Date:	Wednesday 1 May 1940
Time:	08:23
Type:	Lockheed Hudson Mk I
Owner/operator:	269 Sqn RAF
Registration:	N7278
MSN:	UA-A
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	North Sea (Target: Stavanger Airfield, Sola, Stavanger) -   Norway
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Wick, Caithness
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Lockheed Hudson Mk.1 N7278 (UA-A) 269 Sqaudron, RAF: Lost on combat operations when failed to return from a raid on Stavanger, Norway, 1 May 1940. Took off from RAF Wick, Caithness at 05:59 for Sola, Stavanger, Norway. Shot down and crashed into the sea approximately 10 miles west of the coast of Norway at 08:23 by Ltn. Schirmbock, in a Bf 109 of 4/JG 77.

The crash was witnessed by HMS Triton, but due to enemy air activity in the area, no investigation of the crash site or recovery of the crew was possible. All four crew posted as "missing presumed dead".

Crew of Hudson N7278:
Leading Aircraftman George Welsh (Service Number 617385, aged 19)
Sergeant George Kelly (Service Number 522560, aged 23)
Sergeant Kenneth Bell (Service Number 565626)
Pilot Officer Alfred Henry Hayter (Service Number 41289)

Sgt Bell was an Australian, from Greenwich, New South Wales. As no trace of the aircraft or crew was ever found, all four of the crew were commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-N9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14142013
3. Coastal Command Losses of the Second World War Vol. 1 by Ross McNeil p 30
4. Aeroplane Magazine October 2015 p 81
5. http://www.oldhaltonians.co.uk/pages/rememb/ROH/24.htm
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1531244/welsh,-george/
7. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1802537/kelly,-george/
8. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1083752/bell,-kenneth/
9. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1799726/hayter,-alfred-henry/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
13-Jun-2019 00:19	Dr. John Smith	Added
13-Jun-2019 00:20	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
13-Jun-2019 02:42	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]