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Date: | Monday 8 July 1940 |
Time: | 23:00 LT |
Type: | Handley Page Hampden Mk I |
Owner/operator: | 61 Sqn RAF |
Registration: | P4390 |
MSN: | QR-C |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 4 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | Bad Bentheim, GB, Niedersachsen -
Germany
|
Phase: | Combat |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | RAF Hemswell, Lincolnshire |
Destination airport: | RAF Hemswell, Lincolnshire |
Narrative:Handley Page Hampden Mk.I P4390 (QR-C), 61 Squadron RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (Failed To Return) from combat operations over Germany. Of the four crew, one was killed, and the other three survived to be captured and taken as PoWs. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/1040): "Hampden P4390 crashed at Bentheim, Germany, 8 July 1940. Pilot Officer J Eadie: report of death. Sergeant E V Gawith, Sergeant K B Wood and Flight Lieutenant E C S Fewtrell: prisoners of war"
Airborne from RAF Hemswell, Lincolnshire on the evening of July 7 1940. Target: Dortmund. Shot down by Flak/AAA and crash landed at Bentheim, Germany. As stated above one of the four crew was killed, and three survived to be captured and taken as PoWs
Crew of Hampden P4390:
Pilot Officer John Eadie (Pilot) RAF 33473, aged 20 - killed in action 08/07/1940, buried at Reicheswald Forest War Cemetery, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Sergeant E V Gawith (Wireless Op./Air Gunner) - survived, captured, taken as a PoW
Sergeant K B Wood (Observer) - survived, captured, taken as a PoW
Flight Lieutenant E C S Fewtrell (Navigator/2nd Pilot) - survived, captured, taken as a PoW
The reported crash location of Bad Bentheim is a "spa" town in Lower Saxony, Germany in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim on the borders of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Netherlands roughly 15 km south of Nordhorn and 20 km northeast of Enschede, at approximate Coordinates: 52°18′11″N 07°09′35″E
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircrft P1000-P9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/1040:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502906 3.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2031102/eadie,-john/ 4.
https://www.backtonormandy.org/component/mtree/air-force-operations/airplanes-allies-and-axis-lost/hampden/24974-P43901940-07-08.html 5.
http://aircrewremembered.com/AlliedLossesIncidents/alliedlossesincidents-alpha-list-e-k.html 6.
http://www.no-50-and-no-61-squadrons-association.co.uk/history-of-n0-61-squadron/ 7.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Bentheim
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
20 June 1940 |
P4355 |
61 Sqn RAF |
4 |
Rheine, Nordrhein-Westfalen |
|
w/o |
Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
07-Jul-2018 22:54 |
Dr. John Smith |
Added |
12-Nov-2018 19:14 |
Nepa |
Updated [Operator, Location, Operator] |
09-Oct-2019 16:25 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Date, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
10-Oct-2019 16:36 |
juza7 |
Updated [Operator] |
22-Jun-2022 07:39 |
Ron Averes |
Updated [Location] |
25-Jun-2022 04:06 |
Ron Averes |
Updated [Location] |