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Date: | Thursday 4 July 1940 |
Time: | night |
Type: | Handley Page Hampden Mk I |
Owner/operator: | 44 Sqn RAF |
Registration: | P4352 |
MSN: | KM-C |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | North Sea off coast of Denmark -
Denmark
|
Phase: | Combat |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire |
Destination airport: | RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire |
Narrative:Handley Page Hampden Mk.I P4352 (KM-C) 44 Squadron, RAF: Written off (presumed destroyed) when lost (Failed To Return) from combat operations over Denmark. All four crew killed. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/1008): "Hampden P4352 lost in air operations over the Danish Coast, 4 July 1940. Sergeant A Baird, Sergeant E T Apperson and Pilot Officer D A Todd: missing presumed dead. Acting Flight Lieutenant W S Bull: report of death"
Airborne from RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire for a "gardening" (mine laying) operation in the area of the Frisian Islands on the night of 3-4 July 1940. Aircraft missing, failed to return for unknown reasons, all four crew likewise posted as "missing presumed killed"
Crew of Hampden P4352
Sergeant Arthur Baird, RAF 639105 (Observer) - posted 04/07/1940 as missing, presumed killed in action
Sergeant Eric Thomas Apperson (W/T Operator), RAF 580923, aged 22 - posted 04/07/1940 as missing, presumed killed in action
Pilot Officer Desmond Arthur Todd (Pilot), RAF 42162, aged 21 - posted 04/07/1940 as missing, presumed killed in action
Acting Flight Lieutenant William Sharman Bull (Air Gunner) RAF 75682 - posted 04/07/1940 as missing, presumed killed in action
As no trace of Hampden P4352 or its crew of four was ever found, they are all Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978 p 24)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/1008:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502847 3. W.R. Chorley, Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 1, 1939/40, Midland Counties Publications, ISBN 0 904597 85 7
4.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1083191/baird,-arthur/ 5.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1082874/apperson,-eric-thomas/ 6.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1808876/todd,-desmond-arthur/ 7.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2271398/bull,-william-sharman/
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
20 July 1940 |
L4087 |
44 Sqn RAF |
2 |
North Sea, Tannis Bay, 400 m off Kandestederne, west of Skagen |
|
w/o |
3 September 1941 |
AE313 |
44 Sqn RAF |
2 |
near Sankt Wendel-Alsfassen, Saarland |
|
w/o |
Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
04-Oct-2019 22:07 |
Dr. John Smith |
Added |
08-Oct-2019 11:07 |
juza7 |
Updated [Operator] |