Flying Officer Sydney Colbert DFC was a member of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve serving in 156 Squadron. He was the son of Alexander Colbert and Jane Colbert of Belfast, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland.
His Lancaster III Bomber JA975 took off at 1649hrs on 14th January 1944. The crew was part of a bombing raid to the city of Braunschweig or Brunswick in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Imperial War Museum Photo: CH 12153 (Part of the Air Ministry Second World War Official Collection). King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the ground crew of 156 Squadron on 10th February 1944 at Warboys, Huntingdonshire. A Lancaster Bomber Mk II is in the background.
During the raid, their Lancaster suffered damage from anti-aircraft flak. They also fell victim to the guns of German night-fighters. The plane came down at Bockernweg, about 40km south-west of its target city.
Also killed were Flying Officer Edward Hone, Pilot Officer Denzil Meecham Davies, Flight Sergeant Granville Cyril Johnson, and Flight Lieutenant Clifford Robert Stannard.
The crew of five were reportedly buried near the crash site on 17th January 1944, three days after the incident. Their bodies are now interred in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Sage, near Oldenburg.
Sydney Colbert was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service to the RAF. His grave is in plot 8, row F, grave 3 of the Sage War Cemetery. A memorial is inscribed on the Colbert family headstone in Dundonald Cemetery, Dundonald, Co. Down.