Inspired by the brothers of an airman who was killed in a raid over Germany in 1944, a Lancaster bomber is being painstakingly restored as a memorial to his courage and sacrifice.
In March 1944 Christopher Whitton Panton was shot down and killed on a bombing raid over Nuremberg. He was 19. His two younger brothers, Fred and Harold, were determined as they grew up to find a suitable memorial for their older brother and something that would commemorate the tremendous loss of lives endured by Bomber Command during the Second World War.
Christopher, the son of Edward and Frances Panton, was the oldest of eight children, consisting of four boys and four girls. Like many young men, he joined the ATC (Air Training Corps) in 1942 and later volunteered for aircrew. He was accepted and after training passed out as a flight engineer; by 1943 he was flying.
He was assigned to Halifax bombers and flew with Canadians, his last posting being 433 Squadron at Skipton-on-Swale in North Yorkshire. In his autobiography Fred describes how Christopher “seemed to age overnight”.
The Nuremberg raid on 31st March saw the heaviest loss that Bomber Command endured on any night during the Second World War. Ninety-four aircraft including Lancaster and Halifax bombers were lost with 500 airmen killed. This was Christopher’s 30th and final mission. Had he lived, he would have probably survived the war.
This story is from the Autumn 2017 edition of This England.
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This story is from the Autumn 2017 edition of This England.
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