430604 - Unaccounted airmen - 4-6-1943

[Henk Welting]

What were the places of death registration for:

A - Died of wounds or injuries received on active service:
W/O Raymond D. HERAPATH - 759241.

B - Not found in Flight Global:
Sgt Alexander L. QUILLAN - 359508 (from N.Ireland);
AC2 Eric F. SHORES - 1643299 - age 42, and
AC1 Jesse THOMAS - 1186780.

C - Also looking for possible cause of death of LAC Henry THOMPSON - 630550 - age 22, buried in the Belgrade War Cemetery. He was KOAS and GRO-listing 4 GHQ MEF.

D - Proposed aircraft losses:
Henley I - L3414 - Rolls Royce - crashed on landing Boscombe Down.
Master II - W9083 - 7 (P)AFU - flew into ground 1½ mile N of Olney, Buckinghamshire (already as a casualty on this a/c: P/O [Pilot] A.T. HINTON - RCAF J/23231).
Tiger Moth II - N9305 - 544 Sqn - crashed on take-off Court Lodge Farm, Lenham, Kent.

Regards and thanks for your help.
Henk.

[malcolm_raf]

Hi Henk

W/O Raymond D. HERAPATH - Christchurch, Hampshire
Sgt Alexander L. QUILLAN - Westminster, London
AC2 Eric F. SHORES - 1643299 - Bath
AC1 Jesse THOMAS - listed as Newport but both Newports, ceased to exist in 1936?

Malcolm

[dennis_burke]

There are three Newports
Newport (Monmouthshire.) <------ this one not abolished in 1935
Newport (Salop)
Newport Pagnell

http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/newport2.html

[malcolm_raf]

Hi Dennis

I ignorred Newport Pagnell

and took my info from http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/index.html#N

However on checked the Newport, Monmouth page it then states that the Newport area was split between three others including a new Newport district as you say, but the new one isn't shown in the index, hence my confusion.

Malcolm

[Henk Welting]

Thanks Dennis & Malcolm.
May THOMAS have been registered at Newport in Monmouthshire ?

Henk.

[dennis_burke]

Yes Henk, that would be my opinion.

http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/newport2.html

If you read the three districts listed as newport on the above list, two newport Salop and Newport Bagnell had been abolished in 1935. The district of Newport (Monmouth) was stripped of most of its towns villages etc from 1935 onwards but the twon of Newport remained active in Newport District until 1974.

A reference to Newport in 1943 should therefore refer to Newport (Monmouth), unless a clerk was harking back to old districts.....

CWGC has him coming from and buried in Monmouthshire.

[Henk Welting]

LAC (WOp) Henry THOMPSON - 630550 - age 22 - GRO listing 4 GHQ MEF - was KOAS 4-6-1943 and lies buried in the Belgrade War Cem. He was attached to the SOE and involved in mission "Fugue".
Looking for more info on this mission.
Regards,
Henk.

[dennis_burke]

The book:
The rape of Serbia: the British role in Tito's grab for power, 1943-1944
Michael Lees

Contains some details, the only extract i can pull from Google books is:

"Our BLO reports, notably those from Roughshod (Robert Purvis), Fugue (Michael Lees), and the second Kosovski area (George More), belie the oft-repeated contention that the Loyalists refused to cooperate. Moreover, those reports have ..."


And the British national Archive databse contains this item description.
WO Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies
Division within WO Records of the Armed Forces from commands, headquarters, regiments and corps
WO 202 War Office: British Military Missions in Liaison with Allied Forces; Military Headquarters Papers, Second World War
No. 37 MILITARY MISSION


Scope and content Reports on conditions and personalities in Yugoslavia. Mission reports from "Fugue", "Roughshod" and 2nd Kasovski and Yablanca areas
Covering dates 1943 May-1944 June
Separated material For items extracted from this piece see
MPH 1/842

Held by The National Archives, Kew

lt Sydney Smith of the RE also died/killed the next day. Same mission name.
http://www.memorialgrove.org.uk/specialoperationsexecutiverollofhonourstot.htm

[dennis_burke]

more book extracts include:

.... Thompson, an excellent W/T operator and, as I had found in the few days we had been together, an extremely pleasant individual. ....

.... members of the British team as they ran from the front fo the house following Djuric and Sehmer toward the forest. Lt. Tomlinson, my number two, was wounded in the arm but escaped into the forest, Thompson, the W/T operator, was killed instantly. Three more men were hit: Lt. Smith, one of .....

[wwrsimon]

Hello

W/O Raymond D. HERAPATH - 759241 - the Chelmsford Chronicle of June 11th 1943 reported the following:

Airman Killed in Raid
Warrant Officer (Observer) Ray D. Herapath, R.A.F., son of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Herapath, Ardleigh Green Road, Hornchurch, was killed in an air raid on a South Coast town. He was in a hotel which received a direct hit. He had taken part in many operational flights over enemy territory.

Regards

Simon

[jonheyworth]

UPGRADE to Jack Lawrence Johnson R116340, he died in the Maburn hospital, Yorkshire, tubucular meningitis

[jonheyworth]

Jessie Thomas 1186780 , an ACH GD , attached to Number 6 Embarkation unit, was found drowned in the river Usk at Newport bridge on 4th June, his body being removed to Newport town mortuary

[jonheyworth]

Alexander Quillan 359508 , attached to Number 3 SOTT, died in the Westminster hospital, London of carcinoma of the rectum

[jonheyworth]

Bernard Victor Shaw 959558 , attached to 3 ( P ) AFU , was on duty when he slipped on the wire netting runway at 11:15 Hours and fell under an oncoming petrol bowser. The MO attended with the station ambulance immediately and he was taken to SSQ , but he died at 11:30 Hours of a severely crushed right chest , multiple internal Injuries and a fractured right femur

[jonheyworth]

Samuel Scragg 66548 , attached to 216 Group, died at 17:18 Hours whilst on medical leave in Alexandria of right sided heart failure, being dead on arrival at Number 8 General hospital

[jonheyworth]

Raymond Dillon Herepath 759241 , attached to RAF Bournmouth, was fatally injured in an air raid which hit his hotel in Christchurch

[jonheyworth]

Eric Fred Shores 1643299 | attached to Number 8 MT Company | as an ACH/ DMT, died in the Royal United hospital, Bath at 06:55 Hours of a thrombosis