Jack Boutle

A Sergeant with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Jack died on 5th of October 1944 aged 22. 

Jack was born at Croydon, Surrey, on 14 April 1922, a son of John William and of Lilian Gertrude Boutle. In 1939 his family lived at 1 Union Place and Jack was a fruiterer’s shop assistant. 

Jack enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve after June 1940. By October 1944 Jack was a Flight-Engineers with 101 Squadron, based at Ludford Magna, Lincolnshire.

On 5 October he was a member of the crew of a Lancaster I bomber, number LL758 SR-A, that was part of an ABC, or Airborne Cigar, raid to Saarbrucken. ABC sorties used electronic counter-measures to jam German VHF radio signals. Jack’s aircraft crashed near Trembleur, five miles north-east of Herstal, and all of the crew were killed.

For more information see "Belgians Remember Them": The Airmen fallen in action in WW2 in Belgium - (belgians-remember-them.eu)

WITH THANKS TO: Malcolm Barrass