431227 - Unaccounted Airmen - 27-12-1943

[malcolm_raf]

Baldwin was probably in RAF Hospital Wroughton

Malcolm

[mbriscoe]

I have a possible loss that needs checking for this date.

Wellington N2810 of 9FPP ditched and sank into Fort William Bay.

Regards
Ross

Sorry for opening an old message, I came across a reference to this on Canmore.

http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site...c+loch+linnhe/

They actually have two records both with very vague positions and 'Fort William Bay' is not a name used locally for anywhere.

[COL BRUGGY]

What caused the death of LAC John G. HOFFEN - 537498 - 217 Sqn (St.Eval, Cornwall) - missing and commemorated on Panel 23 of the Runnymede Memorial.
Regards and thanks for your help.
Henk.

Hello,

I'd like to get back to the original intent of this thread - Henk's query, "What caused the death of LAC John G(erard) HOFFEN - 537498?"

I believe LAC John Gerard HOFFEN was aboard No.210 Sqn Sunderland I N9022 which struck a floating object alighting off Maiden Island on, 27 December, 1940. The CWGC quotes Hoffen's unit as 217 Squadron, which is clearly incorrect.

John Evans in his "Sopwiths To Sunderlands 210 Squadron 1917 to 1941, Paterchurch Publications, 1999, pp.60-1, mentions the following:

Before the end of the year (1940), 210 had suffered two further crew losses. On September 2nd F/L P.D. Parry-Jones and ten crew were lost in a newly arrived Sunderland, T9043, which failed to return from a convoy patrol. And on December 27th, N9022 crashed in a night landing off Maiden Island, north of Oban Bay, when returning from a patrol. The aircraft alighted successfully but immediately hit an object in the water which ripped open the aircraft's hull and flipped it over on its back. F/L Ivor Meggitt (Australian), and nine of those aboard, including a naval officer, were presumed drowned. The only survivor, though injured, was F/O D.A. Stewart.

The object was probably one of the several horse boxes, with dead animals inside, which were lost when a merchant ship. the SS "Breda", was damaged in a Luftwaffe raid on shipping in Ardmucknish Bay on December 23rd. The dead horses acted as bouyancy aids keeping the boxes near the surface and they were a lethal thing to hit in a thin-hulled Sunderland landing at speed. Meggitt and crew had been in the wrong place at the wrong time....

Crew members of the ill-fated Sunderlands were:

T9043:

F/L P.D. Parry-Jones
F/O B.L.A. Pusey
P/O M.H. Dalzell-McKean
P/O I.W. Phillips
Sgt M.A.F. Drewitt
Sgt R.G. Fitzgerald
LAC W.T. James
AC1 W.H. Blackmore
AC1 L.J. Caunter
AC1 D.H. Jones
AC1 L.E. Stokes

N9022:

F/L I.H. Meggitt
Sgt L.E. Crawshaw
Sgt D. Ogston
Sgt A.K. Perkins
Sgt C.C.I. Roberts
Sgt N.E. Thomson RNZAF
LAC J.G. Hoffen
LAC T.A. Kennedy
AC1 J.S. Audsley
S/Lt B.F. Leadbitter RNVR
and
F/O D.A. Stewart - Injured.

All of the crew of N9022 (apart from S/Lt Leadbitter RNVR), are mentioned in Flight, January 23, 1941, p.81 - Cas. Comm. No.57:

https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightP...20-%200231.PDF

Comments welcomed.

Col.

[RecklessRat]

O'BREE, Arthur - F/O - 77416

Arthur O'Bree
'Soldier - Imperial Army'
Died at {unsure*} Military Hospital, aged 57, of 'Chronic Bronchitis, Emphysema, cardiac failure'

* I am unable to decipher the location given. It may be possible if you are familiar with South Africa/Joburg

From the Form of Information of a Death on FamilySearch:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61...Q9V?cc=2998108

That's enough for now, I'm off for a quiet lie down in a dark room!