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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18.07.1943 No. 613 Squadron Mustang I AG568 F/O. J.S. Treseder

Operation: Lagoon

Date: 18th July 1943 (Sunday)

Unit: No. 613 Squadron

Type: Mustang I

Serial: AG568

Code: SY-?

Base: RAF Snailwell, Cambridgeshire

Location: North Sea - 10 km west of Scheveningen

Pilot: F/O. John Stephen Treseder 116383 RAFVR Age 29. Missing - believed killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

The second consecutive day the same four carrying out this patrol, the day previous took off at 13:40 hrs returning at 15:40 hrs seeing nothing but a suspected E-Boat.

Taking off at 10:05 hrs on a Lagoon operation (1) with the same other pilots, F/O. Taverner, Fl/Lt. Gore and F/O. Pigg.

They made landfall at Den Helder, Holland, and flew south sighting the convoy a short while later (2). The pilots climbed to 500’ to take photos and were just turning for home when they were attacked by about 8 enemy aircraft, including Me109G’s and FW109’s.

The dog fight lasted 8 minutes and F/O. Pigg (2) was the only one to return. He made a head-on attack on a FW190, but did not observe the results and suffered damage to his own propeller. He then made 2 attacks on a ME109 and saw it dive into the sea. He also saw one Mustang with glycol streaming from it making for the Dutch coast and another aircraft, which was possibly a Mustang, dive into the sea. Unable to make radio contact with the others he turned for home and landed at Coltishall.’

AM175 Flown by 24 year old, F/O. Taverner J/13722 RCAF - shot down - pilot missing, Mustang I Flown by 25 year old, F/O. Pigg 122091 RAFVR (2), - returned safe, landed at RAF Coltishall, AG656 Flown by 28 year old, Fl/Lt. Gore 41577 RAF - shot down - pilot missing.

(1) Lagoon operation: Photographic Reconnaissance off Dutch coast.

(2) After their reconnaissance flights, the convoy was attacked later that day - for some details see here.

Burial details:

F/O. John Stephen Treseder. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 130. Son of Stephen and Elizabeth Treseder and husband of Veronica Treseder, of Ealing, Middlesex, England.

Others lost during this operation:

F/O. Henry George Taverner. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 175. Son of Louis William and Edith C. Taverner, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Fl/Lt. Hugh Gore. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 119. Son of Mr. and Mrs. H.C. Gore and husband of Nora Phyllis Gore, of Wanaka, Otago, New Zealand. 1509 Flying hours logged listed as on his 8th operational sortie although it is thought that he had far more than that. His first operation was on the 26th May 1940, flying the Hawker Hector biplane over France with 613 Squadron.

Lost later:

(2) F/O. Charles Harrison Pigg. 122091 RAFVR Age 26 - killed flying Mosquito FB VI LR364 SY-E on an operation to Juvincourt. (613 Squadron had by then converted to Mosquitoes) Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension. Plot 6. Row H. Grave 4. Grave inscription reads: "Affection Is The Final And Most Precious Reward That Man Can Win”. Son of Charles Harrison Pigg and Edith Elsie Pigg, of Tynemouth, North Shields, Northumberland. A.A.I.

P/O. William Joseph Wills. Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension. Plot 6. Row H. Grave 5. Grave inscription reads: “A Beloved Son And Brother. To The World He Was But A Part, To Us He Was The World”. Son of William Henry and Beatrice Hilda Wills, of Brighton, Sussex.

Researched with information provided by Marise Treseder - daughter of Rodney Treseder, the son of John Stephen Treseder, also Errol Stephen Treseder who contacted us in December 2017. Page dedicated to the relatives of these pilots, Errol Martyn and his publications: “For Your Tomorrow Vols. 1-3”, Auckland Cenotaph, Weekly News of New Zealand, with thanks to sources as quoted below:

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