Vulture Strikes!

On March 7, 1945, 550 Squadron would also lose the crew of 'Vulture Strikes!"  After celebrating the 100th successful mission for "V" on March 6, the crew was shot down the following evening on the raid to Dessau by a German JU88 fighter.

Flight Engineer S. J. Webb, Wireless Operator F. M. Main, Rear Gunner Maurice Smith and Mid-Upper Air Gunner Stanley Pelham survived and became POWs.  Smith managed to escape capture and returned to England on April 11, 1945.

Evidence suggests Pilot Cyril Jones, Navigator John Buckmaster and Bomb Aimer Leslie Wallace Harvey (all three Canadian) were able to parachute to the ground but were subsequently murdered by the Gestapo or SS.  Despite the likelihood of a war crime, the matter was never pursued by the RCAF due to administrative challenges.  At the close of the war, Magdeburg, the area in which Buckmaster and Harvey were killed, was now under Russian control.

Harvey is buried at the Nederweert British Cemetery in the Netherlands.  The remains of Jones and Buckmaster were never found.

TSN aired a program in 2012 entitled “Engraved on a Nation: The Photograph” featuring seven members of the 1942 Grey Cup winning team, the RCAF Hurricanes, who did not return from WW2 service.  John Buckmaster was one of these young men.

This photograph was the subject of TSN's program "Engraved on a Nation: The Photograph"
John Buckmaster is the third from left in the back row (next to the young man holding the Coke bottle in the air)