TUSTIN Dennis George

Appears on the Royal Air Force casualties list for Worcestershire.

Dennis Tustin was the air gunner of a Halifax bomber that left Full Sutton near York on the night of 16th/17th June 1944 to bomb the synthetic-oil plant at Sterkrade. Unfortunately, the bomber force of over 300 craft was attacked by night fighters and in all 31 were shot down. 77 Squadron lost 7 of the 23 Halifax bombers despatched, including Dennis Tustin’s.

His aircraft crashed near Amstelveen, about 13km west of Amsterdam, killing all the crew. Hitting the soft ground of a Dutch polder, it buried itself 20 feet into the ground. Some of the crew were recovered during the 1950s but it was not until 1989/1990 that a full excavation of the aircraft was undertaken. The remainder of the crew were recovered and along with those recovered in the 1950s; they were finally laid to rest with full military honours in the Canadian War Cemetery at Bergen-op-Zoom in October 1991. It proved impossible to identify the individual crew members, they continue to be commemorated on the RAF Memorial to the missing at Runnymede.

Source for additional information: In Dedication to a Future World By Mark Rogers, 1999.

A letter from the Reverend Trevor Morgans, Stoulton Vicarage, dated 1st May 1950 can be found within war records held at Worcestershire Archives requesting that Sergeant Dennis George Tustin, RAF, be added to the county roll of honour.

The following information is courtesy of Jane Hodson, Dennis Tustin’s niece:
Dennis was a Gunner in a Halifax bomber, NA508 KN A, shot down on return from a bombing raid on the 17th June 1944. His body was discovered around 1990 in a peat bog in Amstelveen, not far from Amsterdam while some Dutch were doing excavation work. He finally had a proper ceremony and is now in the Canadian war cemetery in Bergen Op Zoom, Holland. Most of the crew were RAAF.

Dennis Tustin has no known grave, the photograph available shows his name on Runnymede Memorial.