Operation: Northern France Airfields

Date: 06.07th December 1940 (Friday/Saturday)

Unit: No. 49 Squadron

Type: Hampden I

Serial: X3028

Code: EA-S

Base: RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire

Location: Welton, Lincolnshire

Pilot: F/O. Kenneth William Michie 41723 RAF Age 24. Killed

Obs: Sgt. J.A. Barrier RAFVR Injured - survived

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. Garton Vincent Davenport-Jones 653259 RAF Age 19. Killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. Thomas Goldie 631889 RAF Age 19. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

The pilot, F/O. Kenneth Michie had a lucky earlier escape on the 20th July when the Hampden I L4077 ran out of fuel on return from a gardening operation. They crashed at 04:35 hrs at Beacon Hill near Hunstanton, Norfolk - all the crew escaped with various injuries.

49 Squadron lost three aircraft on this operation:

Hampden P4404 EA-R Flown by 23 year old Sgt. John Cecil Shaw 742749 RAFVR from Hayes, Middlesex - taken PoW with all his crew. Sadly, Sgt. Shaw was shot and killed during an attempted escape from Stalag Vogelsang on the 04th January 1942. 

Left: P/O. Brian Evans - murdered by Lux after the 'Great Escape.'

A member of his crew, 24 year old P/O. Brian Herbert Evans 42745 RAF from Brisbane, Australia was murdered after the ‘Great Escape’ - his death listed as 31st March 1943. (Murdered by Lux who escaped the War Crime Trials - killed during fighting in 1945) Another member of the crew, Sgt. D. Young has been listed as trying to escape no less than 5 times! This crew must have been the most troublesome for the Luftwaffe authorities.

Hampden X3050 EA-N Flown by Sgt Stuart Gordon Brown 74008 RAFVR of Surbiton, Surrey - missing with all his crew. The pilot, Sgt. Greeves is thought to have been one of the first pilot’s to be trained within the pre-war RAFVR scheme.

Burial details:

F/O. Kenneth William Michie. Scampton Churchyard (St. John the Baptist) Grave 15. A Canadian from Medicine Hat. Canada. Enlisted in the RAF in December 1938. Next of kin details not available - can you assist?

Sgt. Garton Vincent Davenport-Jones. Scampton Churchyard (St. John the Baptist) Grave 16. Grandson of Mr. and Mrs. G. Bacon, of Deolali, Bombay, India.

Sgt. Thomas Goldie. Lesmahagow Cemetery. Plot 1. Grave 63. Son of John and Julia Goldie, of Coalburn, Lanarkshire, Scotland.

For further details our thanks to the following sources shown below. Thanks also to the people on the WW2 Talk website for photo of P/O. Brian Evans.