Date:	Tuesday 9 July 1940
Time:	day
Type:	Bristol Blenheim Mk IV
Owner/operator:	40 Sqn RAF
Registration:	L8836
MSN:	BL-G
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	English Channel near Wissant, NW of Dunkirk, Pas de Calais -   France
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Wyton, Huntingdonshire
Destination airport:	RAF Wyton, Huntingdonshire

Narrative:
Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV L8836 (BL-G) 40 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (Failed To Return) from a recce operation over France. All three crew killed. According to the official Air Ministry file into trhe incident (File AIR 81/1052): "Blenheim L8836 failed to return from air operations over France, 9 July 1940. Sergeant P E Johnson and Sergeant A Spencer: missing presumed dead. Squadron Leader R H Batt: report of death"

Took off from RAF Wyton, Huntingdonshire for recce to Lisieux, lost in Channel, after being shot down on the return leg by a Bf 109 of 6/JG51. No survivors among the crew of three.

Crew of Blenheim L8836
Sergeant Percival Eric Johnson, RAF 550384, aged 20 - posted 09/07/1940 as missing, presumed killed in action
Sergeant Alan Spencer DFM (Observer) RAF 580466 - posted 09/07/1940 as missing, presumed killed in action
Squadron Leader Robert Hector Batt DFC (Pilot and Commanding Officer of 40 Squadron at the time) RAF 39055 - body recovered and buried at sea (see below)

Squadron Leader Batt's body was recovered by HMS Brilliant in mid-Channel, identified & buried at sea with the appropriate military honours; all three crew commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial as the other two crew were never found

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-L9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/1052: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502918
3. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1802155/johnson,-percival-eric/
4. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1807740/spencer,-alan/
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1083551/batt,-robert-hector/
6. https://www.avions-bateaux.com/uploads/attachment/produit//produit_3117_bb15cbf0fc7ec7548b56256d40a169a6.pdf (French text)
7. Graham Warner, Bristol Blenheim: A Complete History. 2nd Edition. (Manchester, U.K.: Crecy Publishing, 2005)
8. W.R. Chorley, Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 1, 1939/40, Midland Counties Publications, ISBN 0 904597 85 7

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
10-Oct-2019 16:31	Dr. John Smith	Added
10-Oct-2019 16:33	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
11-Oct-2019 21:38	juza7	Updated [Operator]