Operation: Rhubarb

Date: 9th April 1941 (Wednesday)

Unit: No. 64 Squadron (motto: Tenax propositi - 'Firm of purpose')

Type: Spitfire Mk IIA

Serial: P7784

Code: SH-L

Base: RAF Hornchurch, Essex

Location: near Fort-Mardyck 5 km west of Dunkerque France

Pilot: P/O. John Hampton Rowden 83249 RAFVR Age 28. Killed

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Update January 2023: 'Simply Spitfire' is currently building a full-size metal replica Spitfire and hoping to base it on P7784 flown by P/O John Hampton Rowden.

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REASON FOR LOSS:

Attacked and shot down by a Me109 of II/JG51 flown by Hauptmann Josef Fözö (see Kracker Luftwaffe Archive on this site). The aircraft apparently came down near a flak battery within the airfield at Fort-Mardyck, creating huge interest as shown by the series of photographs.

(Some of which we have decided not to place on the page of remembrance or we have masked)

Above P/O. John Hampton Rowden with photographs below showing the wreckage (courtesy Michel Beckers)

Area of operations

Note: Built at the Castle Bromwich Factory and fitted with the Merlin XII Engine.

P/O. John Hampton Rowden at rear 3rd from the left

Burial details:

P/O. John Hampton Rowden. Dunkirk Town Cemetery. Plot 2 Row 1 Grave 44. Husband of Catherine Rowden (née Finch) of Vernon Avenue, Rugby, England.

Researched by Michel Beckers, with photographs supplied by the Rowden family and Edward McManus. Kracker Archive.

Other sources as quoted in the section below.