Robert Francis Devitt

Robert Francis Xavier Devitt was born on 22nd November 1922 at 22 Scotia Street, Glasgow.


Number 22 is on the corner of New City Road.  St George's Road is on the extreme left - the M8 now blasts through the centre-left of the map.  The building labelled 'Bank' on the extreme right, just below centre, survives.

His father was Alexander Carmichael Devitt, a teacher, and his mother was Annie Heron(?) Turnbull, who had married the previous year.

By 1925, the family had moved to 199 Drumoyne Road in Govan.  Robert's younger brother, named Alexander was probably born there in 1929:


In the early 1930s the family moved to Bearsden, at 10 Second Avenue.  They called this house Glenprosen.

 
Robert joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve and in 1943 he was a wireless operator / air gunner with 15 Squadron at RAF Mildenhall.  This was a squadron with a strong Canadian element amongst the crew and was flying Short Stirling bombers with a crew of seven.

From the squadron records the missions they flew on were:

6th August - minelaying.  Take off 22.25, dropped mines at 00.56 from 3000 feet at 10 second intervals.  Landed 03.15.

9th August - minelaying.  Take off 22.15, dropped at 23.37 from 2000 feet.  Landed 01.30.    

27th August - bomb Nuremberg.  Take off 21.30.  Dropped bombs at 00.5 from 14,000 feet.  Fires better than on previous trip.  Landed 05.00.

30th August - bomb Munchengladbach.  Take off 00.20.  Abandoned mission, starboard inner engine overheating.  Did not cross coast, landed 01.50.

3rd September - mining sea around the Frisian Islands.  Take off 20.25, dropped mines at 00.18 at 5600 feet while flying at 170mph.  Landed 04.00

5th September - bomb Mannheim.  Take off 19.45, released bombs at 23.16 from 16,000 feet on the green target indicators.  Reported fires were going well.  Landed 02.40.

8th September - bomb Boulogne.  Take off 21.00, bombed at 22.06 from 13,000 feet.  Green target indicators were seen but they had fallen short of the target, by the breakwater so they deliberately bombed past the indicators, bearing 128 degrees.  German fighter seen in vicinity of target.  Landed 23.20.

15th September - bomb Montlucon. Take off 20.30.  Bombed cluster of target indicators at 23.39 from 7800 feet.  Good fire starting.  Landed 02.50.

16th September - bomb Lucane.  Take off 20.05, bombed green target indicators at 00.13 from 13,000 feet, bombs seen to explode on green markers.  Landed 03.45.

22nd September - bomb Hannover.  Take off 18.55.  Mission abandoned, air frame vibration and right wing low.  Jettisoned bombs at 20.03, landed 20.45.  Starboard outer elevator bracket found to be broken.

On 23 September 1943 their eleventh mission was to bomb Mannheim in Germany.  628 planes took part of which 32 were lost, including Robert's plane.

The aircraft was coned by searchlights and engaged by a German fighter, a Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6, as well as by anti-aircraft guns.  The German plane collided with the much heavier Stirling and was the pilot, Feldwebel Herbert Chantelau (9./JG 300), bailed out.  It's uncertain whether this caused the Stirling to crash but in German records credit is given to the anti-aircraft guns.

The Stirling crashed at Haßloch:

The other crew members who died were: 

Pilot: James Henry Anderton, 28, from Wallasey, a married man with three children

Bomb aimer: Edward Mortimer Cole, aged 27, Canadian

Flight Engineer: Hamilton John Thomas, 31, from Swansea, a married man with a child

Air gunner: Lloyd Kenneth Raymond, aged 20, Canadian

Air gunner: Joseph Alfred Town - possibly aged 23 from Lewisham

The navigator, Flying Officer T Grant, survived and became a prisoner of war; he may have been a Canadian as there is a record of a TH Grant being a prisoner at Stalag Luft 4 in Sagan.

They are buried at Rheinberg CWGC Cemetery

On Robert's headstone are the words: "OUR LADY, PORTAL OF THE SKY, PRAY FOR HIM "LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON HIM""

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