Date:	Thursday 4 July 1940
Time:	night
Type:	Handley Page Hampden Mk I
Owner/operator:	44 Sqn RAF
Registration:	P4352
MSN:	KM-C
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	North Sea off coast of Denmark -   Denmark
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:	RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire

Narrative:
Handley Page Hampden Mk.I P4352 (KM-C) 44 Squadron, RAF: Written off (presumed destroyed) when lost (Failed To Return) from combat operations over Denmark. All four crew killed. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/1008): "Hampden P4352 lost in air operations over the Danish Coast, 4 July 1940. Sergeant A Baird, Sergeant E T Apperson and Pilot Officer D A Todd: missing presumed dead. Acting Flight Lieutenant W S Bull: report of death"

Airborne from RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire for a "gardening" (mine laying) operation in the area of the Frisian Islands on the night of 3-4 July 1940. Aircraft missing, failed to return for unknown reasons, all four crew likewise posted as "missing presumed killed"

Crew of Hampden P4352
Sergeant Arthur Baird, RAF 639105 (Observer) - posted 04/07/1940 as missing, presumed killed in action
Sergeant Eric Thomas Apperson (W/T Operator), RAF 580923, aged 22 - posted 04/07/1940 as missing, presumed killed in action
Pilot Officer Desmond Arthur Todd (Pilot), RAF 42162, aged 21 - posted 04/07/1940 as missing, presumed killed in action
Acting Flight Lieutenant William Sharman Bull (Air Gunner) RAF 75682 - posted 04/07/1940 as missing, presumed killed in action

As no trace of Hampden P4352 or its crew of four was ever found, they are all Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978 p 24)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/1008: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502847
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. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1083191/baird,-arthur/
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1082874/apperson,-eric-thomas/
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1808876/todd,-desmond-arthur/
7. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2271398/bull,-william-sharman/

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

20 July 1940	L4087	44 Sqn RAF	2	North Sea, Tannis Bay, 400 m off Kandestederne, west of Skagen		w/o
3 September 1941	AE313	44 Sqn RAF	2	near Sankt Wendel-Alsfassen, Saarland		w/o

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
04-Oct-2019 22:07	Dr. John Smith	Added
08-Oct-2019 11:07	juza7	Updated [Operator]