Operation: Orleans

Date: 21st May 1943 (Friday)

Unit: No. 139 (Jamaica) squadron (motto: Si placet necamus - 'We destroy at will')

Type: Mosquito IV

Serial: DZ464

Code: XD-C

Base: RAF Marham, Norfolk

Location:

Pilot: Sq/Ldr. Vernon Ralph Garcia Harcourt DFC. 41790 RAF Age 25. Killed

Nav: W/O. Jocelyn Friendly MiD. DFM. 581211 RAF Age 22. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off at 19:45 hrs on an operation to bomb the rail facilities at Orleans.

Having completed the operation they were returning when over the French coast they were shot down by flak. The Mosquito crashed near Le Treport, killing both crew members.

Above: Sq/Ldr. Harcourt DFC and W/O. Friendly MiD. DFM.

DFC Citation 26th February 1942:

'Squadron Leader Harcourt was flying Bristol Blenheims with 108 Squadron during the evacuation of France and Germany. On one occasion he was detailed to take food to the BEF at an aerodrome in Belgium that was practically surrounded by the enemy. The mission was carried out successfully. At the end of November 1940 he had converted to Wellington bombers and posted to the Middle East where, as second pilot, he had to take control of the aircraft when the pilot was taken sick, landing the aircraft safely. He undertook 44 raids by the time of his recommendation for the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross and the citation reads 'at all times his keenness for operations and the determined manner in which he has carried out all his operational crews of this squadron'.

W/O. Jocelyn Friendly MiD Awarded on the 01st January 1940. DFM awarded on 22nd October 1940.

Burial details:

Sq/Ldr. Vernon Ralph Garcia Harcourt DFC. Dieppe Canadian War cemetery. Grave H.17. Son of Frederick John and Emily Gertrude Harcourt, of Hayes, Middlesex, England. Grave inscription: 'We Live Because You Died'.

W/O. Jocelyn Friendly DFM. Dieppe Canadian War cemetery. Grave H.16. Born on 3rd May 1921 in Johannesburg South Africa. Son of Salomon and Elma T. A. Friendly (née Ginsberg), of Sea Point, Cape Town, South Africa. completed 38 sorties and over 100 hours of flying. Grave inscription: 'He Was Loved And Honoured. Ever Remembered By His Mother And Brother'.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to John Jones, Ralph Snape, other sources as quoted below:

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