ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 15859
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| Date: | Friday 24 May 1940 |
| Time: | dawn |
| Type: | Handley Page Hampden Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 61 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | L4146 |
| MSN: | QR-R |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 4 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | between Horb & Rottweil, Schwarzwald, SW of Stuttgart (BWü) -
 Germany
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Hemswell, Lincolnshire |
| RAF Hemswell (UK) |
Handley Page Hampden L4146 (QR-R) of 61 Squadron, RAF Hemswell: lost on combat operations on night of 23-24/5/1940. Part of a force of 50 Hampdens, 48 Wellingtons and 24 Whitley's (=all of 102 Squadron) tasked to bomb communications and transport targets in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France. 2 Hampdens and 1 Whitley lost.
Due to a faulty gyro-compass the crew of L4146 landed in a grey light of dawn on a patch of clear ground in an otherwise wooded area. The crew were so certain that they had landed in Scotland that the pilot sent the navigator to the nearby village to telephone the nearest RAF aerodrome to arrange transport to come and pick them up. The grim realisation that they had come down in Germany, in the Black Forest region between Horb and Rottweil, South West of Stuttgart, arrived too late for them to do much about it: even if the pilot thought that taking-off was a 'jolly good' idea, the wheels of the Hampden had all ready sunk into the soft ground thereby making it impossible to shift the bomber.
They had no alternative but to try and prevent its capture. Wireless Op Len Walker: "believed that the aircraft was on fire when the crew left it, as the pilot had fired the Verey cartridges into the fuselage to destroy the aircraft. All that seem's to have happened was that it created an impressive amount of smoke without causing any damage at all!"
"The observer/lower gunner Corrigan, contracted peritonitis whilst a prisoner of war and died in hospital, in spite of the concerted efforts of the German hospital staff to save this young life." All four crew survived the landing, and were taken PoW. However, as noted above, one died in captivity
https://sulgrave.org/archive-2009/bill-wootton/
Flt Sgt Ross, Sgt Wotton and Cpl Walker were promoted to WO Whilst PoW’s.
Crew
Pilot: 590230 Flt Sgt Thomas George Ross - PoW/Stalag 12A Limberg/Stalag 8B Lamsdorf/Stalag Luft 1 Barth Vogelsang/Stalag 357 Kopernikus/PoW Number 13037.
2nd Pilot: 740468 Sgt Joseph William Wootton - PoW/Stalag 12A Limberg/Stalag 8B Lamsdorf/Stalag 357
Kopernikus/PoW Number 13055.
Observer: 580641 Sgt Eugene Patrick Corrigan (Eire) - Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery Plot 4 Row G Grave 9.
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: 624396 Cpl Leonard Walker - PoW/Stalag 12A Limberg/Stalag 8B Lamsdorf Stalag Luft 1 Barth Vogelsang/Stalag Luft 3 Sagan & Belaria/PoW Number 13106.
Sergeant Eugene P. Corrigan died from peritonitis 02/03/1941. He is buried in the Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery. Flight Sgt T A Ross was interned in Camps 8B/L1/357, PoW No.13037. Corporal L Walker in Camps 12A/8B/L1/L3, PoW No.13099. Sgt J W Wootton in Camps 8B/357, PoW No.13055.
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-L9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978 p 24)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/533: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502021
3. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2079131/corrigan,-eugene-patrick/
4. https://www.backtonormandy.org/the-history/air-force-operations/airplanes-allies-and-axis-lost/hampden/24990-L41461940-05-24.html
5. http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=41823
6. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?6385-Hampden-QR-R-Bundesarchiv-picture
7. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/61_squadron.html#232405
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 11 November 1940 | P4338 | 61 Sqn RAF | 0 | RAF Leconfield, East Yorkshire |  |
w/o |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 15-Mar-2008 18:38 | JINX | Added |
| 28-Jun-2008 17:56 | JINX | Updated |
| 16-Feb-2012 01:05 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 16-Feb-2012 01:06 | Nepa | Updated [Source] |
| 07-Jul-2013 21:05 | JINX | Updated [Operator, Phase, Source, Narrative] |
| 15-Dec-2014 09:59 | Tu144 | Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative] |
| 11-Jun-2017 13:05 | Uli Elch | Updated [Operator, Location, Narrative] |
| 23-Dec-2017 17:56 | Nepa | Updated [Operator] |
| 29-Jun-2018 19:30 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 29-Jun-2018 19:31 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 03-Nov-2018 09:04 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 11-Aug-2019 20:35 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Total fatalities, Source, Narrative] |
| 25-Jan-2020 19:02 | Uli Elch | Updated [Operator, Location] |
| 04-Apr-2020 19:57 | Xindel XL | Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Operator] |
| 19-Jun-2022 19:47 | Anon. | Updated [Narrative] |
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