Operation: Enemy motorised troop columns

Date: 22nd May 1940 (Wednesday)

Unit: No. 2 Squadron

Type: Westland Lysander II (morro: 'Guardian of the Army'}| (1)

Serial: L6849

Code: KO-U

Base: RAF Lympne, Kent

Location: near Boulogne, France

Pilot: P/O. Malcolm Lessels George Henderson 33407 RAF Age 21. Killed

Air/Gnr: P/O. Vivian Kelly 77532 RAF PoW No: 113. Can: Stalag Luft Sagan

REASON FOR LOSS:

The crew had taken off at 19:45 hrs. ok off from RAF Lympne, Kent to attacked enemy motorised troop columns south of Boulogne..

Thought to have been shot down by Oblt. Helmut Lohoff ofStab 3./JG.11. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/501): Lysander L6849 crashed near Boulogne, France, (lohoff shown right

P/O. Malcolm Henderson killed, P/O.Vivian Kelly was taken to hospital in Camiers, about ten miles south of Boulogne, and remained a patient until 30th June, then remained a PoW for the remailer of the war.

Earlier the samay, the same Lysander (L6849/KO-U), with a different crew 24 year old F/O, Anthony Frederick Doidge MiD. DFC, with 21 year old Sgt. Richard Willerval Michelmore 531479 claimed a Henschel Hs 126 destroyed. Sadly both crew members were listed as missing believed killed as the Lysander L4809 was shot down in the English Channel, English Channel, near Nieuwpoort on Saturday 01st June 1940.

Shot down by Hptmn Holm Schellmann (Gruppenkommandeur) of Stab II./JG2 and crashed in the Channel between Nieuport and de Panne, West Falnders, Belgium at 16.45 hrs. (Schellmann shown left)

Click above image for short Pathe News/Youtube video

Burial details:

P/O. Malcolm Lessels George Henderson. Pihen-Les-Guines War Cemetery. Grave 1.G.8. Son of Air Vice Marshal Malcolm Henderson, CB, CIE, CBE, DSO, and Elisabeth Henderson, of Berwick St. (01st June 1891 - 07th March 1978 age 87) was a Royal Flying Corps pilot during the First World War and a senior commander in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

Click image on left to read his biography

F/O. Anthony Frederick Doidge. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 5. Son of Herbert Frederick and Amy Doidge, of Cobham, Surrey, England.

Sgt. Ian Richard Willerval Michelmore. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 17. Son of Eric and Winifred Yvonne Michelmore, of Maidenhead, Berkshire; husband of Irene Lilian Michelmore.

(1) 2 Squadron: At the outbreak of the Second World War the unit was flying Westland Lysanders. In France until the Dunkirk evacuation. It was then based at RAF Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire as the principal squadron in that location. Over time the squadron equipped with fighters – the Curtiss Tomahawk in 1941, the North American Mustang in 1942. In July 1944, assigned to the 2nd Tactical Air Force, the squadron returned to France in the reconnaissance role. It was re-equipped with Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XIVs in November 1944. Shiny Two relocated to RAF Celle in June 1945 after the war in Europe was won as part of the British Air Forces of Occupation.

Other sources as quoted below:

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