6 April 1941
Bristol Beaufort Mk I (N1147 - code OA-V)
At sea
(contributor : Daniel Dahiot)
Bristol Beaufort Mk Is, no. 22 Squadron RAF.
Photo : Imperial War Museum © IWM CH 644 - Photographer : Daventry, Bertrand John Henry (Flight Lieutenant)
Crew (No 22 Squadron RAF)
- Flying Officer (pilot) Robert Leslie HICKS, 20 years old, Royal Air Force (service number 33542)
Son of Evelyn Drake Hicks
Pornic Military Cemetery. 2. AA. 18
- Sergeant (observer) Robert Edward CREE, 23 years old, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (service number 746709)
Son of Stanley Robert and Ruth Cree, from Saint-Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex (England).
Runnymede Memorial, panel 41
- Flight Sergeant (wireless operator - gunner) John Alfred FAILL, 19 years old, Royal Air Force (service number 635564)
Son of James W. and Jane Faill from Tweedmouth, Northumberland (England).
Runnymede Memorial, panel 36.
- Flight Sergeant (Air gunner) Wilfred Crichton Philp MITCHELL, 21 years old, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (service number 900804).
Son of Thomas Alan and Mary Mitchell from Southampton (England).
Runnymede Memorial, panel 37.
THE STORY
The aircraft took off from RAF Saint-Eval (Cornwall, England) on April 6, 1941 at 11:30 a.m. for a German ship attack mission in the Gironde estuary. He was reportedly shot down by Oberleutnant Hans-Jürgen HEPE of 4./JG 2 with Me 109, or by Flak, or by a combination both, at 1:40 p.m. The aircraft was last seen off the island of Batz during the attack on a cargo ship, but the fact that only the body of the pilot was washed ashore (and buried in Pornic) suggests that the aircraft would have tried to escape enemy fighters further south.
The Coastal Command RAF base in Saint-Eval in 1942.
Photo : Imperial War Museum © IWM HU 92963 - Photographer : No 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
APPENDICES
♦ Operational Record Book of No 22 Squadron 22 for the month of April, 1941 (AIR 27/278-33) : this report indicates that the aircraft coded OA-V, equipped with torpedoes, failed to return from its mission on April 6 and that the crew was missing.
(source documents : The National Archives)
♦ Operational Record Book of No 22 Squadron for the month of April, 1941 (AIR 27/278-32) : this report indicates that two crews are missing, including that of F/O HICKS.
(source documents : The National Archives)
♦ Operational Record Book of No 22 Squadron for the month of April, 1941 (AIR 27/280) :
(source documents : The National Archives)
This document specifies that 3 crews are missing, including that of F/O HICKS.
- on the 1st page, the document indicates May 16, 1941 which seems to be the date on which the document was written and not the date of the attack which took place on April 6, 1941.
- on the 2nd page, the operation is described with more details. We learn that a detachment of 9 to 13 crews from No. 22 Sqn was assigned to the Saint-Eval base from March 29 to May 8, 1941. The goal of this assignment was to specifically attack with torpedoes the cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst in Brest harbor. The cruisers had been damaged by the numerous bombardments, and it was initially decided to send aircrafts to drop mines in the exit from Brest harbor. Then, on four occasions, aircrafts were sent with torpedoes and they found the target on two occasions. It was during these operations that 3 crews (F/Lt GADD, F/O HICKS and Sgt MACTAVISH) attacked a German destroyer. GADD and MAC TAVISH torpedoed it. There were many Flak and fighters and the aircrafts were attacked by three Messerschmitt Bf 109s. F/O HICKS' crew was missing during this operation.
- on the 3rd page, we learn (handwriting) that F/O HICKS had been in post recently, and that he had volunteered to take the place of F/O Hatton as latter wanted to return home, his father having just died.
- on the 4th page (handwritten), we learn from the International Red Cross that the crew of the F/O CAMPBELL was killed and that the body of the F/O HICKS was washed up by the sea on the coast, and that consequently the rest of the crew is also presumed dead.
Sources information :
- Coastal Command Losses (Ross McNeill) - Vol.1 page 110.
- France Crashes 39-45
- Runnymede Memorial - Commonwealth War Graves
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