Date:	Sunday 22 February 1942
Time:	02:18 LT
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk Ic
Owner/operator:	150 Sqn RAF
Registration:	X9830
MSN:	JN-H
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6
Aircraft damage:	Aircraft missing
Location:	North Sea 30 km W of Katwijk aan Zee, Zuid-Holland -   Netherlands
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Snaith
Destination airport:

Narrative:
During the night of 21-22 February 1942, RAF Bomber Command sent 63 bombers on a large numbers of missions. Losses were heavy with 4 bombers not returning and two more crashing on return. Crew losses were 29 killed and 2 wounded.

22 Wellingtons and 20 Hampdens were sent on ‘Roving commisions’ to many areas of Germany. Around ten sorties were flown by II./NJG 2, III./NJG 2 and III./NJG 3 against these raiders and a Wellington was shot down. Two Hampdens went missing without trace, and another Hampden and another Wellington crashed on return.

6 Halifaxes, 5 Manchesters and 4 Stirlings attacked 4 Norwegian airfields to provide a diversion for a proposed Fleet Air Arm strike from the aircraft carrier Victorious on the Prinz Eugen, which had taken shelter in a Norwegian fjord near Trondheim after being torpedoed and damaged by the submarine Trident. The Fleet Air Arm strike was not successful because of poor weather conditions, and one Manchester did not return from the diversion.

6 more Manchesters laid mines off Wilhelmshaven without loss.
____________________________________________________________

150 Sqn RAF received orders to send ten Wellingtons to attack any military objective in an area bounded by Frankfurt, Karksruhe, Darmstadt, Giessen and Mannheim. They took off from Snaith airfield between 1905 and 2030 hrs from Snaith. After leaving the English coast, the crews ran into 7/10 cloud cover that increased as they approached the target area. Two aircraft were allotted to each target but no results were seen of the bombing, owing to the density of cloud. Most aircraft met with formidable opposition from the ground defences, particularly in the searchlight belts protecting the Ruhr. One aircraft did not return.

The missing aircraft was the Wellington Ic X9830 JN-H that had taken off at 2005. During its homeward-bound flight, it was shot down at 0218 hrs on the 22nd (German time) by Lt Hans-Hermann Müller of 7./NJG 2 who claimed a Wellington shot down in the sea 30 km west of Kwatwijk aan Zee for his first victory. Müller survived the war with a total score of 16 victoires.

The whole crew of the Wellington was lost and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Crew:-
Pilot : Pilot Officer John Bryan Green RAF 45424 [Killed]
2nd Pilot : Sergeant George Charlton Jobling RAFVR 1054474 [Killed]
Observer : Flying Officer James Geen Courtney RAAF Aus/404092 [Killed]
Wireless Operator : Sergeant Edward Lloyd Fiske RAFVR 927796 [Killed]
Air Gunner : Sergeant Thomas George Evans RAFVR 947420 [Killed]
Air Gunner : Sergeant Harold Gregory McKean RAAF Aus/400353 [Killed]

While returning from this mission, another aircraft of 150 Sqn, the Wellington Ic R1463, crashed at 0330 hrs into a field at Asterby Top Farm, Goulceby, 7 miles SW of Louth, Lincolnshire, and four of the six crew were killed. The pilot had been cleared to descend to 900 feet through thick cloud and may have descended further in an attempt to see the ground or may have forgotten to adjust his altimeter pressure setting on return from operations, causing it to read higher than the correct altitude.

Crew of R1463:
Plt Off J B W Birkes (pilot) WIFA
Flt Sgt Donald Wormleighton (2nd pilot) KIFA
Sgt John Eric Blackburn (observer) KIFA
Sgt Eric Frank Rawlings (wireless operator) KIFA
Flt Sgt John Easton McAllister (front gunner) KIFA
Flt Sgt D O’Donovan Iland (rear gunner) WIFA

Aware that operations over Germany were dangerous, Eric Rawlings had wrotten a last letter just in case he didn’t return, and gave it to his brother. It can be read in the book “Last Letters to Loved Ones”, by Rose Rouse

The remaining eight bombers landed back at base between 0150 and 0340 hrs.

"The Bomber Command War Diaries", by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, ISBN 1-85780-033-8
"Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, vol 3: Aircraft and Crew Losses 1942", by W R Chorley. ISBN 0-904597-89-X
"Nachtjagd Combat Archive. The early years, part 2. 13 July 1941-29 May 1942", by Theo Boiten. ISBN 978-1-906592-55-4
ORB of 150 Sqn (AIR 27/1010)
“Last Letters to Loved Ones”, by Rose Rouse. ISBN 978-185782-651-7
http://aircrewremembered.com/green-john.html
http://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/details.php?uniq=R1463
http://www.bcar.org.uk/new1942-incident-logs
http://www.ww2.dk/Lw%20Offz%20-%20L-R%20Apr%202020.pdf
http://www.maplandia.com/netherlands/zuid-holland/katwijk-aan-zee/
Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
07-Nov-2017 16:13	Red Dragon	Added
30-Oct-2018 08:29	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Operator]
05-Nov-2019 19:06	TigerTimon	Updated [Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Source, Narrative]
05-Nov-2019 19:06	TigerTimon	Updated [Time]
24-Feb-2021 08:36	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Source, Narrative]
18-Jun-2022 03:58	Ron Averes	Updated [Location]
21-Feb-2024 07:41	Rob Davis	Updated [Source, Narrative]