George Andrew Deering

George Andrew Deering was born in Kirkintilloch, Scotland, on 23 July 1919, but emigrated to Canada as a small boy and grew up in Toronto, where he worked in the shoe trade and studied aircraft design and mechanics by correspondence. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in July 1940 hoping to fly as a pilot, ultimately qualifying as a wireless operator/air gunner, and after reaching England in April 1941 he completed a full tour of operations with No. 103 Squadron at RAF Elsham Wolds before being commissioned early in 1943. Posted to the newly formed No. 617 Squadron on 29 March 1943, he flew as front gunner in Lancaster ED932/G (“AJ-G”), Wing Commander Guy Gibson’s aircraft, which led the first wave against the Möhne Dam on the night of 16/17 May 1943 during Operation Chastise; for his part in the Dams Raid he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Deering survived the raid but, together with fellow Gibson crewmen Harlo Taerum, Robert Hutchison and Frederick Spafford, he later transferred to the crew of Squadron Leader George Holden. On the night of 15/16 September 1943, flying against the Dortmund–Ems Canal, Holden’s Lancaster was shot down and the entire crew was killed. Flying Officer Deering, then aged 24, is buried in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany.