PRU Mission – 13 February 1944

[Henofred]

Hello,

I have a special request regarding a mission onto France.
I am looking for the crew/plane of No.544 Squadron which performed the sortie with number J/314. This mission took place on February 13th, 1944 in the Tours-Orleans-Bourges area.
Damage assessment on Avord airfield.

Regards,
Frederic

[Don Clark]

544 Squadron Operations Record Book at UK National Archives, AIR 27/2028/34
Mosquito Mk IX LR425
S/Ldr D Douglas Hamilton
P/O PE Gatehouse DFM
Ops PR J.314 (multiple objectives listed)
Form 541 Feb 1944 Frame 2
https://discovery.nationalarchives.g...ils/r/D8414853

Mosquito IX LR425 served only with 544 Sqn.
Engine vibrated and control lost, abandoned ... SW of Trindom Grange Colliery Co Durham 23 Jul 1944
Halley RAF Aircraft LA100-LZ999 AB 1991

Form 78 Movements: Frame 59 of
http://lancasterbombersinfo.ipage.co...3-LR495/0.html

Then a Flight Sgt of 248 Sqn, Philip Edwin Gatehouse 902375 had been awarded the DFM 4 Sep 1942.
Citation: http://www.rafcommands.com/database/...SE&qnum=902375

Neither man was to survive the war.
S/Ldr Lord David Douglas Hamilton, with Gatehouse as Navigator, crashed on return from a PR sortie on 2 Aug 1944 in their Mosquito IX MM240 of 544 Squadron: both were killed instantly.
The crash, near Wallingford, occurred a few miles from the airfield, apparently with both engines dead, assessed to be an attempted forced-landing.
Full details of the crash are in the 544 Squadron Form 540 Summary of events, and noting the loss of the two men by first name and in glowing terms.
https://discovery.nationalarchives.g...ils/r/D8414864
Also see
http://www.rafcommands.com/database/...php?qnum=16219

[ArnoldGilson]

Hello. It had been nearly 20 years since Frederick had received an answer to his question. And thanks to Don Clark, the question has not been forgotten.

[Don Clark]

Thanks, Arnold.

Henofred is still occasionally active here, the system records him as posting for a time around Jun 2022, his most recent visit being 23 March this year (after my post, and before yours), and that he appears not to have sighted my reply to his 2007 post. I've used his profile to email him to let him know.

[Henofred]

Hello/Bonjour Arnold and Don,

What is fabulous here in this Forum is that a topic is like a bottle thrown into the sea, one day someone finds it and... answers!

With today's free access to the ORBs on the NA Kew website (which was not the case in 2007!), I found many elements regarding the reconnaissance missions carried out over the airfields of Bourges and Avord. Merci beaucoup for your answers Don, and this nice message Arnold.

(Don, I have answered your email)

Best regards,
Frederic

[Don Clark]

Thank you, also, Frederic (and also for your email).

Indeed, one of none-too-many worthwhile consequences of COVID-time: the UK National Archives free access to AIR 27 files that came with quarantine closure and has continued since...

As for the 544 Squadron events, having read on about S/Ldr D Douglas Hamilton & P/O PE Gatehouse DFM of LR425 on that 13 Feb 44 PRU sortie, thought it only proper to record their death on operations, 2 Aug 1944, from the Squadron's account.

For others interest, Frederic (again as Henofred) keeps an on-line site
Bombes sur le Cher (Bombs on the Cher) at http://airwar-18.blogspot.com
with occasional articles about the 1939-1945 airwar over the Cher region.