AR banner
Search Tips Advanced Search
Back to Top

Info LogoAdd to or correct this story with a few clicks.
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.
Check our Research databases: Database List

.

We seek additional information and photographs. Please contact us via the Helpdesk.

149 squadron crest
17/18.04.1941 No. 149 Squadron Wellington IC P9248 OJ-G Sgt. Peel

Operation: Cologne, Germany

Date: 17/18th April 1941 (Thursday/Friday)

Unit: No. 149 Squadron

Type: Wellington IC

Serial: P9248

Code: OJ-G

Base: RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk

Location: Unknown - lost without trace

Pilot: Sgt. Jack Peel 1272896 RAFVR Age 25. Killed

Pilot 2: Sgt. Talbot Charles Cyril Clifton 906677 RAFVR Age 29. Missing - believed killed

Nav: P/O. Kenneth Ernest Platt 60781 RAFVR Age ? Missing - believed killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. Edward Ernest Allnatt 909911 RAFVR Age 23. Missing - believed killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. Harry Spencer Walters 946880 RAFVR Age 21. Missing - believed killed

Air/Gnr: Sgt. John Wood 906925 RAFVR Age 27. Missing - believed killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Took off at 00:55hrs from Mildenhall, Suffolk to bomb the city of Cologne.

A total force of 10 Wellingtons took part in this operation and 2 were lost.

The other from 9 Squadron:

N2745 WS-O flown by Sgt. Gordon Ernest Heaysman 754459 RAFVR who was killed along with his observer Sgt. Grant John Mavor R/56873 RCAF the other 4 crew members of this Wellington were taken as PoW.

No further details of the loss of P9248 - no night fighter claims are attributed to it.

Part of the crew: Left to right: Sgt. Walters, Sgt. Peel, Sgt. Clifton, Sgt. Allnatt, Sgt. Wood (courtesy Richard and Julian Allnatt)

Above left - right : Sgt. Jack Peel, P/O. Kenneth Ernest Platt, Sgt. John Wood on left and another unidentified chap described as "Joe from another crew" (Courtesy Richard and Julian Allnatt and Cath Rhodes)


Burial details:

Sgt. Jack Peel. None - commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial Panel 50. Son of Walter and Grace Peel, of Lincoln, England. Sgt. Jack Peel. None - commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial Panel 50. Son of Walter and Grace Peel, of Lincoln, England. Further information added by Cath Rhodes: Jack was the youngest brother of my great grandfather, Redvers Robert Peel who joined up in WW1, under age as he was born 1900 but served first in the Lincolnshire Yeomanry then Machine Gun Corps. Survived, and then served in WW2 in the Raf on the ground. His oldest brother W.S. PEEL (known as Sidney as his full name was Walter Sidney, but avoided confusion with his father by using second name) won a military medal in WW1, and was an early member of the Royal Flying Corps, being shot down in France in September 1918.

Sgt. Talbot Charles Cyril Clifton. None - commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial Panel 41. Son of Talbot and Clara Edith Elizabeth Clifton, of Bromley, Kent, husband of Dorothy Clifton, of Eltham, London, England.

P/O. Kenneth Ernest Platt. None - commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial Panel 34. N.o.K details currently not available.

Sgt. Edward Ernest Allnatt. None - commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial Panel 38. Son of Richard Ernest and Alice Maud Allnatt, of Swindon, Wiltshire, England.

Sgt. Harry Spencer Walters. None - commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial Panel 54. Son of Ellen Walters, of Lower Hartshay, Derbyshire, England.

Sgt. John Wood. None - commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial Panel 55. Son of John Arthur and Mary Ann Wood, husband of Ivy Joan Wood, of Wickford, Essex, England.

Researched for Mr. and Mrs. William Bent from Beccles, Suffolk, England. Mrs. Bent is the niece of P/O. Kenneth Ernest Platt. Also to Cath Rhodes who contacted us in May 2017 with photo and information on Sgt. Jack Peel. With thanks to the following: Bill Chorley - "Bomber Command Losses", Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt "Bomber Command War Diaries", the C.W.G.C.. Further information on 149 Squadron is available in a publication "Strong by Night" by John Johnson and Nick Carter - published by Air Britain Historians Ltd in December 2002. ISBN No: 978-0851303130

Page of Remembrance produced following contact with the relatives after Eastern Daily Press interviewed the webmaster.

KTY 25.05.2017 page updated.

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 MWO 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', Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, 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.
Click any image to enlarge it

Click to add your info via ticket on Helpdesk •Click to let us know via ticket on Helpdesk• Click to buy research books from Amazon •Click to explore the entire site
If you would like to comment on this page, please do so via our Helpdesk. Use the Submit a Ticket option to send your comments. After review, our Editors will publish your comment below with your first name, but not your email address.

A word from the Editor: your contribution is important. We welcome your comments and information. Thanks in advance.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them. - Laurence Binyon
All site material (except as noted elsewhere) is owned or managed by Aircrew Remembered and should not be used without prior permission.
© Aircrew Remembered 2012 - 2024
Last Modified: 14 March 2021, 20:24

Monitor Additions/Changes?Click to be informed of changes to this page. Create account for first monitor only, thereafter very fast. Click to close without creating monitor