Hi All, Wing Commander 'Jimmy' E. J. Carter DFC was one of the most experienced pilots in Bomber Command by June of 1944 and the OC of 97 Squadron, RAF - a designated Pathfinder Force (PFF) 'marker' unit, based at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. Readers will note that there are eight named crew members of OF-Z in the table at the head of this thread, one more that the normal operational crew of seven. The 'extra' was Flying Officer 'Hank' Jeffery DFM who was on-board to handle the H2S ground mapping radar. After dropping their load of bombs on their target, the Pointe du Hoc Battery, just before 05:00 on the morning of the 6th June, Wing Commander Carter turned for home and must have been presented with the phenomenal sight of the hundreds of vessels which made up Force 'O' standing off Omaha Beach. However, all eight members of the crew perished when 'Z-Zebra' was unlucky enough to happen on the Fw 190 fighter flown by Hauptmann Helmut Eberspacher of Luftwaffe 3/SKG 10 based in Evreux. The Lancaster went down in flames, it being presumed into the Channel. Non of the crew have ever been recovered. The story could have ended there but for research carried out by aviation archeologist Tony Graves who located the crash site back in 2012. Among the artifacts recovered at the site was a ring with the initials 'AC', later identified as belonging to Flight Lieutenant Albert Chambers, the wireless operator of 'Z-Zebra'. More follows... Regards, Pat