Date:	Thursday 4 July 1940
Time:	night
Type:	Handley Page Hampden Mk I
Owner/operator:	144 Sqn RAF
Registration:	P4361
MSN:	PL-Q
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Russee, SW of Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein -   Germany
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Hemswell, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:	RAF Hemswell, Lincolnshire

Narrative:
Handley Page Hampden Mk.I P4361 (PL-Q) 144 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (Failed to Return) from combat operations over Germany. All four crew killed. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/1015): "Hampden P4361 crashed at Russee, Germany, 4 July 1940. Sergeant A I J Nicol, Sergeant P F Bailey, Pilot Officer J H Gilling and Flying Officer E B Lancaster: report of deaths"

Airborne from RAF Hemswell, Lincolnshire to bomb targets in the area of Kiel Dockyard. Believed shot down by flak/AAA ground fire, and crashed at Russee, a South Western suburb of Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. No survivors among the crew of four

Crew of Hampden P4361:
Sergeant Andrew Isaac John Nicol (Wireless Op./Air Gunner) RAF 543932, aged 21 - killed in action 04/07/1940
Sergeant Percy Fallows Bailey (Wireless Op./Air Gunner) RAF 552072, aged 19 - killed in action 04/07/1940
Pilot Officer Jack Humphrey Gilling (Pilot) RAF 41842, aged 20 - killed in action 04/07/1940
Flying Officer E B Lancaster (Pilot) RAF 40121, aged 26 - killed in action 04/07/1940

All four crew fatalities were buried at Kiel War Cemetery, Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J . Halley, Air Britain, 1978 p 24)
2. National Airchvies (PRO Kew) File Air 81/1016: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502855
3. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2356683/nicol,-andrew-isaac-john/
4. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2356134/bailey,-percy-fallows/
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2356399/gilling,-jack-humphrey/
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2356564/lancaster,-eric-bell/
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiel
8. 144 Squadron RAF ORB (Operations Record Book) July 1940: PRO Kew File AIR 27/980/15: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8388880

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

16 May 1941

AD841

144 Sqn RAF

2

Monnickenmeer, Monnickendam, Noord-Holland

w/o

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Oct-2019 20:19	Dr. John Smith	Added
08-Oct-2019 11:07	juza7	Updated [Operator]