TUTT, NORMAN PERCY. Sergeant (Flight Engineer), 812184.
Royal Air Force (Auxiliary). 9 Squadron, Royal Air Force.
Died 10 April 1943. Aged 22.
Son of Percy John and Annie Elizabeth Tutt of 44 Somerset Road, Ashford, Kent.
Norman enlisted in the Royal Air Force (Auxiliary) in 1938, and was a pupil at the Ashford North County Modern (Boys) School 1932-1935.
Buried Oudewater Protestant Cemetery, Zuid, Netherlands.
Grave Ref: Plot 6. Grave 64.
Also commemorated about two miles away from where he and his comrades died. On the opposite side of the road from the cemetery where Norman and his comrades are at rest, which is just outside the Roman Catholic Cemetery, the local inhabitants of Oudewater have erected a small but respected memorial in rememberance and honour of the seven crew of Lancaster bomber ED502 WS-V. The memorial at Oudewater is both well maintained and cared for. A remembrance service is conducted every anniversary of the crash to commemorate the seven who lost their lives, all vehicle movements are stopped, with local diversions put in place whilst the service takes place and is also very well attended every year. Norman and the six airmen who were killed with him are the only Commonwealth casualties at rest in the cemetery, and lie in adjacent graves, which are of course officially maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission; unofficially they are equally well cared for by the Dutch inhabitants of Oudewater. Norman and his comrades lost their lives when the aircraft crashed at Snelrwaard, Utrecht near Oudewater, Holland after being shot down by an enemy night-fighter on the night of 10 April 1943 at 2245 hours. In a bomber force of 104 Lancasters and 5 Mosquitoes, Norman's Lancaster which was flown by 23 year old Warrant Officer (Pilot), Arthur M. White, R.N.Z.A.F. of Hamilton, Waikato,Auckland, New Zealand. The aircraft had taken off from R.A.F. Waddington, Lincolnshire at 2048 hours 10 April 1943, to attack Duisburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. With thick cloud obscuring the target area the bombers scattered their bombs over a wide area, and 8 of the Lancasters were lost. Lancaster bomber ED502 WS-V, had been on the strength of Norman's squadron since 21 January 1943, and by the time it was shot down had completed a total of 142 hours. It is believed that at the time of his death, Arthur White was flying his thirteenth sortie as captain of his own crew. Oudewater is a village 24 kilometres south-west of Utrecht, 9 kilometres east of Gouda, and 37 kilometres north-east of the city of Rotterdam. The cemetery is on the eastern outskirts of Oudewater, on the northern side of the road to Montfort, and contains only seven Commonwealth war graves, they being the Lancasters crew who are buried in adjacent graves.