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Archive Report: Allied Forces

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.
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102 Squadron crest
26/267.07.1940 No. 102 Squadron Whitley V N1377 DY-B P/O. Robert F. Beauclair

Operation: Mannheim

Date: 26/27th July 1940 (Friday/Saturday)

Unit: No. 102 squadron

Type: Whitley MkV

Serial: N1377

Code: DY-B

Base: RAF Driffield, Yorkshire

Location: A polder at Spijkenisse, Holland

Pilot: P/O. Robert Fochaig Beauclair 41983 RAF PoW No: 154 Camp: Stalag Luft Sagan and Belaria (1)

2nd Pilot: P/O. John Christopher Wyndowe Bushell 74666 RAF PoW No: 156 Camp: Stalag Luft Sagan and Belaria (2)

Opserver: Sgt. E.A. Galloway 746961 RAF PoW No: 156 Camp: Stalag Luft Sagan and Belaria

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. K.J. Read 629569 RAF PoW No: 193 Stalag Luft Kopernikus

Air/Gnr: Sgt. C. Wood 632032 RAF PoW No: 200 Stalag Luft Kopernikus

REASON FOR LOSS: 

45 aircraft taking off this night to attack various targets in France and Germany. A further 12 Hampdens from 5 group went on a ‘gardening’ operation.  N1377 taking off at 20:30 hrs together with five other aircraft from the squadron to bomb Mannheim. Thought to have run out of fuel and crash landed at 01:30 Hrs.

Area of loss

Above and below, German troops inspecting Whitley N1377

(1) P/O. Robert Fochaig Beauclair escaped an earlier incident after he and the crew abandoned Whitley V N1528 DY-E over Metz, all the crew managed to evade an return to RAF Driffield.

(2) P/O. Bushell later joined the foreign office (1952) rising to Ambassador to Cambodia between 1975 - 1976. He died on the 14th December 1995. (shown right)

Burial details:

None - all crew survived.

Researched by Michel Beckers for Aircrew Remembered, March 2015. (photographs also supplied by Michel Beckers)

Pages of Outstanding Interest
History Airborne Forces •  Soviet Night Witches •  Bomber Command Memories •  Abbreviations •  Gardening Codenames
CWGC: Your Relative's Grave Explained •  USA Flygirls •  Axis Awards Descriptions •  'Lack Of Moral Fibre'
Concept of Colonial Discrimination  •  Unauthorised First Long Range Mustang Attack
RAAF Bomb Aimer Evades with Maquis •  SOE Heroine Nancy Wake •  Fane: Motor Racing PRU Legend
Acknowledgements
Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and Captain François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Andrew Mielnik: Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Polish graves: https://niebieskaeskadra.pl/, PoW Museum Żagań, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Stan D. Bishop, John A. Hey MBE, Gerrie Franken and Maco Cillessen - Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vols 1-6, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiton - Nachtjagd Combat Archives, Vols 1-13. Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
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