Young, Henry Melvin, son of Henry George Melvin Young, solicitor, of Hertford, and Fannie Forester, d. of George Dobbridge Rowan of Los Angeles; b. 20 May 1915; adm. May 1932 (B); left July 1934; Trin. Coll. Oxf., matric. 1934, rowed against Cambridge 1938; PO RAFVR Sept. 1938, FO Mar. 1940, Flt Lieut. Apr. 1941, Sqdn Ldr June 1942, DFC (Germany) May 1941, Bar to DFC (Middle East) Sept. 1942; m. 10 Aug. 1942 Priscilla, d. of Hobart Ranson of Kent, Connecticut; killed in raid on Mohne and Eder dams 16 May 1943.
Henry Melvin “Dinghy” Young was born at Belgravia, London on the 20th of May 1915 the only son of Henry George Melvin Young, a solicitor, and Fannie Forester (nee Rowan) Young of 117, Fore Street, Hertford in Hertfordshire. He was educated at Amesbury School, Hindhead until 1928 when his family moved to California. He went on to Kent School in Connecticut in 1930 where he started rowing. He returned to England where he attended Westminster School where he was up Busby’s from May 1932 to July 1934. He matriculated for Trinity College, Oxford in 1934 where he was the winner of the Oxford University Coxless Fours in 1936. He rowed for the Leander Club at the Henley Regatta in 1937. He rowed in the Head of the River race in 1938 and was a member of the University Boat Race crew which defeated Cambridge in 1938 where rowed at No. 2. He was awarded a Blue for Rowing in 1938. He became a member of the Oxford University Air Squadron in 1937, where he was described by his instructor, Charles Whitworth, as: - “not a natural pilot”, as he was apparently heavy handed with the controls. He later wrote that he had: - “improved considerably.... was very keen and has plenty of common sense.”
He was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on the 13th of September 1938.
Following the outbreak of war, he reported for operational training to No. 1 Initial Training Unit, Royal Air Force on the 25th of September 1939 before going on to No. 9 Service Flying Training School.
During this period he wrote the following in a letter to the headmaster of Kent College: - “Since we had to have a war, I am more than ever glad that I am in the air force ...... though I haven’t yet had to face any of the conflict and killing of war. I am not frightened of dying if that is God’s will and only hope that I may die doing my duty as I should. In the meantime, I remain as cheerful, I think, as ever and try to keep others so”.
He was promoted to Flying Officer on the 13th of March 1940 and, on completion of his pilot training, he was posted to 102 Squadron, in June 1940.
On the 7th of October 1940, Henry Young took off in Whitley Mk V P4995 DY-P for a convoy escort mission over the Channel. During the mission the aircraft suffered from engine failure and was forced to ditch into the sea. All five of the crew managed to climb into the dinghy before the aircraft sank less than five minutes later.
The crew was: -
Flying Officer Henry Melvin Young (Pilot) (Killed in action 17th of May 1943)
Sergeant Ralph Collier (2nd Pilot) (Killed in action 28th November 1940)
Sergeant Burns
Sergeant Bird
Pilot Officer Forsdyke
They spent twenty two hours in their dinghy before they were rescued by the destroyer HMS St Mary. Their rescue was documented by Life Magazine which had one of its reporters on the board the destroyer who was writing a piece on air sea rescue operations.
The following appeared in Life Magazine’s edition of the 2nd of December 1940: - “Their raft is a huge orange doughnut, and within its circle five men are squatting, one of them frantically waving a canvas paddle aloft . . . One fellow paddles frantically until the raft bumps the ship’s side. Now our propellers boilingly backwater at the command and ropes go writhing down toward their grasping hands. A ship’s ladder goes over our side . . . One of the aviators rises wildly, unsteadily grapples at a rope, is too weak to wrap it around him, topples into the sea. Instantly a sailor goes over our rail, comes up behind the man with the loose-rolling head and wild eyes just out of the water. He ties the rope under his arms and pushes him to the dangling ship’s ladder. But he’s too weak to manage the rungs with cold hands and feet, so three sailors pull his sea-chilled body up and over out of sight of land in spite of all they could do. the side. The others with a little help from our sailors mount the wooden rungs and reach the solid safety of steel deck, and are half led, half carried down to the cozy warmth of our wardroom. Lying limp on the table, sprawled on the chairs, they are too weak even to raise their arms as we strip off their wet wool uniforms to be taken to the boiler room to dry. Their sea-water soaked flesh feels cold and dead, the texture of cold boiled oysters. Slowly then they mumble out the story. Their big bomber on patrol came down in the sea yesterday. They had just 60 seconds after it struck the water to toss their inflatable life raft in the sea and climb on before the plane sank. That afternoon they drifted. All night they slapped and rubbed each other to keep awake, which meant keeping alive. The water seemed warmer than the air. An hour after dawn they sighted a ship, waved frantically. She came within a hundred yards. They shouted and screamed at her but she passed without seeing them. They were getting ready for another night. They’d saved half their flask of brandy, intending to drink it in one big party at midnight. No, they don’t want food. Just a drink of water and then sleep. So, rubbing them down with hot, rough towels, we roll them into thick wool blankets, tuck them into our bunks where they sink immediately into sleep.”
Henry Young and his crew took off from RAF Topcliffe at 5.25pm on the 23rd of November 1940 in Whitley Mk V T4216 DY-F for an operation to Turin as one of four aircraft from the Squadron. Henry Young’s aircraft dropped two sticks of bombs on the city’s railway station from a height of 9,500 feet scoring hits on the target and adding to the large fires seen on the ground. On its return from the raid the aircraft ran short of fuel and was forced to ditch into the sea off Start Point below Topcross in Devon at 4.45am, some fifty miles out to sea. Although two of the crew were slightly injured they managed to climb into the dinghy. A search and rescue operation was mounted and the dingy was spotted by a Lysander at 5.20pm. The crew was picked up some twenty miles off the coast of Portsmouth after spending many hours at sea.
The crew was: -
Flying Officer Henry Melvin Young (Pilot) (Killed in action 17th of May 1943)
Pilot Officer Frederick George Malim (2nd Pilot) (Killed in action 13th of March 1941)
Sergeant R.G. Bristow
Sergeant Walter Edward Craven (Killed in action 8th of April 1941)
Sergeant Alfred Pearsall Clifford-Reade (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner) (Killed in action 15th of April 1941)
The crew was treated for shock and minor injuries at the Royal Naval Hospital at Plymouth.
These two events led to him being given the nickname “Dinghy”.
He completed his tour of operations with 102 Squadron in February 1941 and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was announced by the Air Ministry on the 9th of May 1941.The citation read: - "This officer has carried out 28 bombing missions involving 230 hours flying as well as 6 convoy patrols on which some 40 hours were spent in the air. His operational flights include attacks on important targets in Germany and Italy. On two occasions he has been forced down on the sea, on one of which he was in the dinghy for 22 hours in an Atlantic gale. On both occasions his courage and inspired leadership, combined with a complete knowledge of dinghy drill, were largely responsible for the survival of his crews."
He was promoted to Flight Lieutenant on the 6th of April 1941.
He served for a while in a training unit before joining 104 Squadron in September 1941 and serving with them in Egypt and Malta. On completion of his second tour of operations he was awarded a Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross, which was announced by the Air Ministry on the 18th of September 1942.
He was promoted to Squadron leader on the 1st of June 1942.
Following the completion of his second tour of operations, he was posted to the Royal Air Force Delegation in Washington DC in July 1942. While he was there he proposed to Pricilla (nee Rawson) of Ravenscroft Farm, Kent, Connecticut, who he had met when he had attended Kent School. They were married at Kent School Chapel on the 10th of August 1942 in a service which was conducted by the Reverend W.S. Chalmers.
On his return to England in February 1943 he was posted to No. 1660 Conversion Unit based at RAF Swinderby, where he began training with a new crew on Lancasters on the 1st of March 1943. He joined 57 Squadron, based at RAF Scampton on the 13th of March 1943 where he was placed in command of C Flight. Within a few days of arriving at Scampton he, his crew and the four other aircraft from C Flight were transferred to 617 Squadron which was being formed at RAF Scampton by Wing Commander Guy Gibson from the 21st of March 1943. It was being assembled specifically to carry out a mission code named “Operation Chastise” and would be using a new bomb code named “Upkeep” to attack the German dams in the Ruhr. As the dams were protected by anti torpedo nets the bomb had been designed by Barnes Wallis of the Vickers Aircraft Company to skip across the water and to sink against the dam walls. The attack was to be delivered by specially adapted Lancasters at night and at very low level during the full moon in May.
He and his crew transferred to the other side of the airfield where they began an intensive program of low flying over water at night.
The crews received their final briefing for the operation at 6pm on the 16th of May 1943, which lasted for two hours. Henry Young’s crew, were to be in the first wave of nine aircraft which was to head for the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams and would take off in groups of three at ten minute intervals. The second wave was to consist of five aircraft which would head for the Sorpe while the third wave, made up of five aircraft would take off 5 hours and 30 minutes later as a reserve.
Henry Young and his crew took off from RAF Scampton at 9.47pm on the 16th of May 1943 in Lancaster Mk III ED887 G AJ-A for the operation. One of the aircraft in the first wave had an engine problem and took off 20 minutes after the others had departed.
The leading wave arrived over the Möhne dam at 12.15am where Gibson assigned five of his remaining aircraft to make the attack. His was the first aircraft to attack, under fire from three light anti aircraft towers on top of the dam, and he dropped his bomb at 12.28am. The bomb landed against the dam wall, some 150 yards from the centre of it, where it exploded but did not breach it. Two further attacks had been made with no success when Henry Young began his run towards it for the fourth attack.
Mickey Martin’s Lancaster flew alongside him to bring fire onto the anti aircraft guns and to draw their fire away from Young’s aircraft. Young’s bomb also landed against the dam, did not breach it but created a crack in it which was seen by crew of the next aircraft to attack. The fifth attack also landed against the dam sending a 1,000 foot plume of water into the air but with no breach. As Gibson gave orders for the next aircraft to begin its attack run the dam began to crumble and then collapse, sending a wall of water down into the valley below.
Gibson then led the three aircraft still carrying their bombs towards the Eder dam which was breached by the third and last aircraft to make its attack. The code word sent back to Scampton to confirm the destruction of the Eder Dam was “Dinghy”. On its return home, Henry Young’s aircraft was crossing the Dutch coast at Castricum-aan-Zee when it was hit by anti aircraft fire from an enemy coastal flak battery and crashed into the sea at 2.58am with the loss of the entire crew.
The crew was: -
Squadron Leader Henry Melvin Young DFC and Bar (Pilot)
Sergeant David Taylor Hosfall (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Wilfred Ibbotson (Rear Gunner)
Flying Officer Vincent Sanford MacCausland RCAF (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Lawrence William Lauire” Nichols (Wireless Operator)
Flight Sergeant Charles Walpole Roberts (Navigator)
Sergeant Gordon Arthur Yeo (Front Gunner)
Five of the crew’s bodies were washed ashore over the next thirteen days, with Henry Young’s body and that of David Horsfall being washed ashore on the 29th of May 1943. They were buried two days later.
He is commemorated by the Melvin Young Room at Kent School, the Admissions office through which every new student passes through on their arrival at the school.
He is commemorated on the war memorial at Trinity College, Oxford.
A memorial to the crew was unveiled at Castricum-aan-Zee on the 18th of May 2018.
He is buried at Bergen General Cemetery Plot 2, Row D, Grave 4.
