In October 2025, after 82 years, the remains of three missing airmen were recovered and laid to rest beside their comrades with full military honours. In this moving post, Dave Gilbert, co-author of Epitaphs of Bomber Command, reflects on their story and the enduring duty of remembrance.
Epitaphs of Bomber Command, published earlier this year, featured one hundred of the most poignant epitaphs from the headstones of Bomber Command airmen killed during the Second World War.
Of the 58,000 men and women who lost their lives and are recorded in the Losses Database at the International Bomber Command Centre, around 30,000 have epitaphs. As explained in the book, the families of airmen from New Zealand and Poland were not given the opportunity to add inscriptions, and those with no known grave, who are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, were not given this option either. Space simply didn’t allow it.
Three such airmen were the flight engineer, wireless operator and one of the air gunners aboard Mk. III Lancaster ED603 OL-L of No. 83 Squadron, one of the élite Pathfinder squadrons, whose task was to mark the targets with coloured pyrotechnics for the main bomber force.
Along with their four comrades, Pilot Officer Arthur Smart DFM (left), Pilot Officer Charles Sprack DFM (centre) and Flight Sergeant Raymond Moore DFM (right), set out from RAF Wyton on the evening of 12 June 1943 for an attack on Bochum in the industrial heartland of Germany; the Ruhr Valley. The Battle of the Ruhr, as it became known, had started in March and would continue for another six weeks.
The outward journey was uneventful for ED603 and on reaching the target at around 0130 hrs, they found it covered in broken cloud and haze, the latter likely the result of smokescreen generators used to obscure key industrial targets. Flak, however, was intense and accurate. ED603 was hit in the port wing, but, displaying steely determination that was so typical of bomber crews, and exemplified by this one in particular, they pressed on to complete target marking and their bombing run. They were experienced, used to flak, and not easily deterred.
A while after turning for home, when not too far from the Dutch coast, they were intercepted by a night-fighter flown by Hauptmann Rudolf Sigmund. His cannon fire tore into the fuselage, igniting a blaze in the fuselage that quickly spread. Moments later, the Lancaster plunged into Lake Ijsselmeer, killing all on board.
The lake gave up the bodies of four of the crew, and they were laid to rest in three neighbouring villages on the eastern shoreline of the lake, but the bodies of the other three were never found and were therefore commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey.
In March 1996, a trawler from Volendam on the western side of the lake snagged its nets on something heavy while fishing. When hauled aboard, it proved to be a Merlin engine, propeller still attached, which was later identified from its serial number as belonging to ED603.
What followed was a sustained and determined effort by the Dutch authorities, reflecting their declared commitment to recover aircraft which may still contain human remains. After many years of planning, the excavation of ED603 started in mid-2023 using a cofferdam.
Many will have seen Guy Martin’s fascinating Channel 4 documentary, which captured not only the remarkable engineering involved but also the quiet dignity and reverence shown by the Leemans Speciaalwerken team when the wreckage - and human remains - first emerged.
In November of the same year, the Dutch Defence Ministry announced that they had found two cigarette cases, inscribed with the initials of Smart and Moore and that the remains of each of the three missing men had been identified, making a proper burial possible at last.
That burial took place just a month ago, on 9 October 2025, with full military honours, some 82 years after they were killed.
(All images of the ceremony are Crown Copyright.)
Serendipitously perhaps, two of the crew whose bodies had been recovered shortly after the crash were buried at the end of a row in Workum (Spoordyk) General Cemetery, allowing the newly recovered remains to be buried beside them.
The service was led by The Reverend Dr. (Wing Commander) Philip Wilson and the men’s remains were laid to rest by a bearer party from RAF The King's Colour Squadron.
Readings were chosen and read by family members and The Last Post was sounded by a Trumpeter from The Central Band of the Royal Air Force.
Three new headstones were set in their rightful places, two of them bearing epitaphs chosen by their families:
Raymond Moore: PER ARDUA AD ASTRA. HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR YOUR FREEDOM. (Latin: Through adversity to the stars- the RAF motto).
Charles Sprack: HE THAT WAS LOST IS FOUND
Steve Darlow and I are both certain that, had these inscriptions been available to us at the time of writing ‘Epitaphs of Bomber Command’, this account would have been included without hesitation.
Their story reminds us that an epitaph is more than a line of text carved in stone; it is the voice of a family, speaking across generations. For 82 years, these men lay beyond reach of that final tribute. Now, at last, their loved ones have spoken, and their words will stand as long as the headstones do.
The war may have ended long ago, but the duty of remembrance has not, and never shall.
Dave Gilbert
November 2025
(Images of Pilot Officer Arthur Smart DFM, Pilot Officer Charles Sprack DFM and Flight Sergeant Raymond Moore DFM courtesy of the International Bomber Command Centre.)
