On Tuesday, 20 February 1945, (a part of) the aircraft of the 156 squadron (RAF), took off for a mission to Dusseldorf in Germany from a station (airfield) in or near Upwood.
One of the crew members was Flight Lieutenant A D Pelly. He departed for his mission at 22:42.
He flew with a Avro Lancaster (type III , with serial PB701 and code GT-Q). His mission and of the other crew members was planned for Wednesday, 21 February 1945.

WW2 vet plans to meet German foe turned friend: A interesting story about Bill is planning to travel to Austria to meet the German who shot down the Lancaster bomber he was crewing in 1945.

Extra information by John Heselwood

William (Bill) George Pearce
08/12/1922 - 01/04/2012
WARRANT OFFICER WILLIAM GEORGE PEARCE
WIRELESS OPERATOR / AIR GUNNER
AUS.425904
Enlisted 21-05-1942  .....  Discharged 25-10-1945

Flew with:
No. 100 Squadron - Royal Air Force
No. 156 Squadron - Path Finder Force RAF
Both Squadrons were units of Bomber Command.
POW: Dulag Luft, Stalag 13D, Stalag 7A

Bill Pearce (enlarge by clicking)

William George Pearce was born in Brisbane on the 8th December, 1922, and was the eldest of a family of eight.
In 1942 Bill decided he wanted to join the armed forces and go to war. When he raised the subject with his father, a World War 1 digger who was badly wounded in action, his reaction to this was very clear and definite - NO!

After long running discussions with his father, and telling him he would rather go as a volunteer than as a conscript, he finally relented and allowed Bill to join the Air Force as air crew.

Bill was accepted for aircrew training in May of that year and after initial training at Kingaroy, was classified for further training as a wireless operator/air gunner. He did his wireless course at Maryborough and gunnery training at Evan's Head using the Vickers Gas Operated Machine Gun. Bill was then posted to England where he did further training, and was soon promoted to Flight Sergeant. He was eventually 'crewed-up' at an operational training unit, flying in Wellington twin-engine bombers. He and his crew then did conversion training on to heavy bombers, flying in Halifaxes and from there went on to Lancaster bombers.

He was posted to 100 squadron, Bomber Command, Royal Air Force, which was stationed at Waltham, near Grimsby in Lincolnshire. After flying 12 operational flights with this squadron, he and crew were transferred to the Pathfinder Force and posted to 156 squadron, stationed at Upwood in Huntingdonshire.

Bill was then promoted to Warrant Officer and continued to fly on operations with 156 squadron up until his 42nd operational flight on the night of the 20 - 21st of February 1945. Their target for the night was to be the Rhenania Ossag Oil Refinery at Reisholz, about 20 miles south east of the centre of Dusseldorf. This was to be a diversionary raid of 173 aircraft, the main target was to involve 373 aircraft in a raid on Duisburg.

His Lancaster bomber "Q for Queenie" was shot down when they were hit by a burst of 20mm cannon shells, fired by a German Messerschmit ME BF110 Night Fighter. The ME BF110 was fitted with fixed upward firing cannon, which the Germans called "Schrage Musik", which, translated to English, means "slanting music".  Three members of his crew were killed in the attack, but Bill and the rest of the crew successfully bailed out and landed safely in various parts of enemy territory. Apart from injuring his shoulder Bill survived and was able to hide for several days but was eventually captured and finished his war time as a prisoner-of-war in Dulag Luft, Stalag 13D, Stalag 7A over the following three months.

When "Queenie" failed to return on the morning of February 21, 1945 it was assumed that the crew had perished along with the aircraft. The last entry in his flying log book is - "Failed to Return".

Family in Australia were conveyed the sad news as was his girlfriend, Marjorie's family in the UK. So one can only imagine the emotion when he got in contact with everyone on his return to England in May, after being liberated by American General Patton's tanks.

Bill married his girlfriend Marjorie, in Gloucester, England, on the 30th of June 1945. Several weeks later Bill had to board a troop ship to sail from England back to Australia where he was discharged in October, leaving his new wife behind. Marjorie joined Bill in Brisbane in April 1946. They had not seen each other for 8 months.

Bill and his wife lived in the family home at East Street, Camp Hill where Bill was still living up until the time of his passing.

1999 Bill was put in touch, through numerous parties, with a member of the German crew who had shot him down back in 1945.

Over the years through many letters and phone calls they became good friends - even though they had never met. In 2008 his daughter Gayle went with him to Salzburg to meet Walter Telsnig. It was an emotional meeting - like two old mates who had not seen each other for many a year. At the time of war they were just two young blokes doing their job for their countries.

Walter sadly passed away at the end of November last year. His daughter Gayle and myself attended the unveiling and dedication of the Bomber Command Memorial in London in honour of her father.

Bill was a member of the pathfinder force association; the aircrew association; the caterpillar club; [membership of which requires that you save your life by parachute]; the ex-prisoners of war association and a member of the Queensland Air Museum from 1988.

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Information about aircraft who did not return from this mission can be found here. Information about the other crew members on this flight can be found at this website (Aircrew Remembered). This website also provides the flight information for this record.

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