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.
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.
KTY - 21.10.2017
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember
them. - Laurence
Binyon
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