Stuart Charles Orrell
He was a bus conductor in 1939.
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He was the son of Benjamin and Lucy Orrell and the brother of Alice Mary Augusta and Albert Orrell. They lived at 24, Derby Road, Heanor, Derbyshire in 1921 but had relocated to 245, Stapleford Road, Trowell, Nottinghamshire by 1939. Lucy Orrell died in 1932 aged 44 and Benjamin married Selina Jackson a year later.
ST. PIERRE CEMETERY, AMIENS Plot 4. Row B. Grave 11.
Lancaster I ME798 took off 2236 24 June 1944 from Skellingthorpe to attack the flying-bomb site at Prouville. It exploded in the air following a stern and below attack by a night-fighter (Schrage-Musicke).
No survivors. Fatalities: Orrell (FE) + KI Wood (P), EH Johnson (N), G Taylor (W/Op), KSM Mitchell (AB), LP Facey-Crowther (AG), PB McRann (AG).
Schräge Musik (meaning "slanted" or "weird music," from a German slang term for jazz) was a World War II Luftwaffe weapon system. It featured upward-firing autocannons mounted in the fuselage of night fighters to attack Allied bombers from below.
Fighters crept up directly beneath bombers, staying hidden in the dark where heavy bombers had no defensive guns. Pilots aimed for fuel tanks under the wings and fuselage. Bomber crews often had no idea a fighter was near until bullets hit.
The first such systems were developed (though not widely employed) in World War I as anti-Zeppelin defenses by the French and British.
This was an era when fighters struggled to match the altitude capacity of the German airships and were forced to devise means to attack from below.
The later resurrection of the concept by the Germans was inspired by observed weaknesses in the standard British night bomber aircraft of the WW2 era.
The Avro Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax lacked ventral ball turrets in order to save weight, making them vulnerable to covert approaches and attacks from below under the cover of darkness.
In keeping with the plans of the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive, the American B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberators operating in Europe (factory-equipped with ball turrets) typically bombed by day, thus experiencing far fewer encounters (and relative losses) from Schräge Musik.
Later similar Japanese experiments with upward-firing cannons on their night fighters in 1944 (intended to target the American B-29 Superfortress fleet firebombing Japan by night) were largely fruitless, owing to the B-29's notably superior speed and altitude.
In the initial stages of its operational use by German air crews, from mid-1943 to early 1944, many attacks using Schräge Musik achieved complete surprise while destroying many British bombers.
The crews that survived such attacks, during this period, often believed that damage and casualties had been caused by ground-based anti-aircraft artillery (AA or AAA), rather than fighters.
Much confusion resulted until the cause was successfully pinpointed. (Wikipedia)
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