Fernley Graham Chilcott: Rear Gunner of No. 10 Squadron

Early Life and Family

Fernley Graham Chilcott was born on 15 March 1921 at Black Torrington, Devon, the son of Harry Harris Chilcott and Florence Elizabeth Philp. His birth was registered in the Holsworthy district during the second quarter of 1921, and the 1921 census records him at Broad Street, Black Torrington, aged six months. [1]

Fernley’s early years were rooted in rural north Devon, but by the opening of the Second World War he was living in the Crediton area. The 1939 Register records him as an eighteen-year-old single man at Port Holes, Crediton, employed as a baker’s roundsman. This was practical local work, involving the delivery of bread and other goods to homes and businesses, and it gives a glimpse of the civilian future that war would interrupt. [1]

His parents were later recorded as living at Cheriton Fitzpaine, Devon. Fernley did not marry and had no children. The documentary record therefore preserves his story principally through his parents’ home, his RAF service and the shared fate of the seven-man crew with whom he flew on his final operation. [1]

At eighteen, Fernley Chilcott was delivering bread in Devon; four years later, he was a Sergeant air gunner flying night operations over Germany.

Military Service

Fernley enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve after June 1940, apparently at Blackpool. He served as Sergeant 1303121, trained as an air gunner and became a rear gunner in RAF Bomber Command. The RAF Volunteer Reserve enabled civilians to join for wartime service, providing the aircrew needed to expand Britain’s offensive air campaign against Germany. [1]

By 1943, Sergeant Chilcott was posted to No. 10 Squadron, part of No. 4 Group, RAF Bomber Command. The squadron had moved to RAF Melbourne, Yorkshire, on 19 August 1942 and remained there until the end of the war in Europe. It had converted to Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers in December 1941 and operated the type throughout the remainder of the conflict. [2][3][1]

Fernley’s aircraft was Handley Page Halifax B Mark II Series I (Special) JD272, code ZA-F. The Halifax was a four-engined heavy bomber powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and used extensively by Bomber Command in night operations. A typical Halifax crew consisted of seven men: pilot, flight engineer, navigator, bomb aimer, wireless operator, mid-upper gunner and rear gunner. [1]

As rear gunner, Fernley occupied the isolated tail turret at the rear of the aircraft. From there he maintained a crucial lookout, warned the crew of approaching fighters and operated the turret’s guns in defence of the bomber. It was a role that demanded alertness, courage and calm decision-making during long night flights, especially when aircraft were attacked by German night fighters. [1]

No. 10 Squadron’s Role

No. 10 Squadron’s motto, Rem acu tangere, may be translated as “to hit the mark”. During 1943, its role within No. 4 Group was to contribute Halifax bombers and trained crews to Bomber Command’s Main Force: the large formations dispatched for night attacks on industrial, transport and urban targets in Germany. [1]

RAF Melbourne was a wartime bomber station in Yorkshire, well placed for operations over occupied Europe and Germany. From this base, No. 10 Squadron’s crews prepared, took off and returned—when they could—from sorties that often lasted many hours. The work required a vast ground organisation of fitters, armourers, riggers, wireless staff, bomb loaders, fuel crews and administrative personnel, alongside the airmen who flew the aircraft. [4][1]

In September and October 1943, Bomber Command mounted a series of attacks on Hanover, later described as the Battle of Hanover. The city was a major industrial and railway centre, making it an important target within the strategic bombing campaign. These raids formed part of the wider effort to disrupt German war production and transport while placing pressure on the German population and civil-defence system. [5][1]

The campaign came at severe cost to the RAF. The RAF’s own historical material notes that the second major Hanover attack, on 27/28 September 1943, cost Bomber Command thirty-eight aircraft—5.6 per cent of the force dispatched—with losses particularly heavy among Halifax and Stirling units. [5]

The Hanover Operation

On the night of 27/28 September 1943, Fernley and the other men of Halifax JD272 took off from RAF Melbourne for Hanover. The operation was a night raid under only two per cent moonlight, conditions intended to reduce exposure to visual detection but which also made navigation, formation flying and evasion more difficult. [1]

Bomber Command dispatched 678 aircraft, including 312 Lancasters, 231 Halifaxes, 111 Stirlings, 24 Wellingtons and five American B-17s. The raid’s bombing was concentrated, but Pathfinder Force marking proved inaccurate and comparatively little significant damage was inflicted on the intended target. Thirty-eight Bomber Command aircraft and one B-17 failed to return. [6][5][1]

Halifax JD272 carried a crew of seven: Sergeant John Rostron, pilot; Sergeant John William H. H. Barratt, flight engineer; Sergeant William H. G. B. McIntosh, navigator; Sergeant John W. A. McDonald, bomb aimer; Sergeant John H. W. Smith, wireless operator; Sergeant George E. H. S. Hales, mid-upper gunner; and Sergeant Fernley Graham Chilcott, rear gunner. Their interdependent roles made them a close operational team, reliant upon each man’s skill during every stage of the sortie. [1]

Fernley Chilcott and the six men of Halifax JD272 left Melbourne together for Hanover; none returned.

Circumstances of Death

On the return leg from Hanover, Halifax JD272 was intercepted and shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighter flown by Hauptmann August Geiger of 7./Nachtjagdgeschwader 1. The aircraft crashed near Wippingen in Lower Saxony, Germany. All seven members of the crew were killed. [7][1]

Sergeant Fernley Graham Chilcott died on 27 September 1943, aged twenty-two. The date shown in official commemoration reflects the operational date on which the aircraft left England, although the loss occurred during the overnight raid of 27/28 September. His death was recorded as killed in action. [8][1]

The loss of JD272 was one small part of a major raid, but for the families of its seven crewmen it was an individual catastrophe. Their aircraft’s destruction also illustrates the danger of the German night-defence system. Night fighters, radar control, searchlights and anti-aircraft guns posed sustained threats to bomber crews, particularly during the long and vulnerable homeward flight after leaving the target area.

Burial and Commemoration

Fernley was buried in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, near Kleve in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in grave 14.C.21. He rests with the other members of the crew of Halifax JD272, giving their shared wartime service a permanent physical memorial. [1]

His headstone identifies him as “1303121 Sergeant F. G. Chilcott, Air Gunner, Royal Air Force”, records his death on 27 September 1943 at the age of twenty-two and bears the inscription: “Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.” [1]

Reichswald Forest War Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in Germany. It contains 7,594 Commonwealth burials from the Second World War, including many airmen and soldiers whose graves were brought together from smaller cemeteries and battlefield burials after the war. [1]

Legacy

Fernley Graham Chilcott’s life joined rural Devon with the international conflict fought in the skies above Europe. Born in Black Torrington, working in Crediton and remembered by his parents in Cheriton Fitzpaine, he became part of the generation of young men who volunteered for aircrew service during the Second World War. [1]

His story also conveys the reality of Bomber Command service. The large force sent to Hanover on 27/28 September 1943 represented formidable industrial and military organisation, yet its cost was measured in individual crews and families. Fernley’s role as rear gunner placed him at the point of direct defence against enemy fighters, and the destruction of JD272 illustrates the sustained risk faced by every Halifax crew crossing occupied Europe. [5][1]

He left no spouse or children, but his name survives in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission record, at Reichswald Forest War Cemetery and in the records of No. 10 Squadron and Bomber Command. Together, they preserve the memory of a Devon baker’s roundsman who became an RAF Volunteer Reserve Sergeant and was killed with his comrades during a hazardous night operation over Germany. [1]

Sources and Further Reading

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Sergeant Fernley Graham Chilcott.
• International Bomber Command Centre: Loss record for Halifax JD272.
• Aircrew Remembered: No. 10 Squadron Halifax II JD272, ZA-F.
• Royal Air Force Centre for Air and Space Power Studies: The Battle of Hanover.
• RAF Museum: British Military Aviation in 1943.
• No. 10 Squadron Association.
• Find a Grave: Sergeant Fernley Graham Chilcott, Memorial 56033254.
• Ancestry: 1921 Census, 1939 Register, airmen’s roll of honour and civil-registration records cited in the individual report.

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Fernley-Graham-Chilcott.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/3e253a33-2828-4c05-93bc-dc678f0c2d83/Individual-Report-for-Fernley-Graham-Chilcott.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIA2F3EMEYEVGMBE3D6&Signature=pTqGCPMAioPNSci%2BzcuvR1AFpk0%3D&x-amz-security-token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEDEaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJGMEQCIHj%2F6f7GB0foUZW75GCqnZXF3ia%2FHOUShRxtnU7BY9NxAiAyjj0di0e8dG03N4mRFLjm8AytRU%2FNdS0OKnYUcu3kniqDBQj6%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F8BEAEaDDY5OTc1MzMwOTcwNSIM3%2FEQUYVLfSOLTpUNKtcENnZOY%2FgPwB%2Bs10IyUYbcwf14S4qCAoVICl405UBFJcyC8ixehHHtj8MUTekyqwOgpe3y8xpzeWmQ86Le17iO87wtQVaVn%2Bw79WiX%2FZhJbwa33cJEIW6I4R%2Fip6R2SBOuIRqQzNG5K0T%2BCHlVMOMUaCg0ZHs0vII1fZEVojiTBvuV3YG9APcoygy%2BjwramgNqt97rq9rFAzVrRygNPzU1N9kqoJZMmvnUeFCLyxoktQtE8t2J0QMWX1gRn8ZxamqAS3gaQ38Vq247NYrH3BLIw2%2FaJCbyduEuvIR2CuvlJaJrXQN%2FOi4TYBDH3W82lUevKNtW4xgyV5HbaD6YftrCTE2CuEez2SkSwCS1VgeYy780Vv2Mv%2F%2F5tCMJZWDDyywJGbehCONqCci83wi%2Bum34RqVgrEu%2FQhb75Chpd09Wpthp9w00T62ICV6HSU1ntfKNGfOGNgBNoNUiondVAMOFy119EQ7CskXksdCS5N4jMbJKCQm3BxjCg3bBcuf6Y%2BhMJtQq1i7VtIAkmlN7An7f%2B3%2BW2jCtO9KuP%2Fq4%2BDjFXYch7Qcowz%2FSI6CU16cil9weBs7E1D09nx1OAIUyxa7AWzGF0ruihueYO%2FAkip82H%2F%2B6QqqI2XiQt6usAL4pv4qA1J6MiyhBBGcozs%2Fx1dkjIx2tWbIuvE8QmszhG1KClQZVNoNt12axQFjZywTZeRqH7G%2FSgi%2BtSU2OtcfCRa%2B8r2z2VLveu1cEyf%2FvfeqHwaLyXZq43wIOpyIdKOabCZ7klmcfUNk3vXaRNty9TPRDrxxG7cGXCwcwybDc1QY6mQHGILoJ%2Bj%2BVcOS59987k4%2FUEFkUob%2Bt9MvSqjZ5pPSpOxL5RidqOwCxtJKOjBcwQJELoHtkEeheZwiZlnIDu37fPpJy8hipoxyrMSTrYgI%2FMD31ULMSdpY1sQjq33Gxi%2F64axTYI5bJnMgqYhwJRKweiOe%2BXvc%2FW8XMcRFUr2DLL%2FgWq%2FtKrGktFAzP%2F2B6HX6o0e7G8Q3GuBc%3D&Expires=1790385159
[2] No. 10 Squadron RAF – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._10_Squadron_RAF
[3] No. 10 Squadron (RAF) during the Second World War https://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RAF/10_wwII.html
[4] 10 Squadron (RAF) – Melbourne Yorkshire – CASPIR Unit Display https://caspir.warplane.com/personnel/unit-search/unit-type/RAF_Sqn/unit/10
[5] Air and Space Power Review Vol 23 No 1 https://www.raf.mod.uk/what-we-do/centre-for-air-and-space-power-studies/aspr/aspr-vol23-iss1-2-pdf/
[6] Target for Tonight, Op Seven – Hannover (A Very Dark Night for … http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2021/08/target-for-tonight-op-seven-hannover.html
[7] 10 Squadron Halifax II JD272 ZA-F Sgt. Rostron, RAF Melbourne … https://aircrewremembered.com/rostron-alfred.html
[8] Sergeant Fernley Graham Chilcott — Royal Air Force, WW2 (d. 1943) https://ww2rafproject.org.uk/people/Sergeant_Fernley_Graham_Chilcott/
[9] 10 Squadron at R.A.F. Aldergrove? – WW2Talk https://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/10-squadron-at-r-a-f-aldergrove.54431/
[10] No. 10 Squadron Royal Air Force in the Second World War 1939-1945 https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/allied/royalairforce/sqdview.php?pid=209
[11] British Military Aviation in 1943 – RAF Museum https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/research-enquiries/history-of-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1943-2/
[12] RAF Bomber Command – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bomber_Command
[13] RESEARCH – 10 Squadron Association – Royal Air Force https://www.10sqnass.co.uk/research-help.html
[14] 8 No 10 squadron raf in world war ii Images – PICRYL https://picryl.com/topics/no+10+squadron+raf+in+world+war+ii
[15] RAF Bomber Command During The Second World War https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/second-world-war/bombing/raf-bomber-command
[16] 27/28.09.1943 199 Squadron Stirling III EF118 EX:O Plt Off. Maurice … https://aircrewremembered.com/hodson-maurice.html