Date:	Sunday 7 July 1940
Time:	night
Type:	Bristol Blenheim Mk IV
Owner/operator:	82 (United Provinces) Sqn RAF
Registration:	P4843
MSN:	UX-Z
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia -   Germany
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Watton, Norfolk
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Bristol Blenheim P4843 (UX-Z) 82 (United Provinces) Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (Failed To Return) from combat operations over Germany. All three crew killed. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/1035): "Blenheim P4843 crashed at Dusseldorf, Germany, 7 July 1940. Sergeant F Hutton, Sergeant J A Rogers and Sergeant C W Pickering: report of deaths"

On 7th July 1940 John (Jack) Aidan Rogers in Blenheim P4843 left the squadron's base at RAF Watton in Norfolk together with 11 other 82 Squadron aircraft, the mission to attack targets in Germany. The pilot was Sergeant Frank Hutton, from Preston, and the observer was Charles Pickering, from Hull.

John Aiden as wireless operator made up the 3 man crew. P4843 was the only aircraft not to return, either shot down or crash landed in Germany, in the Dusseldorf area. 20 year old John Aiden together with the pilot & observer were all killed and are buried and remembered with honour at the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery. The crew of Blenheim P4843 are buried side by side in adjacent graves.

Crew of Blenheim P4843:
Sergeant Frank Hutton (Pilot) RAF 519997, aged 24 - killed in action 07/07/1940
Sergeant John Aiden Rogers (Wireless Op./Air Gunner) RAF 900084, aged 20 - killed in action 07/07/1940
Sergeant Charles William Pickering (Observer) RAF 742976, aged 22 - killed in action 07/07/1940

1. Royal Air Force aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/1035: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502901
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. http://www.staidansbristol.co.uk/world-war-2-roll-of-honour/
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2055732/hutton,-frank/
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2041554/rogers,-john-aidan/
7. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2041110/pickering,-charles-william/
8. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/warmemorials/preston-cemetery-1939-2007-t3608.html
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCsseldorf

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

12 October 1941	L4880	82 (United Provinces) Sqn RAF	3	North Sea off Zandvoort, Noord-Holland		w/o
16 February 1942	V6454	82 (United Provinces) Sqn RAF	3	north of Swaffham Norfolk, England		w/o

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
08-Oct-2019 20:43	Dr. John Smith	Added
10-Oct-2019 16:36	juza7	Updated [Operator]