430813 - Unaccounted airmen - 13-8-1943

[Henk Welting]

What were the places of death registration of:

A - Died on active service:
AC1 Leonard BOWER - 1518375 - Age 41, and
AC2 Isaac GOLD - 1657619 - Age 38.

B - Killed on active service:
F/O (Instr.) Peter W. STOKES - DFC - 46735.

C - Proposed aircraft losses:
Master I - T8826 - 22 EFTS - crashed on take-off Cambridge
Beaufort I - DX142 - 5 (C)OTU - crashed on landing Long Kesh.
Hotspur II Glider - HH412 - 3 GTS - crashed in forced landing Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire.
Mosquito II - DD630 - 60 OTU - dived into ground High Ercall, Shropshire.
Beaufighter X - LX859 - 236 Sqn - crashed on landing Leuchars.

D - Also looking for cause of death of:
Sgt John S. COLE - 1392161 - 39 Sqn (Protville II, Tunisia) buried Medjez-el-Bab War Cem., reported killed in action. Can't find a matching serial number in my Beaufighter file.

Regards and thanks for your help.
Henk.

[dennis_burke]

Bower, age 41 in Bakewell district, Derbyshire

Gold, age 38, in Bucklow district, boundaries of the counties of Cheshire and Lancashire

Stokes, age 22 Wellington dsitrict, is an alternative name for 'Wellington Sal' and it is in the county of Shropshire.

there is a 20 year old Daphne Stokes also listed on the same page fo the register? There is a place named Ercall magna in this district. CWGC list a Daphne Stokes as his wife. This looks pretty tragic.

Yes, mentioned in the cemetery burials.
http://www.shropshirewarmemorial.org.uk/Wellington%20War%20Graves.html

[Ross_McNeill]

Hi Henk,

No.60 OTU confirms Stokes confirmed as killed when DD630 crashed on aerodrome.

No indication of any other casualties on this flight or on the ground.

Regards
Ross

[COL BRUGGY]

Henk,

Re: 1392161 Sgt John S. COLE.

On 12 August (1944), Squadron Leader Norman S. Petch led eight Beaufighters of 39 Squadron on an Armed Rover, hunting for a 5,000-ton merchant vessel reported to be sailing unescorted south of Naples. They made no sightings but were attacked by four Me 109s and two F-W 190s in the area. A Beaufighter flown by Canadian pilot, Flight Sergeant D. N. Spackman, was shot down but made a good ditching. Spackman and his RAF navigator, Sergeant W. W. Lawson, survived to become PoWs. A Beaufighter flown by Warrant Officer W. K. Patterson returned badly shot up, his navigator, Sergeant John S. Cole, was killed in action.

See:
The Armed Rovers:Beauforts & Beaufighters over the Mediterranean.
Nesbit,Roy C.
Shrewsbury:Airlife,1995.
p.150

Col.

[alclark]

The RAF hospital at Wilmslow was in the Bucklow district, so Gold may have died there. Also Ringway was in that district, so a death in the station sick quarters would have been registered as Bucklow.

I notice Bower was from Derbyshire, though he's buried in Derby which is quite a way from the nearest part of the Bakewell district. Though given he was DOAS I'd suspect a death in hospital or as a result of a road (or similar) accident.

[Henk Welting]

Thanks friends for all your support in the research on unaccounted airwomen/airmen.
Col:
Couldn't find a 39 Sqn Beaufighter loss for 13-8-1943 however the loss of TWO Beaufighters for same sqn on 12-8-1943. Serials LX862 and LX867 were both shot down by Bf 109s S of Naples. One of these may have been crewed by F/Sgt D.N. SPACKMAN (PoW-List Wt/Offr² RCAF R/92734 Camp L4 Number 1339) and Sgt "V" W. LAWSON (PoW-List Wt/Offr 1109381 Camp L6 Number 1321).
Anybody out there who has knowledge of F/Sgt Spackman's aircraft and the names of the crew of the second Beaufighter lost on same mission ?
Regards,
Henk.

[DHathaway]

What were the places of death registration of:

A - Died on active service:
AC1 Leonard BOWER - 1518375 - Age 41, and
AC2 Isaac GOLD - 1657619 - Age 38.

B - Killed on active service:
F/O (Instr.) Peter W. STOKES - DFC - 46735.

C - Proposed aircraft losses:
Master I - T8826 - 22 EFTS - crashed on take-off Cambridge
Beaufort I - DX142 - 5 (C)OTU - crashed on landing Long Kesh.
Hotspur II Glider - HH412 - 3 GTS - crashed in forced landing Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire.
Mosquito II - DD630 - 60 OTU - dived into ground High Ercall, Shropshire.
Beaufighter X - LX859 - 236 Sqn - crashed on landing Leuchars.

D - Also looking for cause of death of:
Sgt John S. COLE - 1392161 - 39 Sqn (Protville II, Tunisia) buried Medjez-el-Bab War Cem., reported killed in action. Can't find a matching serial number in my Beaufighter file.

Regards and thanks for your help.
Henk.

This is an old post so you may have got all the answers you want, but just in case...

Whilst Leonard Bower may have died "on active service" it was not due to enemy action. He died of food poisoning after eating dried apricots in camp! This was reported in Derby Daily Telegraph of 17 August 1943. He married Minnie Gwendolene BORRINGTON at St Werburgh's Church Spondon (just outside Derby) in 1938. I "found" Leonard because I am researching the names on Spondon war memorial and her brother Albert died in France in 1917. Although Minnie was born in Spondon and lived there most of her life, and Leonard's home address was reported as Cambridge Street, Spondon, he does not appear on the WW2 memorial. Unusually, he was buried in Nottingham Road Cemetery, Chaddesden, rather than Spondon Cemetery.
Leonard was born and raised in Sheffield and in 1939 he was living with Minnie in Blackburn. They seem to have returned to Minnie's home area between then and 1943. He joined up in 1941.

[jonheyworth]

Isaac gold died of colon cancer in Wilmslow hospital, see facebook plugin comment for details

[jonheyworth]

UPGRADE to Kenneth Frank Lawrence R 159729, he died of a pulmonary embolism brought on by a ruptured stomach ulcer

[jonheyworth]

John Donald Mohring 1084998 , attached to Number 7 ferry control, was admitted dangerously ill to Fez military hospital, where he died the following day of malaria

[jonheyworth]

Thomas Jay 812137 , was found dead in his billet at RAF Tafaraqui from a self inflicted gun shot wound to the chest