombed

14th July Duisburg bombed

19th July Vegesack (Bremen) bombed

26th July Hamburg bombed

31st July Dusseldorf bombed

8th/9th August minelaying off the Danish coast but were thwarted by bad weather

10th/11th August same thing as on 8th

11th/12th August Mainz bombed

The 15th August was a very dark night with 8-tenths cloud and haze; many planes could not see the target and released their bombs based on when their navigator estimated them to be there. 

The plane took off at twenty past midnight on the 16th.  It was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over the target and crashed in the Oberkassel area of the city.  All the men aboard were killed.  Given the poor visibility, the Germans were almost certainly firing blindly through the clouds.

Andrew was originally buried at Nordfriedhof Cemetery in Dusseldorf but after the war he was re-buried in the Reichswald Forest Cemetery on 3rd December 1946, in the same area as William Clark Hamilton (link).



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