Frederick Kenneth Dench was born in 1924, the youngest of the seven children of James Charles Dench (1888-1968) and Lilian Florence Dench née Chignell (1891-1973). His birth was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1924 in the Shoreditch registration district. His father was a porter for a card box manufacturer.
Electoral registers from 1925 to 1938 show his parents listed at 36 Napier Street, London, N1, but the 1939 register shows the street name had been changed and they were listed at 36 Napier Grove, London, N1.
He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, service number 1890830, gaining the rank of Sergeant and was attached to No.622 Squadron.
On 24 February 1944 he was an Air Gunner on board an Avro Lancaster III aeroplane, serial number LM442, markings GI-P, that took off at 8.40pm from RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, on a night raid on Schweinfurt, the centre of ball bearing manufacture in Germany. 734 aircraft took part of which there were 33 loses. Sometime after midnight his aircraft was leaving the target area when it was attacked by a German night fighter at 20,000 feet causing serious structural damage and going out of control whilst he attended to the wounds of his air gunner colleague, Sergeant Charles Henry McFadden.
Four of the eight aircrew were killed including him, aged 21 years, and Sergent McFadden and they were all buried in a collective grave in Grafendorf Civic Cemetery in Bavaria, Germany. The remaining four aircrew were made prisoners of war.
On 24 October 1947 their bodies were exhumed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and reburied in Plot 1, Row D, Collective Grave 5-8, in the Durnbach War Cemetery, Am Moss, 83703 Gmund am Tegernsee, Germany.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
