Date:	Tuesday 27 February 1940
Time:
Type:	Bristol Blenheim Mk IV
Owner/operator:	82 (United Provinces) Sqn RAF
Registration:	P4842
MSN:	UX-B
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Elbe Estuary, off Scharhörn -   Germany
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Watton, Norfolk
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV P4842 (UX-B) of 82 Squadron, RAF: Took off from RAF Watton at 12:30 hrs for Reconnaissance of Elbe Estuary. Presumed lost at sea on or near the target area; the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/95) states that the crew were "missing presumed dead; Blenheim P4842 failed to return from air operations, 27 February 1940". No official cause for the loss was ever established, but the squadron history implies that the Blenheim was tasked to attack enemy shipping, and was brought down by AA fire from the ships it was attacking.
Claim by Oblt Gerhard Jahny 6/JGr186 - WNW of Helgoland at 14.36 (OKL+JFV d.Dt.Lw. II - 1)
Fg Off Blake was initially buried in Wilhelmshaven German Military Cemetery Row D Grave 263.
Reinterred 9 July 1947.
Crew
Pilot: 39196 Fg Off John Christopher Howell Blake -Sage War Cemetery Plot 4 Row E Grave 8.
Observer: 564455 Sgt Thomas Sinclair Weightman - Runnymede Memorial Panel 20.
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: 611040 AC1 Samuel Newton Middleton - Runnymede Memorial Panel 25.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain p 26)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/95: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14141917
3. The Squadron That Died Twice - The story of No. 82 Squadron RAF By Gordon Thorburn
4. http://www.oldhaltonians.co.uk/pages/rememb/ROH/W.htm
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1076801/middleton,-samuel-newton/
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1531193/weightman,-thomas-sinclair/
7. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2073565/blake,-john-christopher-howell/
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbe#Outer_Elbe_(estuary)

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

17 May 1940

P4904

82 (United Provinces) Sqn RAF

2

near Lappion (Aisne), 25 km ENE Laon, Hauts-de-France

w/o

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Jun-2019 15:17	Dr. John Smith	Added
08-Jun-2019 10:32	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]
04-Nov-2019 10:52	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]
18-May-2022 17:14	Anon.	Updated [Narrative]