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Operation: Hamburg Germany
Date: 26/27th April 1941 (Sunday/Monday)
Unit: No. 83 Squadron
Type: Hampden MkI
Serial: AD796
Code: OL-D
Base: RAF Scampton
Location: Averlak North of Brunsbüttel Germany
Pilot: P/O. Richard Hope Crush 43027 RAF Age 26. Killed
2nd Pilot: Sgt. Gilbert Townsend Hall 903968 RAFVR Age 20. Killed
W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. William Keith Thompson 654088 RAF Age 21. Killed (1)
Air/Gnr: Sgt. Eric George Norman 935299 RAFVR Age 20. Killed
REASON FOR LOSS:
Taking off from RAF Scampton at 21:10 hrs to bomb the port of Hamburg. Some 28 Hampdens and 22 Wellingtons taking part in the operation.
44 Aircraft claimed to have bombed bur other reports state that just 19 bomb loads were delivered. 6 people reported killed on the ground with 121 bombed out of their homes.
Probably shot down by Flak over the target as no night fighter claims made for this operation.
(1) Sgt. William Thomson had a lucky escape when the Hampden L4104 ran out of fuel on return from an operation to Hamburg - crew all baled out safely.
Burial details:
P/O. Richard Hope Crush. Kiel War Cemetery, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Plot: 3.D.4. Born 31st January 1915, the son of Ernest Hope Crush and Irene Crush, husband of Kathleen Low Crush (née Fletcher).
Sgt. Gilbert Townsend Hall. Kiel War Cemetery, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Plot: 4.H.12. Son of William Townsend Hall and Eva Martha Hall, husband of Muriel Sadie Hall, of Wantage, Berkshire, England.
Sgt. William Keith Thompson. Kiel War Cemetery, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Plot: 4.H.13. Son of William Wyllard Thompson and Jane Welsh Thompson, of Barnes, Surrey, England.
Sgt. Eric George Norman. Kiel War Cemetery, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Plot: 4.H.11. Son of Horace and Annie Elizabeth Norman, of Forest Fields, Nottingham, England.
Researched by Michel Beckers for Aircrew Remembered - July 2016. For further details our thanks to the sources as quoted below. Grave photographs courtesy Bob Boston - others the collection of Michel Beckers.
MB - 18-07-2016
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Last Modified: 14 March 2021, 14:21