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Date: | Tuesday 11 June 1940 |
Time: | night |
Type: | Vickers Wellington Mk Ic |
Owner/operator: | 149 (East India) Sqn RAF |
Registration: | L7800 |
MSN: | OJ-K |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | North Sea, off West Flanders. -
Belgium
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk |
Destination airport: | RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk |
Narrative:Vickers Wellington Mk.1c L7800 (OJ-K) 149 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (Failed To Return) from combat operations on the night of 10-11 June 1940. All six crew missing, presumed killed. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/842): "Wellington L7800 failed to return from air operations, 11 June 1940. Sergeant G B Fleming, Sergeant M Murphy, Sergeant R Donaldson, Pilot Officer J R Swift, Pilot Officer M B Dawson and Flying Officer J S Douglas-Cooper: missing presumed dead"
Airborne from Mildenhall on the evening of June 10 1940. Target: Soissons. Last heard of calling for a fix which was plotted off the Belgian coast. Presumed crashed into the North Sea, off the Belgian coast, with the loss of all six crew.
Crew:
Flying Officer John Stainforth Douglas-Cooper, RAF 37964, age 31, posted 11/06/1940, as missing, presumed killed
Pilot Officer Michael Benedict Dawson, RAF 42205, posted 11/06/1940, as missing, presumed killed
Sergeant Geoffrey Bernard Fleming, RAF 581173, age 24, posted 11/06/1940, as missing, presumed killed
Sergeant Robert Donaldson, RAF 542626, posted 11/06/1940, as missing, presumed killed.
Sergeant Michael Murphy, RAF 624178, age 23, posted 11/06/1940, as missing, presumed killed
Pilot Officer John Rupert Swift, RAFVR 77213, posted 11/06/1940, as missing, presumed killed (NCO:746884 Commission Gazetted : Friday 16 February, 1940)
As all six crew were never found, they are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-L9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/842:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502648 3.
https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-vickers-416-wellington-ic-north-sea-6-killed 4.
http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/149_squadron.html#101106 5.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/232400/douglas-cooper,-john-stainforth/ 6.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/232007/dawson,-michael-benedict/ 7.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1270119/fleming,-geoffrey-bernard/ 8.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/232351/donaldson,-robert/ 9.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1077428/murphy,-michael/ 10.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1808308/swift,-john-rupert/ 11. Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database
Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
27-Jun-2008 04:26 |
JINX |
Added |
09-Jan-2012 07:32 |
Nepa |
Updated [Operator, Location, Country, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
09-Mar-2013 18:38 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
13-Jun-2013 11:58 |
Nepa |
Updated [Operator, Narrative] |
21-Aug-2013 09:14 |
JINX |
Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source] |
27-Apr-2015 18:55 |
ABBA |
Updated [Aircraft type, Operator] |
20-Sep-2019 16:55 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Cn, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
15-Nov-2022 05:49 |
Ron Averes |
Updated [Location] |
10-Jun-2023 09:11 |
Rob Davis |
Updated [[Location]] |