1941-06-12 Wellington R1323
Type: Wellington
Serial Number: R1323
Squadron: 40
X1D BL-J
Operation: Dusseldorf
Date 1: 11th June 1941
Date 2: 12th June 1941
Delivered by Vickers (Chester) between Aug40 and May41. R1381-R1389 were tropicalised to FE Standard R1323 was one of two No.40 Sqdn Wellingtons lost on this operation. See: R1464.
Mission
Airborne 23.40 hr. on 11-Jun-1941 from Alconbury. Shot down by Kriegsmarine Flak-ships and crash-landed 01:21h 12Jun41 on a sand bank off Hellevoetsluis, Holland.
June 11th, 1941:
The Raf begins a series of 20 consecutive raids against targets in the Ruhr, the Rhineland, as well as Hamburg and Bremen.
RAF Bomber Command sends 25 aircraft to attack Bremerhaven in daylight but 19 turn back.
RAF Bomber Command sends 98 aircraft to attack Dusseldorf overnight.
RAF Bomber Command sends 80 aircraft to attack Duisburg overnight.
Dusseldorf
June 12th 1941
PRIME MINISTER WINSTON CHURCHILL'S SPEECH TO THE ALLIED DELEGATES
"Here we meet while from across the Atlantic Ocean the hammers and lathes of the United States signal in a rising hum their message of encouragement and their promise of swift and ever-growing aid." See doc.
Crew
S/L M.E.Redgrave PoW
Sgt A.F.Potter RNZAF PoW
Sgt C.Rofe Evd
Sgt P.Rockingham PoW
Sgt R.Alldrick RCAF PoW
Sgt J.A.S.Abernethy PoW.
Sgt Abernethy was interned in Camps 8B/L6/L4. PoW No.18277.
Sgt A.F.Potter in Camps 8B/L6/357, PoW No.18276 with
Sgt P.Rockingham, PoW No.18282.1
S/L M.E.Redgrave in Camps 9AH/L3, PoW No.1362.
Sgt C.Rofe escaped from Camp 8B. Awarded MM. See below.
Provenance for Sgt Cyril Rofe's evasion comes from Mr Shamus Wade, Sec, Commonwealth Forces History Trust, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph Aug1998. The last member of the Armed Forces to take part in a cavalry charge was Cyril Rofe, a Sergeant Observer, whose Wellington had been shot down in the Maas Estuary, east of Rotterdam, during 1941 (as above). After escaping and being recaptured several times, he ended up with a Russian Cossack Regiment, described as belonging to Division 'P' of the 1st Army Corps, because he could ride. As they lined up to force their way successfully through German troops back to the Russian lines, Rofe's beret fell off. He had no sword, but waved his arms during the charge. The action, which occurred in the border country between Polish Galicia and Slovakia on Sep26nd. 1944, is described in Rofe's book 'Against the Wind' (1956). "
Cyril Rofé, in 1951.
On Monday, 23 June 1941 another batch of newcomers arrived at Oflag XXB Spanenberg from Dulag Luft. They were Squadron Leaders M.E.Redgrave end E.T. Smith, Flt.Lt. P.S.E. Briggs and J.Bryks (Czech); Flg.Off. T.A.Bax, R.J.E.Boulding, D.Bruce and S.T. Sedzik (Pole); Plt.Off. A.J.Brewster, W. Cebrazynski (Pole), N.M.Dunn (RAAF), K.N.Holland,
J.Mc.B. Kerr (RNZAF), K. Jaklewicz (Pole), W.A. Sojka (Pole) and P.P.Villa and lieutenant E.C.Newborn of the South African Air Force. Dominic Bruce – a navigation and bombing leader with No.9 squadron (Honington) and Thomas Albert Bax, the unit’s gunnery leader, were captured on Monday, 9 June 1941, two days after Bruce’s twenty-sixth birthday.
From:
Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 142, 18 June 1941, Page 9
From:
Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 3, 3 July 1941, Page 11
Unit
No. 40 Squadron
Description of the Squadron's Badge
A broom. The broom was chosen to immortalise the frequent exhortation of Major 'Mick' Mannock, the famous World War I pilot, who served with the squadron, to "sweep the Huns from the air!"
No. 40 Squadron of the Royal Air Force was formed in 1916 at Gosport as No 40 Squadron RFC and was disbanded for the last time in 1957. No. 40 Squadron began WW2 as part of the Advanced Air Striking Force, making it one of the first squadrons to be sent to France. The Fairey Battle suffered very heavy loses during the Battle of France, but by then No. 40 Squadron had returned to Britain to re-equip with the Blenheim.
When the German onslaught in the west began on 10 May 1940 No.40 Squadron's Blenheims were thrown into the battle, attacking German troops until the fall of France. The squadron then took part in the attacks on the German invasion barges during the period when that invasion was expected at any time.
In November 1940 the squadron converted to the Wellington, and spent the next year operating as a night bomber squadron with Bomber Command. In October 1941 the squadron's aircraft were flown to Malta, where they operated against targets in Italy and North Africa until May 1942, when the surviving aircraft were transferred to Egypt. Those parts of the squadron that had remained in the UK became No. 156 squadron on 14 February 1942
Once the squadron had recovered from its battering on Malta, it began to fly operations against the Axis forces in North Africa, moving west as the Allies advanced into Tunisia and Cyrenaica, before finally moving to Italy in December 1943. From there the unit carried out raids on targets in northern Italy and the Balkans.
Aircraft
July 1938-December 1939: Fairey Battle
December 1939-November 1940: Bristol Blenheim IV
November 1940-May 1942: Vickers Wellington IC
May 1942-July 1943: Vickers Wellington III
May 1943-March 1945: Vickers Wellington X
March 1945-January 1945: Consolidated Liberator VI
source: http://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/RAF/40_wwII.html