Date:	Friday 12 May 1944
Time:	01:25
Type:	de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito B Mk XX
Owner/operator:	139 (Jamaica) Sqn RAF
Registration:	KB161
MSN:	XD-H
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Chittering, near RAF stn Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Upwood, Huntingdonshire
Destination airport:	RAF Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire

Narrative:
Mosquito KB161/H: Took off at 22:05 hrs for a Bombing operation to Ludwigshafen. 11/05/1944
In the aircraft on return flared flare that had failed to release ignited Mosquito. Abandoned.
Crashed in Chittering near RAF Waterbeach at 01:25 hrs. 12/05/1944
Crew:
F/O (147958) Geoffrey William LEWIS (pilot) RAFVR: killed (NCO:1180227 Commission Gazetted : Tuesday 10 August, 1943)
F/O (141157) Alan John Alexander WOOLLARD DFM (nav.) RAFVR: Ok /bailed out (NCO:927269 Commission Gazetted : Tuesday 06 April, 1943)

ORB 139 Sqdn RAF:
On Thursday 11 May 1944, Mosquito KB161 took off from RAF Upwood at 22:05 hrs with a load of TI flares for an attack on the I.G.Farben Chemical works in Ludwigshafen, one of 12 in 139 Sqn Mosquitoes raiding this and Mannheim. Poor visibility hampered the attack, but Lewis and Woolland found their objective and released their pattern of flares. As the Mosquito returned to base, unbeknownst to the crew a marker
flare had hung-up on a bomb bay door, and when the aircraft descended thru 2000 feet the barometric fuse detonated it. The cockpit immediately,filled with dense white smoke,which partly cleared when F/O Lewis opened his cockpit window. Realizing there was a major fire in the bomb bay the crew decided to bale out.
F/O Woolland released the floor hatch,clipped on his parachute and attempted to leave, but the slipstream from a 300 mph dive pinned him against the back of the hatch,and it was only through F/O Lewis
pushing him out with a boot on his head that he was able to survive.
The Mosquito dived into the ground in flames at Field View Farm, Chittering, Cambridgeshire at 01:25 hrs and was totally destroyed,

1.http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH98%20prodn%20list.txtt
2.http://www.rafupwood.co.uk/139lossesin1944.htm
3.ORB 139 Sqdn RAF
4.CWGC
5.Global Losses Database (Henk Welting) Database
6.Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

21 April 1943	DZ386	139 (Jamaica) Sqn RAF	2	IJsselmeer east of Wieringermeer, Noord-Holland		w/o
8 July 1944	MM146	139 (Jamaica) Sqn RAF	0	airfield F12 Kalmar, Småland		sub

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Mar-2012 09:04	Nepa	Added
06-Mar-2012 09:22	Nepa	Updated [Narrative]
07-Jan-2013 10:15	Nepa	Updated [Departure airport, Narrative]
24-Jan-2013 13:14	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Location, Destination airport]
22-Jul-2014 09:38	Rata	Updated [Aircraft type, Location, Destination airport, Narrative]
13-Aug-2015 20:05	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Cn, Location, Narrative]
17-Apr-2019 18:48	Nepa	Updated [Other fatalities, Location, Narrative, Operator]
20-May-2021 19:31	TigerTimon	Updated [Date, Other fatalities]
05-Oct-2021 09:09	Nepa	Updated [Other fatalities, Location, Source, Narrative, Operator]
07-Dec-2021 17:32	Nepa	Updated [Narrative, Operator]
29-Jul-2022 19:48	Rob Davis	Updated [Source, Narrative]
01-Aug-2022 22:26	Nepa	Updated [Source, Narrative, Operator]
05-Aug-2022 07:35	Rob Davis	Updated [Source, Narrative]