Operation: Patrol

Date: 09th October 1943 (Saturday)

Unit: No. 488 Squadron (motto: Ka ngarue ratau - 'We shake them'). 11 Group

Type: Mosquito NX.XII

Serial: HK204

Code: ME-?

Base: RAF Bradwell Bay, Essex

Location: Tolleshunt Knights

Pilot: Fl/Lt. Edward Cecil Ball NZ/40749 RNZAF Age 31. Killed

Nav: F/O. William Kemp 122557 RAFVR Age 25. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off at 18:50 hrs on a defence patrol returning at 21:25 hrs but found the airfield covered in a thick mist on arriving overhead, the weather had unexpectedly deteriorated.

They were instructed to orbit while searchlights put up a canopy.

A few minutes later contact was lost with HK204 and the aircraft was later found to have crashed at the location shown at about 21:30 hrs some 6 miles northwest of the airfield. Two American soldiers near the crash scene were injured by flying debris, one of whom died of his injuries.

Burial details:

Fl/Lt. Edward Cecil Ball. Maldon Cemetery. Row 61. Grave 94. Born on the 28th March 1912 in Kinsale, Co. Cork. Educated at Reading University in Berkshire and Massey College. Worked as a shepherd for P.J.C Wilson of A Buckland and Son of Auckland. Enlisted as a pilot under training on the 12th of March 1940. With No. 1 Elementary Flying Training School on the 09th April 1940, With No. 1 Flying Training School on the 01st June 1940. The pilot badge awarded on the 27th of July 1940 and commissioned on the 23rd of September 1940.

Embarked for England on the 06th October 1940. With 20 Operational Training Unit on the 03rd December 1940. Attached to 103 squadron on the 07th March 1941 where he flew 25 operational sorties. Attached to 11 Operational Training Unit as instructor on 15th September 1941. With 75 squadron on the 26th March 1942 where he carried out a further 26 operational sorties. With 54 Operational Training Unit on the 09th August 1942. Joined 488 squadron on the 13th September 1942 on the Beaufighter. With 51 Operational Training Unit as an instructor on 21st January 1943. He returned to 488 squadron on the 06th July 1943. He had 1046 flying hours logged and completed 57 operational sorties.

Son of Major Edward Ball OBE. (died 15th November 1942, age 75) and Amelia Matilda Ball (née Edmonds - died September 1945, age 76) and husband of Joy Ball, of Lower Edmonton Middlesex. It is thought possible that he may have been born in 1910.

F/O. William Kemp. Maldon Cemetery. Row 61. Grave 93. Son of James Marr Kemp and Rachel Kemp and husband of Margaret Anne Kemp, of Histon, Cambridgeshire

Above: L-R: Rear; Raymond Gordon Eccles NZ/40759, Douglas William Gough NZ/40764, Gordon Hector Grimsdale NZ/40765, E.M.R Guthrie, Ernest Leslie Joyce NZ/40770, Alan Cameron Kelly NZ/40771.
Front; G.W Alington, A.D Atkinson, Edward Cecil Ball NZ/40749, Richard John Bullen NZ/40753, H.S.R Cameron. (Courtesy Air Museum of New Zealand)

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to Jenifer Lemaire and to the extensive research by Errol Martyn and his publications: “For Your Tomorrow Vols. 1-3”, Auckland Library Heritage Collection, Weekly News of New Zealand, National Archives Air 27-1936-29/30, Air Museum of New Zealand, other sources as quoted below: