Address / Local links: 62 Tidford Road, Welling
Family / Relatives: Son of William Robert and Louisa Ellen Kate Lowman, of Welling
Other Information: Son of a Fitter
Operation Varsity – March 24th 1945
“March 24th 1945, was a bright, cold, and clear day. On the airfields of southern England troop carriers, tugs and gliders carrying men of the Air Landing Brigade left the runways. Behind them were the men of the Parachute Battalions. By noon, two Airborne Divisions, the British 6th, and the American 17th, had landed on German soil. Many lessons had been learnt at Arnhem. On this occasion, tremendous artillery support had been given to the airborne army from 21st Army Group.
Once again, the Glider Pilot Regiment was leading the way. Following heavy losses at Arnhem, the Regiment been reinforced by many RAF Pilots who had volunteered for glider duties. In a very short time these pilots of the RAF had learnt not only to fly gliders but also to fight as airborne infantry…”
“The LZs (landing zones) chosen for the gliders were the area between Kopenhof and Hamminkeln. The Parachute Battalions dropped north, south, and west of them. Many of the pilots brought their gliders down with 50m of their target, the majority landed within 200m. One glider with the objective of the railway station, actually landed on the railway lines in the station building. The Gliders carrying men of the Royal Ulster Rifles, and the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry were brought down by their pilots on top of their objectives, on both sides of the bridge over the River Issel. The bridge was soon captured.
Of the gliders that carried the Air Landing Brigade, ninety percent reached the landing zone. Of the 416 that landed, only 88 were undamaged. The casualties amongst the Glider Pilots was once again very high, nearly 30% killed and wounded.
This battle for a foothold in Germany was perhaps the Regiments greatest triumph. The high ground across the Rhine had been captured together with the bridges across the River Issel. An airborne corridor had been created for Montgomery’s 21st Army Group to race into Germany. It was a shared triumph with men of the 17th US Airborne Div who had fought alongside them.
Although the Glider Pilot Regiment may now have been consigned to history, the maroon shoulder badge worn by Glider Pilots, the badge of Pegasus, the winged horse and its rider, brandishing a lance, lives on in British Airborne today”.
This was the campaign, in the final few months of the war in Europe, that saw the death of our sergeant William Lowman, a very young glider pilot in a new but decidedly dangerous unit…
“The War Office decided the glider pilots were to train and fight as soldiers once they were on the ground. They were trained to fight with any weapon used by airborne troops. All were either officers or NCOs. An extremely high degree of intelligence, initiative and discipline was required. Once qualified pilots wore the Army Flying Badge, their numbers reached a peak of 2,500 pilots in 1945”.
William Samuel Edgar Lowman
Sadly, we don’t know much at all about William Lowman’s young life and upbringing, but we must assume that he too was a young man of “an extremely high degree of intelligence, initiative and discipline”…
His birth was registered in the Woolwich district in the autumn of 1924 – in 1921 we know that his family were living at Inverine Road in Charlton.
His parents were William Robert Lowman (1895 – 1978) and Louisa Ellen Kate (nee Lloyd 1895 – 1983). Both east-enders, they had married at St Mary the Virgin, Plaistow in august 1919, before moving to the Charlton area a few years later.
By the mid 1930s the Lowmans had moved to Welling, at 62 Tidford Road. The 1939 Register shows William Snr as being a Leading Cable Hand in north Woolwich, and the family living with Louisa’s widowed mother, Ellen Lloyd.
The only other documentation we have for our young William Lowman is his probate record – “Effects to William Robert Loman (fitter) £205 12s 9d”.
Aged just 20 at the time of his death, William Lowman is buried at the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Germany.
HISTORY INFORMATION
Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, near the town of Kleve lies in the west of Germany close to the Dutch border, and was created after the Second World War when burials were brought in from all over western Germany and is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the country.
Some of those members of the land forces buried there died in the advance through Reichswald Forest in February 1945. Others died crossing the Rhine, among them members of the airborne forces whose bodies were brought from Hamminkeln, where landings were made by the 6th Airborne Division from bases in England.
Some of the airmen buried in the cemetery lost their lives in supporting the advance into Germany, but most died earlier in the war in the intensive air attacks over Germany. Their graves were brought in from cemeteries and isolated sites in the surrounding area.
There are now 7,594 Commonwealth servicemen of the Second World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. 176 of the burials are unidentified. There are also 78 war graves of other nationalities, most of them Polish. The cemetery was designed by Philip Hepworth.
William’s headstone inscription reads;
HIS COUNTRY CALLED.
HIS DUTY DONE,
GOD CALLED HIM.
TILL WE MEET AGAIN.
………………………………
For more military background information see https://www.paradata.org.uk/unit/glider-pilot-regiment
Or https://ww2escapelines.co.uk/article/glider-pilot-regiment/
Pictured are some glider pilot images, Operation Varsity, and the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.
…………………………………………………….
If anyone is able to add any extra information, provide more family details, or suggest any corrections, please let us know – also, if anyone has any more photos of this individual listed on our memorials, please get in touch. Thank you.
Commemorated
- St. Michael’s East Wickham Church Memorial Tablet
- Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Germany
This story has been researched by volunteers. We have taken every effort to ensure its accuracy. If you are related to William Samuel Edgar Lowman, or if you have any further information, please do get in touch.