Sgt Peacock 1337343 76 Sqdn 9.11.1942

[Mosquito]

Dear Gentlemen,

I'm looking for further details about the following airman:

PEACOCK, Sergeant (Air Gnr.) MORRIS HENRY, 1337343, 76 Sqdn., Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. 9 November 1942. Age 19. Son of William Henry and Henrietta Annie Peacock, of Petworth, Sussex. Grave Ref. 9A. B. 14, Hamburg-Ohlsdorf War Cemetery.

A wonderful, happy and hopefully white christmas to all of you!

kind regards

Steve

[KevinW4]

Hi, Steve, bit of a challenge with this one, as it does not appear that 76 Sqdn lost any aircraft on 9th November raid to Hamburg, and no other 76 Sqdn crew are shown on Geoff's Search Engine for that date. I can find no record of him being on another Sqdn aircraft lost that night, so the only assumption for him being in Hamburg Ohlsdorf is him baling out but that the rest of the crew didn't and they made it back to Linton on Ouse.
Either that or he was lost in the North Sea earlier and only recovered on 9th November. Ordinarily, the correct date for him being shot down is recorded, but always possible for someone to make an error.
I think you need someone with access to the Unit Diary to clarify further.

[Henk Welting]

Halifax DT511 - 9/10-11-1942. When the aircraft was hit by flak, the Pilot (F/O Douglas ANDERSON - 102294 [RAF from Brazil]) - gave the order to abandon. Shortly after, he regained control and cancelled his order. Sgt V.F.R. KILLNER (PoW not in PoW-Register but listed by Clutton-Brock in 'Footprints....') and Sgt PEACOCK had already baled out.
Regards,
Henk.

[COL BRUGGY]

Hello,

From:'To See the Dawn Breaking':

A.

Two nights later (9/10-11-42), the emphasis of attack switched to Hamburg... Flying Officer Anderson strayed into the Bremen area where his aircraft was heavily engaged by flak. Control was lost for a moment or two as the Halifax lost height Anderson shouted to his crew to leave the aircraft, Sergeants Killner and Peacock quickly responded to their pilot's urgent call, but within seconds of their hurried departure Anderson regained control. The rest of the crew were called back from the escape positions and a safe return was effected.

B.

Appendix Three - 76 SQUADRON 'ROLL OF HONOUR'.
Section Two. Aircrew killed,wounded, or prisoners as result of enemy action, not covered by sec. ONE.

9 Nov 42 (DT511 MP-B) Hamburg
Sgt V F R Killner pow
Sgt K A Peacock pow

See:
To See the Dawn Breaking - 76 Squadron Operations.
Chorley,W R.
Ottery St. Mary,Author,1981
A. pp.55-6
B. p.220

A couple of things need to be noted here. Bill Chorley gives Peacock's initials as: 'K A', likewise O C-B, in Footsteps on the Sands of Time (p.379). Both state that Sgt 'K A' Peacock was a Prisoner of War.

There is no mention, at all, of 1337343 Sgt (Air Gnr.) Morris Henry PEACOCK, in Chorley's BCL9 Roll of Honour.

I don't know where we take it from here, but something is awry.

Col.

[Mosquito]

Dear Gentlemen,

thank you so much for your help. The amount of informations you offer is always so amazing.

I'm going to ask the CWGC about the problem with Peacock's initials. This is something I should find out.

As soon as I have further informations I'll be happy to share them with you.

Cheers

Steve