Date:	Monday 20 May 1940
Time:	03:20
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk 1c
Owner/operator:	99 Sqn RAF
Registration:	R3200
MSN:	LN-O
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 6
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	North Sea, 30 miles off Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Newmarket, Suffolk
Destination airport:	RAF Newmarket, Suffolk

Narrative:
Vickers Wellington R3200 (LN-O): Written off (destroyed) when lost (Failed To Return) from combat operations over Germany. All six crew survived. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/971): "Wellington R3200 force landed in the North Sea, 20 June 1940. Flight Lieutenant P C Pickard and Sergeant J A Broadley: injured"

Airborne at 22:12 hours on 19 June 1940 from RAF Newmarket, Suffolk. Target: Hamburg, with Mannheim as secondary target. One of thirty-seven Wellingtons dispatched to attack these targets, and R3200 was the only one not to return.
Hit by Flak in the starboard engine and with the port engine failing the Wellington was ditched at 03:20 on 20 June 1940, 30 miles off Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. The crew were eventually rescued by RAF High Speed Launch 112 from Felixstowe, Suffolk, after spending 13 hours in their dinghy, which at one stage drifted into a coastal minefield.

Crew of Wellington R3200:
Flight Lieutenant P C Pickard (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Thomas (Pilot)
Sgt Alan Broadley (Observer)
Sgt Hannigan
Sgt Harniman (WOp)
Sgt Mills (Air Gunner)

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft R1000-R9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1980 p 18)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/971: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502422
3. W.R. Chorley, Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 1, 1939/40, Midland Counties Publications, ISBN 0 904597 85 7
4. Squadron Leader A.G. Edgerley, 'Each Tenacious. A History of No. 99 Squadron', Square One Publications, 1993.
5. Wimpy: A Detailed History of the Vickers Wellington in service, 1938-1953 p 43 By Steve Bond
6. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/99_squadron.html#192006 .

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
01-Oct-2019 22:37	Dr. John Smith	Added
01-Oct-2019 22:37	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
01-Oct-2019 22:39	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
02-Oct-2019 09:16	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]
23-May-2023 17:51	Nepa	Updated [[Operator]]