Date:	Saturday 17 January 1942
Time:	23:17
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk IC
Owner/operator:	311 Sqn RAF
Registration:	T2971
MSN:	KX-J
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 6
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Zandstraat, Tilburg, Noord-Brabant -   Netherlands
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF East Wretham, Norfolk
Destination airport:

Narrative:
During the night of 17-18 January 1942, the RAF Bomber Command sent 119 bombers over Europe. The main objective for the night was Bremen, the target of 83 aircraft, but only 8 crew claimed to have bombed the primary target. Some of the bombers attacking alternative targets bombed Hamburg that reported 11 fires, 5 dead and 12 injured. Three Wellingtons did not return from this raid, a Whitley was lost in a raid on Emden and a Stirling crashed in England after being fired at and damaged by a British convoy.

The Wellington IC T2971 KX-J of 311 (Czech) Sqn RAF took off at 18:00 from East Wretham to take part to the Bremen raid. It was damaged by flak over the target and crashed on the way back at 23:17 just to the northeast of Tilburg, near the Zandstraat. Three crew were killed and the three survivors were captured.

Crew:-
Pilot : Sergeant Jindrich Svoboda RAFVR 787165 [Killed]
Navigator : Pilot Officer Jaromir Broz RAFVR 61917 [Killed]
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner : Sergeant Rudolf Masek RAFVR 787865 [Killed]
Sergeant Karel Batelka RAFVR/Czech 787947 [PoW]
Sergeant Josef Schneider RAFVR/Czech 787798 [PoW]
Sergeant Zdenek Joseph Sichrovsky RAFVR/Czech 787331 [PoW]

The casualties lie at the Tilburg (Gilzerbaan) General Cemetery, Netherlands (51.553827 / 5.044812)

https://en.valka.cz/topic/view/77/title/311-perut-ceskoslovenska
https://verliesregister.studiegroepluchtoorlog.nl/rs.php?aircraft=&sglo=T1381&date=&location=&pn=&unit=&name=&cemetry=&airforce=&target=&area=&airfield=
https://fcafa.com/2011/10/23/not-forgotten-holland/
"Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 3: Aircraft and Crew Losses 1942", by W R Chorley. ISBN 0-904597-89-X
"The Bomber Command War Diaries", by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, ISBN 1-85780-033-8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilburg
http://www.maplandia.com/netherlands/noord-brabant/tilburg/
RAF Prisoners of War.
ORB 311 Sqdn RAF
Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-Dec-2008 11:45	ASN archive	Added
17-Jan-2017 10:10	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Time, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Source, Narrative, ]
16-Oct-2017 08:29	Nepa	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Operator, Departure airport, Narrative, ]
01-Nov-2017 19:47	Red Dragon	Updated [Cn, Other fatalities, Location, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ]
03-Nov-2017 16:14	Red Dragon	Updated [Operator, ]
23-Dec-2017 17:25	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, ]
30-Dec-2017 09:49	TigerTimon	Updated [Cn, Operator, Location, Destination airport, Source, ]
03-Jan-2018 17:49	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Location, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ]
02-Nov-2019 09:41	TigerTimon	Updated [Cn, Other fatalities, Location, Embed code, ]
16-Jan-2025 13:40	Rob Davis	Updated [Source, Narrative, ]