Date:	Friday 28 November 1941
Time:
Type:	Westland Lysander Mk IIIa
Owner/operator:	138 (Special Duties) Sqn RAF
Registration:	T1771
MSN:	NF-A
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Hungry Hill, Farnham, Surrey, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Tempford, Bedfordshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
According to the 138 Squadron RAF ORB (Air Ministry Form 540):

"F/Lt A. Laurent is a Free French Air Force pilot who has recently joined the squadron as a Lysander pilot, to be trained in pick-up operations. He crashes Lysander T1771, hitting trees on a hill north of Farnham, in poor daylight visibility. His passenger is LAC ‘Ox’ Harkness, a Lysander fitter. Both are killed. Their Flight Commander, Sqn Ldr John Nesbitt-Dufort, mourns the loss of Harkness: Laurent can be replaced, but ‘Ox’ Harkness was one of his best riggers, and has been with 419 Flight since its inception.

T1771 was ‘the long-range prototype Lysander III developed for Special Duties work by the A&AEE at Boscombe Down’. This is not inconsistent with Farley’s long-range Lysander R9027 used (and crashed in Scotland) on an operation in October 1941. R9027 and T1508 were equipped with the Mercury XVA engine; T1770 and T1771 were fitted with the Mercury XX."
Crew:
LAC (617355) John Arthur Martin HARKNESS (Airframe Rigger/Mech.) RAF - killed;
F/Lt Antoine Jean Emile LAURENT (Pilot) FFAF - killed

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft T1000-T9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain 1981 p 12)
2. Black Lysander, p.112
3. We Landed by Moonlight, p. 37
4. Agents by Moonlight, p.29
5. 138 Sqn ORB, National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/956
6. Air Ministry Forms 78 (Aircraft Record Cards), RAF Museum, Hendon.
7. http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Bedfordshire/TempsfordAircrewLost1941.html
8. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2696914/harkness,-john-arthur-martin/
9. https://www.aerosteles.net/stelefr-yenne-laurent
10. Photo of T1771 in June 1941: https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/uk/raf/lysander/lysander-long-range-prototype-t1771-june-1941/
11. Biography of pilot (French text): http://ecole.nav.traditions.free.fr/officiers_laurent_antoine.htm

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
14-Feb-2011 14:50	ThW	Added
14-Oct-2011 20:54	angels one five	Updated [Narrative]
14-Oct-2011 20:55	angels one five	Updated [Narrative]
23-Jan-2012 05:43	Nepa	Updated [Operator]
24-Oct-2013 23:26	angels one five	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
28-Oct-2018 17:30	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]
30-May-2019 18:24	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Cn, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]