Gordon MacLean Phillips

Piloot: Gordon MacLean Phillips

Date of birth: 27-2-1920

Date of death: 27-6-1942

Place of birth: Ontario, Canada (Sault Ste. Marie)

Age died: 22

Nationality: Canadian

Squadron: 405 (R.C.A.F.) Sqdn.

Regiment: Royal Canadian Air Force

Military rank: Warrant Officer Class II

Grave number : Plot 1. Row A. Grave 16.

Crash site: Noordzee, 18 km zzw Den Helder

Date of crash: 28-6-1942

Airplane: Handley Page Halifax W1110

Cemetery: Bergen, General cemetery

(Re)buried in Bergen: 19-9-1942


Mission: Om 23.31 uur steeg Handley Page Halifax W1110 "LQ-C" van 405 Squadron op 

van Pocklington in graafschap Yorkshire om deel te nemen aan een aanval op Bremen. Om 02.55 uur werd de Halifax neergeschoten door een Duitse nachtjager en crashte in de Noordzee, 18 km zuidzuidwest van Den Helder.


De gehele bemanning kwam om het leven. Waarnemer/bommenrichter G.M. Phillips spoelde op 17 september 1942 bij Petten aan en werd in Bergen begraven. Boordwerktuigkundige Sgt G.M. Tatham spoelde op 9 september 1942 aan ter hoogte van paal 8 bij Groote Keeten. Rugkoepelschutter P/O J.H.M. Lacelle spoelde op 30 juni 1942 ter hoogte van paal 15 bij Callantsoog aan. Beide werden in Huisduinen begraven. De overige bemanningsleden, piloot W/O W.L. Scott, radiotelegrafist P/O J.J. Hughes, neuskoepelschutter F/Sgt J.E. Cole en staartkoepelschutter Sgt S.B. Rowland hebben geen bekend graf en zijn nog steeds vermist.


Additional information: R/62639. Son of Colonel Gordon Neil Phillips (+ 1959) and Eva Beatrice McLean Phillips (+ 1970).


Additional text on Tombstone: They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them. 


Service Number: R/62639



For the Fallen


With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.


Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal 

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.


They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.


They mingle not with their laughing comrades again; 

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.


But where our desires are and our hopes profound, 

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;


As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, 

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, 

To the end, to the end, they remain. 

Norah Couvert A3x