1943-04-03, Halifax W7937, Haringvliet

Halifax W7937 Information

Type Halifax

Serial Number W7937

Squadron 78

X1D EY-?

Operation Essen

Date 1 3rd April 1943

Date 2 3rd April 1943

Further Information

"Serial Range W7906 - W7939. 34 Halifax Mk.11. Part of a batch of 200 HP59 Halifax Mk.11. W7650-W7679; W7695- W7720; W7745-W7784; W7801-W7826; W7844-W7887; W7906-W7939. Delivered by Handley page (Cricklewood & Radlett) between 2Oct42 and 13Dec42. W7937 was one of three No.78 Sqdn Halifaxes lost on this operation. See: DT780; JB845. W7937 was initially issued to No.76 Sqdn

Airborne 19.45h 3Apr43 from Linton-on-Ouse. Abandoned, home bound, due to the failure of the port inner engine. As the crew left the Halifax, two more engines cut. P/O Forster was unable to leave the aircraft; he has no known grave.

Mission

3/4 April 1943

Essen. 348 aircraft - 225 Lancasters, 113 Halifaxes, 10 Mosquitos; this was the first raid in which more than 200 Lancasters had taken part. 12 Halifaxes and 9 Lancasters lost - 6.0 per cent of the force - and 2 further Halifaxes crashed in England. The weather forecast was not entirely favourable for this raid and the Pathfinders prepared a plan both for skymarking and ground-marking the target and the Main Force crews were somewhat confused to find two kinds of marking taking place. The resultant bombing, however, was accurate and a higher proportion of aircraft produced good bombing photographs than on any of the earlier successful raids on Essen. Local reports showed that there was widespread damage in the centre and in the western half of Essen.

16 Wellingtons minelaying off Brittany ports, 9 OTU sorties. 1 minelaying aircraft lost.

source: http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/apr43.html

Halifax over Paris

Crew

P/O T.N.Forster KIA

Sgt W.F.Hodgson PoW

Sgt G.E.Sendall RCAF PoW

P/O J.H.Jamieson RCAF PoW

Sgt E.A.Drury PoW

Sgt N.V.Thornton PoW

Sgt C.Wayte PoW

Sgt E.A.Drury was interned in Camps L3/L6/357, PoW No.1007 with Sgt W.F.Hodgson, PoW No.1016 and Sgt G.E.Sendall, PoW No.1036. Promoted to WO2 during captivity.

P/O J.H.Jamieson in Camp L3, PoW No.980.

Sgt N.V.Thornton in Camps L1/L6/357, PoW No.1041.

Sgt C.Wayte in Camp 357, PoW No.10431. 'Battle of the Ruhr', A.Cooper has Sgt Thornton as Sgt Thomson. "

Halifax 11 took off from Linton-On-Ouse at 19-45 April 3rd 1943 on a mission to ESSEN.

Sadly the pilot aged 21 Thomas Noble Forster of Ballinalee, Co Longford Ireland seem's to have died saving the rest of the crew, the other crew members where Sgt W.F Hodgson (POW) Sgt G.E. Sendall RCAF (POW) Pilot Officer J.H. Jamieson RCAF (POW) Sgt E.A Drury (POW) and Sgt W. Wayte (POW)

Unit

No. 78 Squadron was reformed in November 1936 from B flight of No. 10 Squadron, originally flying Heyford night bombers. By the start of the Second World War, the squadron was flying the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and was acting as a reserve squadron taking on pilots who had passed out from the Group Pool training units.

In the summer of 1940 the group pool training units were merged in the Operational Training Units, and No. 78 was freed to begin operations. The squadron flew its first mission on 19 July 1940.

The squadron remained part of Bomber Command's main bomber force until the end of the war. In March 1942 the Whitley was replaced by the Halifax, and the squadron retained that aircraft until the summer of 1945.

Aircraft

July 1937-October 1939: Armstrong Whitworth Whitley I

June 1939-February 1940: Armstrong Whitworth Whitley IV and IVA

September 1939-March 1942: Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V

March 1942-January 1944: Handley Page Halifax B.Mk II

January 1944-April 1945: Handley Page Halifax B.Mk III

April 1945-July 1945: Handley Page B. Mk VI

Location

1-15 September 1939: Ternhill

15 September-15 October 1939: Dishforth

15 October 1939-15 July 1940: Linton-on-Ouse

15 July 1940-7 April 1941: Dishforth

7 April-20 October 1941: Middleton St. George

20 October 1941-10 June 1942: Croft

10 June 1942- 16 September 1942: Middleton St. George

16 September 1942- 16 June 1943: Linton-on-Ouse

16 June 1943- 20 September 1943: Breighton

Squadron Codes: EY

Group and Duty

On 26 September 1939: Reserve bomber squadron with No. 4 Group

By March 1942 to 7 May 1945: Bomber squadron with No.4 Group

From 7 May 1945: To Transport Command

A Halifax Bomber crew 1941

http://www.world-war-2-planes.com/handley-page-halifax.html

A Ghost in the Tower

(Ex-airgunners association of Canada Issue 23 septermber 1988, from the RAF News, 1988)

The Mystery of a war time flier, whose last wish was to have his ashes scattered on the runway of his old bomber station, has come back to haunt Linton-on-Ouse. Air Traffic controllers working alone at night claim to have seen a gostly figure in flying kit in the tower.

They belive it0s the ghost of a war time warrant officer whose Halifax bomber was shot down over germany in 1943 during a bombing raid , and to whose memory is dedicated a silver plaque in the air traffic control tower.

The plaque gives the flier´s name as W.F. Hodgson who was born on Feb. 19th., 1921. It says he was POW at Stalag Luft 3 and 4 and that after his death, almost 30 years ago, his ashes were scattered on runway 22 - the main runway. Now it is feared his ghost can´t rest and has returned to his old station. Twenty-one-year-old assistant ait traffic controller Brenda Jenkinson, who claims to have seen the ghost said:

"We were night flying. It was just before ten o´clock. I came out of the switchboard room to go down to the office. As I came out of the door; i just froze because I saw this shadow. It was the figure of a man, about six feet tall. It moved slowly towards the approach room and then dissappeared. I was in Hysterics. One of the officers came out and asked what all the noise was about, and I said I´d seen a ghost. We checked to make sure no-one had come into air traffic and no-one had. One of the pilots came down and I told him what had happened and he believed me.

A couple of months went by and we were night flying again. I was coming down from the glass tower, an officer was behind me. I quickly glanced into the tea room and this shadow was by the door. I said to the officer, 2Did you see that? and he said yes".

Inquiries by officers at Lindon-on-Ouse to find more about mr. Hodgson have so far drawn a blank. Only their wartime records show that on April 3rd. 1943 twelve Halifax bombers from 78 squadron left Lindon for a bombing raid on Essen. Three aircraft never returned. It´s believed mr. Hodgson was the flight engineer on one of those aircraft.