Sergeant G. E. Martin, RAF, 1625906::
This cutting  from the Sutton Herald from July 4th 1999 was found in March 2020. There are several Martin's in the family tree - my paternal great grandmother was Alice Martin before she married John Sculpher in 1872 and my mother was raised by the Ruddell family and her adopted elder brother (by twelve years) Frederick Ruddell married Kathleen Matilda Martin - known to everyone as 'Kit'.   
   
 
Sergeant Gerald Edward Martin was a crew member of an Avro Lancaster (type II, serial number LL678, aircraft code JI-L2) of 514 Squadron taking off from RAF Waterbeach at 23:12 on the night of the 12th June 1944 as one of three hundred and three aircraft (286 Lancasters and 17 Mosquitos of Numbers 1, 3 and 8 Groups) carrying out the first raid of the new Oil Campaign; the target was the Nordstern synthetic oil plant at Gelsenkirchen, which lies at the centre of the Ruhr.  Gelsenkirchen was a target of strategic bombing during the war and three quarters of the town was destroyed.

Gerald Martin's Lancaster LL678 was shot down on its return from the raid by a FW-190A-8  number 171660 of the 9/JF-11 (S.U) flown by Oberleutnant Dietrich Shmidt (this differs from a local memorial plaque) and crash landed at 01:24 on the 13th June in Holland at Zuidloo, Overijseel. Of the eight man crew, just three survived. The crew, apart from Flying Officer Phillips, were due to be stood down, this being their last mission. The three survivors evaded capture; their escape aided by the Dutch resistance. Gerald Martin hide in a bakery surrounded by Germans and remained hidden in Holland until liberated in April 1945. After the war Gerald met the pilot and radio operator of the FW-109 that shot down LL678. Gerald died of cancer in March 2008.

April 2025
Some additional information regarding Gerald Martin has been recently provided by Matthijs Nijhoff. The aircraft that shot down Lancaster LL678 was actually a Messerschmitt BF110. The bakery where Gerald Martin was hiding was owned by Matthijs's great grandparents in the small town of Nijverdal on Salomonsonstratt 46. Another airman, Chris Stuart, an American, was also in hiding there. During a razzia (see below), German soldiers wanted to search the building. Matthijs's grandmother, Hannie, a young woman at the time, was forced to lead the the Germans upstairs. This she did deliberately very slowly, and for this a German soldier struck her in the back of her neck with his rifle butt. The delay gave the airmen enough time to hide and they were never discovered.

In the 1990's, Gerald donated his RAF uniform to the small 'Twents Oorlogsmuseum' (war museum) in the town of Vriezenveen. It is believed to be still on display there.  
The Crew of Avro Lancaster Mark II LL 678 "The Lily Mars"  
Crew Member Rank Serial Number     Age Status
Albert Clifford Benham Sergeant 1580616 Wireless Op/ Air Gunner RAFVR 21 These five members of the crew were killed and are buried in the Old General Cemetery on the Deventerweg in Bathmen. Bathmen is a small village in the province of Overijseel, 9 kilometres east of the town of Deventer. The cemetery is about 500 metres west of the centre of the village. There are eleven identifiable graves in the cemetery.**
Herbert Samuel 'Bert' Delacour Pilot Officer AUS/425136 Pilot RAAF 20
Samuel Alexander Phillips* Flying Officer J/16550 Observer RCAF 29
Roy Geoffrey Picton Flying Officer 151087 Navigator RAFVR 22
George Donald Savage Flight Sergeant 1523833 Rear Gunner RAFVR 20
F Spurgeon 'Pop' Williams Flight Sergeant 354078 Mid Upper Gunner RCAF 34 Survived crash / evaded capture.
Gerald Edward Martin Sergeant 1625906 Flight Engineer RAF 21 Survived crash / evaded capture.
George Palamountain Flight Sergeant 1433141 Bomb Aimer RAF 21 Survived crash / evaded capture.
*The story behind Flying Officer Phillips being on LL678 that night is that the crew were due to stand down and F/O Phillips was familiarising himself with the aircraft. RAF Bomber Command lost 55,573 aircrew killed out of a total of 125,00, resulting in a death rate of about 44.4%. A further 8,403 were wounded and 9,838 taken as prisoners of war.
**The crew of the Lily Mars are buried next to the six crew members of Halifax bomber DT797(EQ-H) of 408 (Goose) Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force, which crashed at 00:10 hours on the night of the 1st/2nd March 1943 on its return flight from a bombing raid on Berlin to their air base at Leeming (North Yorkshire).  

A razzia, in this context, means the large-scale round-up of Jewish people that began on the 22nd and 23rd February 1941 in revenge for the killing of a Dutch Nazi collaborator. Historically, a razzia is a raid for the purpose of conquest, plunder and the taking of slaves.
 
"Presenting Lily Mars" was a 1943 film comedy starring Judy Garland as a small-town girl from Indiana who dreams of becoming an actress. Also starring are Van Heflin and Fay Bainter.

February 2026
I have received an email from Bram Vogelaar, whose grandfather and grandmother were involved in the local resistance in Nijverdal, the town where Gerald was hiding from the Germans. His grandmother, Gerrie Piksen, took care of the pilots that needed to hidden or transported back to liberated areas. Gerald was initially hidden by the Koeman family in Gelderland. The Koeman family passed Gerald over to Gerrie Piksen or Willen van Asselt (Bram's grandparents. Gerrie handed Gerald over to the Braakman family, where he stayed for a week before being handed back to Gerrie Piksen and Willen van Asselt. Finally, Gerald was handed over to the Van der Graaf family who were living in the bakery on Salomonsonstraat 46 in Nijverdal. Gerald remained hidden in the bakery from October 1944 until the liberation of the Netherlands in April 1945 by the First Canadian Army commanded by General Harry Crerar. The First Canadian Army consisted of Canadian, British, Polish, American, Belgian and Dutch units. 		   

Avro Lancaster LL678

Gerald Edward Martin

  
 

Avro Lancaster mark II

        
               
     
Memorial Stone recording
the crash of the Lily Mars. The plaque states that the Lily Mars was shot down by a German Bf 110 night fighter of 8./NJG 1. 		Believed to be the uniform
of Gerald Martin, on display
in the Twenty Oorlogsmuseum in Vriezenveen.		 The bakery as it was in 1944. A recent photograph of the bakery, which has been turned into two houses. The Van der Graaf family. From left to right.
mother Gezina, second daughter Hetty,
son Gerrit daughter Hannie (the grandmother of
Matthijs) and father Meine van der Graaf.		      
Photographs courtesy of  Matthijs Nijhoff.      

RAF Waterbeach was located five and a half miles north of Cambridge. It was built in 1940 and operated by RAF Bomber Command until 1945, after which it transferred to RAF Transport Command until 1949, becoming a Fighter Command base from 1950 to 1963. From 1963 to 1966 the airfield was used by the RAF Airfield Construction Branch and then handed over to the British Army Royal Engineers as Waterbeach Barracks, although the main runway and control tower remained in use. In July 2011 the Ministry of Defence announced that Waterbeach Barracks would close and the land sold for housing.  Closure took place on the 28th March 2013. Photographs from 2008 show the original control tower and many RAF buildings, including several hangers.

Gelsenkirchen was the location of the Gelsenberg Lager subcamp of KZ Buchenwald, established in 1944 to provide forced labour of approximately 2,000 Hungarian women and girls for the Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG factory. The Gelsenberg-Benzin factory produced synthetic fuels from coal. About 150 Hungarian women and girls died during the bombing raids of September 1944 as they were forbidden to take shelter during air raids.

 
   
Who is Mrs E Martin? In the 1939 Register Edith Martin and her husband Amos W Martin are living at 78 Ruskin Road, Carshalton. The year of their respective births is shown at 1890. A search of marriage records finds an entry for Edith Mercer and Amos W Martin in the March quarter of 1916 (Croydon 2a, 559). A search of birth records returns Amos William Martin registered in the December quarter of 1890 in Islington (1b, 372). A search for the birth entry for Edith Mercer finds an entry for the September quarter of 1890 in Guildford (2a,100). A search for the birth record for Gerald Edward Martin finds Gerald E Martin registered in the March quarter of 1923 in Croydon (2a, 467). The mothers maiden name is shown as Mercer. A birth in early 1923 would mean Gerald was 21 in the June of 1944. I believe that Gerald had an older brother Kenneth N Martin, birth registered in the June quarter of 1921 in the Croydon district (2a, 576), the mothers maiden name is Mercer.

Amos William Martin (born 1890-1891) was living in Newington Green Road, Islington in the 1891 census with his parents Alfred Amos and Elizabeth Ann, his older brother Sidney (born 1887/1888) and older sister Rose Florence (born 1889/1890). Alfred Amos is a carpenter. Ten years later in the 1901 census the family have moved to Croydon, Sidney is now 13 (place of birth shown as Hammersmith), Rose Florence is now 11 (place of birth shown as Fulham). Amos William is listed as William Amos is 10 years old and has a younger brother Harry E, aged 8 (born 1892/1893 in Kilburn). Also at the address is Alfred's mother Thirza (or Thurza) aged 58, born in Great Braxted, Essex and Alfred's sister Clara Martin, aged 27 and born in Kensington, London.

In the 1911 census the family is still in Croydon (South Croydon), Alfred Amos is now 45, a carpenter and builder, his wife Elizabeth Ann is 44, Rose Florence is 21 and Amos William is 20 and shown as being born in Stoke Newington, London. His younger brother Harry Edward is now 18 and a house painter. The elder son Sidney is not at the same address.

Alfred Amos Martin appears on the 1871 census where he is 4 years old, born in 1866 and christened at St Mary Magdalen Church in Richmond, Surrey on the 30th September 1866. His father Amos is 31 years old and born in Hitwich, Bedfordshire His mother Thirza is 28 and shown as being born in Great Braxted, Essex. There is a daughter also - Thurza A Martin aged 2 and born in Twickenham, Surrey.

All the above information from the various census and birth and marriage records all hang together. However, I have yet to find a connection either with Alice Martin or Kathleen Matilda Martin. However, there must be a link, otherwise why would my mother have this newspaper cutting. If you have another information regarding Gerald Edward Martin, please do get in touch with me. See the home page for contact details.