John Labow was known by his middle name of Irvin, he was born on 18th June 1918 and was the son of John and Mima Pearl Labow, of Beachburg, Ontario, Canada. Nothing much his known about his life before he enlisted and after training as an air gunner he was posted to 408 Squadron. He was the mid upper gunner on board Halifax JD174 in July 1943 when the incident occured over the North Yorkshire Moors. He was uninjured but remained at 408 Squadron, unlike many of the crew who were posted to 405 Squadron. He received his commssion on an unknown date but it must have been soon after July 1943. By March 1944 he was in the rank of F/O. F/O Labow RCAF (J/18279) was flying in Lancaster LL633 on the night of 30th/31st March 1944 in a scratch crew, they had left Linton on Ouse airfield at 22.04hrs to undertake an operational flight to bomb Nurnberg, Germany. As the aircraft approached the target area it was attacked by two night-fighters and was badly damaged. F/O Labow is believed to have occupied the rear turret for this flight. Sadly he and two others died as a result of this incident, five of the crew became prisoners of war after they baled out before the aircraft crashed near Gerolzhofen, Schweinfurt, Germany. It is possible that F/O Labow had been killed in the initial combat. He is buried at Durnbach War Cemetery and was twenty five years old. In his Bomber Command losses book Mr William Chorley notes that F/O Labow had flown twenty five operational flights prior to this one, he was clearly a very experienced air gunner.

Sgt Labow, photograph taken in late 1943.