What is the link between Welsh musician/ classical composer Karl Jenkins?

What is the link between Welsh musician/ classical composer Karl Jenkins and A/W/O James Ives RAFVR, F/O Richard Parker and P/O (John) 'Athel' Crabtree?

Karl Jenkins composition ‘For the Fallen: In Memoriam Alfryn Jenkins’ was performed by Hayley Westenra with Bernard Cribbins at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on 13th November 2010.

The loss of the three 100 Squadron crews of A/W/O Ives, F/O Parker and P/O Crabtree on the evening of 30th January 1944, the last raid of that 'dark night' period, left the squadron below strength and in need of replacements.  P/O A J Jenkins arrived with his crew at RAF Waltham on 6th February 1944.

The moon period, combined with wintry weather in the north of England created a period of two weeks at the beginning of February 1944 without Bomber Command operations.

Replacements for the three crews lost over Berlin started arriving at RAF Waltham on 2nd  February when pilots F/Lt G Ross and crew and Sgt E Holden and crew were posted in from 1667 CU.  On 6th February, posted in from 1656CU on completion of  conversion training was P/O A J Jenkins and his crew:- Sgt W J Moore (F/E), Sgt G Pearson (A/B), Sgt R M Ross (Wop/Ag), Sgt G A Saunders (Nav), Sgt D G Harris (Ag) and Sgt F A A Farr (Ag).

The following day Sgt P V Ribbins and crew arrived at Waltham from 1656CU.  Also on 7th the 100 Squadron Record Book records that 'Authority was received for the appointment to commissioned rank w.e.f 27th January 1944 of 1557275 W/O Crabtree J A – pilot' and w.e.f  26th January 1944 of 1451112 W/O Tunstall E E.

During the stand-down period the number of aircraft 100 Squadron was able to offer went down from thirteen on 2nd February to only eight Lancasters between 5th and 11th February on which day 15 aircraft were offered, but not required as the weather still precluded operations.   However it seemed that operations were on 'at last' on 13th, until the weather again cancelled proceedings and no flying was possible, nor on the day after.  

Berlin was the destination on 15th February.  100 Squadron put up fifteen aircraft for the operation including four new pilots making their debuts as 'second dickies' :-  P/O Jenkins flew with F/Lt Gillam, Sgt Holden with S/Ldr Breakspear, Sgt Ribbins with F/O Jones.   F/O Balcombe accompanied recently commissioned P/O Tunstall in Lancaster ND391, which failed to return.

Operations were called each day for the rest of the month but the spell of poor weather continued and the squadron was limited to operations on the following dates – all of which were flown by P/O Alfryn Jenkins (in Lancaster serial nos):-

19th February - Leipzig in DV192

20th Stuttgart - ND326

24th Schweinfurt - ND326

25th Augsburg - ND642

1st March Stuttgart - ND326

15th Stuttgart - ND642

18th Frankfurt – ND642

22nd Frankfurt - ND642

24th Berlin - ND642 - Missing - Shot down by a night-fighter,  Lancaster ND642 crashed just north of the German town of Eilenburg, NE of Leipzig.  The aircraft had taken-off at 18.57hrs.  The crew 's navigator F/Sgt George Saunders was one of 100 Squadron's navigators selected as 'wind-finders' to check actual wind speeds and report them back to base roughly every thirty minutes.  The actual winds were sent on to Bomber Command Headquarters where 'Met' men averaged out the found wind velocities and re-broadcast revised strengths for navigators to make adjustments to their courses.   The wind-finder system was ineffective on this night, which would become known as 'the night of the strong winds'.

P/O J. Douglas Hudson, another 100 Squadron navigator detailed as a wind-finder on this operation, recounted in his memoir 'There and Back Again – A Navigator's Story' that the found wind-speed on the outward leg to Berlin was 140 mph at 22,000 ft.  The bombers were flying in the jet-stream where the wind velocity was 70mph faster than had been forecast giving the bombers a speed relative to the ground of 360mph.  The 'Met' staff apparently did not believe such a significant discrepancy and  accordingly broadcast wrongly adjusted winds back to the bomber stream.  Those crews who trusted the wrongly broadcast winds drifted south of track on the return leg, taking many towards flak 'hotspots' - Magdeburg, Leipzig, Kassel and The Ruhr.

The planned homeward route left Berlin on a south-westerly track towards Leipzig, turning in the vicinity of Treuenbrietzen.  Sgt Roy Ross radioed wind information back to RAF Waltham at 21.58 and 22.16 (the time over target for the whole bomber stream was between 22.25 and 22.45hrs).  Nothing was heard from ND642 after 22.16.  It seems likely that F/Sgt Saunders accepted the revised wind velocity received back from HQ instead of his own 'found speeds' as their aircraft was south of track when shot down by a night-fighter.  'Wild-boar' fighters had joined the bomber stream and many claims for 'kills' were somewhat vague regarding locations as the defenders also lost track of where they were.  72 bombers of the 811 aircraft which took-off were lost on this operation, Bomber Command's heaviest losses to date.

P/O Alfryn James Jenkins of Penclawdd, Glamorgan and his crew-mates were all from Wales, with the exception of flight engineer David Harris who came from Harold Wood in Essex.

All were killed:-  William Moore from Risca, Monmouthshire, Gilbert Pearson from Bishopston Glamorgan, Roy McStuart Ross of Newbridge, Monmouthshire, George Saunders from Cardiff, Forrest Alan Luigi Angove Farr from Barry, Glamorgan.

Karl Jenkins composed ‘For the Fallen: In Memoriam Alfryn Jenkins’ as a setting for Laurence Binyon’s poem from which the Ode of Remembrance is spoken every Remembrance Day across the world.  The work is dedicated to the memory of  the composer's 'viola-playing uncle' - Alfryn Jenkins.   Apparently baby Karl, born on 17th February 1944, met his Uncle Alfryn when P/O Jenkins returned home on leave to see his new nephew.

URL: http://www.karljenkins.com/

John Proctor