Operation: Hamburg Germany

Date: 6/7th April 1944 (Thursday/Friday)

Unit: No. 139 Squadron

Type: Mosquito MkIV

Serial: DZ370

Code: XD-U

Base: RAF Upwood

Location: Lost without trace, possibly lost over the North Sea

Pilot: F/O. Andrew Mackenzie Howden J/28764 RCAF Age 24. Killed

Nav: F/O. Frederick Stevens 135013 RAFVR Age 32. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off from RAF Upwood at 20:45 hrs on an operation with 34 other Mosquitoes to bomb Hamburg.

The city reported that 39 people were killed on the ground with a further 161 injured. 322 people were bombed from their homes on the first operation with casualties to the city since October 1943. Mosquito DZ370 was reported as lost without trace - possibly over the North Sea. This was the only aircraft lost on this operation.

Taken at No. 1 Air Observers Instructor School. Rear L-R: Sgt. Bullock, Sgt. Willcock, Sgt. Owen, Sgt. Turner. Sitting L-R: Sgt. McCarthy, Sgt. Stevens, Sgt. Richardson, Cpl. Worth, Sgt. Ayres.

139 Squadron Mosquito at RAF Upwood.

Burial details:

F/O. Andrew Mackenzie Howden. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 246. Son of James and Jessie Howden, of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

F/O. Frederick Stevens. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 209. Son of Frederick and Gertrude Stevens, husband of Sarah Saidee Stevens, of Birmingham, England. Further information from Lewis Stevens: My father was born and brought up in Birmingham in 1912. We moved to Stourbridge (12 miles west of Birmingham) about 1941 when we were bombed out in Birmingham. He married in 1933. Stationed in Canada for about 18 months but posted as a Mosquito navigator back in the UK in early 1944.

Researched carried out by Michel Beckers for Aircrew Remembered - July 2016. With thanks to Lewis Stevens son of the navigator - other photographs from the Michel Beckers collection.