Date:	Friday 24 October 1941
Time:
Type:	Vickers Wellington Mk Ic
Owner/operator:	40 Sqn RAF
Registration:	X9912
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 9 / Occupants: 10
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Mediterranean Sea north of Sicily -   Italy
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Alconbury
Destination airport:	RAF Luqa, Malta

Narrative:
Took off from RAF Alconbury for a relocation flight to Luqa, Malta. Out of fuel the plane ditched north of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea.

Crew:
1258617 Sgt James Douglas PAINE - missing believed killed - Runnymede Memorial, panel 50.
1252258 Sgt Charles Reginald EASTMAN - missing believed killed - Runnymede Memorial, panel 42.
1378390 Sgt Edward Walter HEWITT - killed - Catania War Cemetery (I.F.6.), Sicily, Italy. (*)
1251073 Sgt Robert JACKSON - missing believed killed - Runnymede Memorial, panel 46.
1257909 Sgt Bruce Warren NICHOLLS - missing believed killed - Runnymede Memorial, panel 49.
403998 Sgt William Douglas STUART (RNZAF) - missing believed killed - Runnymede Memorial, panel 64.

Passengers:
1266648 AC1 Wilson Aubrey HODGES - missing believed killed - Runnymede Memorial, panel 57.
1020772 Cpl Jack Bracewell ROBINSON - missing believed killed - Runnymede Memorial, panel 56.
563931 Sgt Eric Wilfrid SHERWOOD - missing believed killed - Runnymede Memorial, panel 52.
945629 LAC Ronald Malcolm WADE - PoW (**)


(*) The body of Sgt Edward Walter HEWITT was picked up from the sea
(**) LAC Ronald Malcolm WADE washed ashore unconscious on the coast of Sicily.

1.Bomber Command Losses In the Middle East and Med. (Volume 1: 1939-1942) David Gunby & Pelham Temple, page 91.
2.AIR81/9827
3.CWGC
4.https://www.facebook.com/groups/558447124214499/posts/4535455736513598/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
19-Oct-2025 08:01	MMR	Added