Date:	Saturday 10 January 1942
Time:	22:15 LT
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk IC
Owner/operator:	304 (Land of Silesia) Sqn RAF
Registration:	DV423
MSN:	NZ-
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Dollard between Termunten (Groningen) and Emden (Niedersachsen) -
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Lindholme
Destination airport:

Narrative:
During the night of 10/11 January 1942 the main operation by RAF Bomber Command was a raid against Wilhelmshaven by 124 aircraft. Good bombing was claimed by the British crews but Wilhelmshaven recorded this only as a small raid with light damage and 6 people injured. 3 Wellingtons and 2 Hampdens did not return from the raid (20 KIA, 6 POW) while another Wellington crashed on return (4 KIA, 2 WIA).

Other operations that night were raids on Emden by 29 aircraft and Boulogne by 2 Wellingtons, 5 Hampdens mine laying off Wilhelmshaven, 6 Blenheim Intruders to Holland, and 1 Hampden on a leaflet flight to France. 1 Blenheim Intruder was shot down (3 KIA) and one Hampden crashed on the return of the mine laying operation (2 KIA, 2 WIA).
_________________________

During the Wilhelmshaven raid two Wellingtons of 304 (Polish) Sqn RAF were lost with their whole crews. One of them was the Wellington IC DV423 that took off at 17:41 from Lindholme.
At 5000 metres the aircraft was subjected to a heavy Flak barrage from two Langeoog-based Marine Flak batteries, then intercepted and shot down by night fighter pilot Oberleutnant Rudolf Schoenert of the 5./NJG 2, who was flying Bf 110 R4+CN from Wittmund airfield, Niedersachsen.

Crew:
Plt Off Jan Zajac (pilot)
Sgt Stanislaw Garstka (pilot)
Plt Off Jozef Maczynski PAF (navigator)
Sgt Rajmund Antoni Pokrzywa PAF (wireless operator/air gunner)
Sgt Jacek Strzyzewski PAF (wireless operator/air gunner)
Fg Off Tadeus Jozef Klewicz PAF (air gunner)

They had previously all survived the crash of the Wellington X3164 which ditched in the sea off Great Yarmouth on 30 November 1941. Strzyzewski is buried at Uithuizermeeden, the Netherlands, and Klewicz at Oldenburg, Germany. The other are commemorated on the Northolt Memorial.

http://www.polishwargraves.nl/ned/dv.423.htm
http://304squadron.blogspot.fr/2010/02/more-aircraft-losses.html
http://polishsquadronsremembered.com/304/304losses.htm
"Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 3: Aircraft and Crew Losses 1942", by W R Chorley. ISBN 0-904597-89-X
"The Bomber Command War Diaries", by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, ISBN 1-85780-033-8
“Lufwaffe Night Fighter Combat Claims 1939-1945”, by John Foreman, Johannes Matthews and Simon Parry. ISBN 0-9538061-4-6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollart
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=53.290000&lon=7.160000&z=10&m=w
Nachtjagd Combat Archive The Early Years part two
https://verliesregister.studiegroepluchtoorlog.nl/rs.php?aircraft=&sglo=T1375&date=&location=&pn=&unit=&name=&cemetry=&airforce=&target=&area=&airfield=

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

9 May 1941	R1473	304 (Land of Silesia) Sqn RAF	5	Brümsel, Messingen, Niedersachsen		w/o
13 April 1942	X9687	304 (Ziemia Slaska) Sqn RAF	1	Gleuel, Hürth, Nordrhein-Westfalen		w/o

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-Dec-2008 11:45	ASN archive	Added
10-Jan-2017 09:45	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Source, Narrative]
12-Nov-2017 18:32	Red Dragon	Updated [Cn, Operator, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
28-Dec-2017 14:58	TigerTimon	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Cn, Operator, Location, Phase, Source, Narrative]
01-Jan-2018 12:12	XindelX	Updated [Operator, Location, Destination airport]
31-Oct-2019 20:00	TigerTimon	Updated [Time, Cn, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Source, Narrative]
31-Oct-2019 20:01	TigerTimon	Updated [Embed code]