Operation: Armed Recce of the Münster area, Germany

Date: 29th December 1944 (Friday)

Unit No: 440 (City of Ottawa) Squadron, RCAF, 143 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force

Type: Typhoon Ib

Serial: RB201

Code: I8:L

Base: ALG B.78 Eindhoven, Netherlands

Location: Near Neuenkirchen (Kreis Steinfurt), Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany

Pilot: Flt Lt. Donald Edward ‘Buck’ Jenvey J11309 DFC, MiD RCAF Age 24. Evader/Killed

Above Flt Lt. Jenvey from his Service Record

Above: Courtesy of The Ottawa Citizen, dated June 25th, 1946

From left to right in the front row:Fg Off. Roger Eugene George McCurdy J21517 (KiA 13th August 1944), Fg Off. James Hughes Beatty J14471, Unknown, Unknown.

Standing second row: Fg Off. John Fraser Dewar J28180 (KiA 12th August 1944), WO2. Richard Arthur Watson R135831, Fg Off. Ronald William Doidge J26406 (KiA 20th October 1944), Sqn Ldr. Harold Orville Gooding DFC J10608, Flt Lt. Clifford Waldron Hicks J26912 (KiA 8th August 1944), Fg Off. Donald Claude Campbell J28170.

Seated on the wing third row: Flt Lt. Donald Edward Jenvey (This Report), Fg Off. John Spencer ‘Sandy’ Colville J29167 (KiA 18th August 1944), Fg Off. R.J. Currie Gardner J36788, Fg Off. Gordon Douglas Russell J13714.

REASON FOR LOSS

On the 29th December 1944 at 12:35 hrs two flights of four Typhoons took off from B.78 Eindhoven on an Armed Recce of the Münster area. Flt Lt. Jenvey was leading the first of the flights on the 98th sortie of his tour and was to have been grounded on his return to base.

Flt Lt. Harry James Henry Hardy DFC, J20841 described the loss of Typhoon Ib RB201 and the initial escape of Flt Lt. Jenvey:

‘We were strafing a train when the car Buck was strafing blew up and he flew through all the debris in the air. Some of it went into his oil cooler and he came out the other side streaming coolant. He force landed in a field, got out and was running towards a tree’d area. I flew down low over his plane; he stopped, turned around and waved to me. This image has always stayed with me. The plane in front, the bushes behind and him waving to me.’

The force landing was reported to be in the vicinity of Near Neuenkirchen (Kreis Steinfurt), Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Flt Lt. Jenvey headed west and crossed the German-Dutch border to reach Oldenzaal after a 40 km walk. In Oldenzaal he contacted the Dutch Resistance and from 3rd January 1945 he was hidden above the carpentry factory at Ootmarsumsestraat 47 where he would remain for about 10 weeks.

Although the Allied front lines were approaching fast, Flt Lt. Jenvey wanted to get back to friendly territory as soon as possible. On the 17th March he was moved again to a safe house in Enschede and then over an unknown period he was moved onto a number of other safe houses in Enschede. On the 21st March his photograph was taken and the following day a false identity card was provided in the name of Herens Heere who was deaf and dumb.

Flt Lt. Jenvey was then handed over to, who was thought to be another member of the resistance, but was in fact the Dutch traitor Carl Ludwig Huschka, who was working for the Sicherheitsdienst (SD).

Huschka ‘arranged’ for himself and Flt Lt. Jenvey to be arrested at a road block. On the 25th March on Hengelosestraat in Enschede the two were stopped and Flt Lt. Jenvey was arrested.

As he was being driven away in a car towards Enschede a flight of Typhoons appeared overhead and Flt Lt. Jenvey took the opportunity to try and escape. It was speculated that he felt he would be shot as a spy because of his civilian clothes. In the ensuing struggle, possibly against three men, Huschka got out of the car, pulled his pistol and shot Flt Lt. Jenvey dead.

A Carl Ludwig Huschka was tried for unknown crimes and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment on the 17th October 1951 in Zutphen, Netherlands. He died in 1966.

He was buried that night in a grave at the Twente (Twenthe) airfield. Less than a week later on the 1st April 1945 Enschede was liberated by Allied forces.

The DFC was awarded to Flt Lt. Jenvey on the 2nd March 1945 for operations with 440 Sqn. London Gazette 2nd March 1945.

Citation: "Flight Lieutenant Jenvey is a skilful and tenacious fighter. He has completed a large number of sorties against a variety of targets and throughout his determination has been exceptional. During a short period towards the end of December, 1944, Flight Lieutenant Jenvey led the squadron on a number of sorties over the battle zone. In these operations more than forty mechanical vehicles were destroyed and a larger number damaged Much of the success achieved can be attributed to the skilful leadership of Flight Lieutenant Jenvey, who also shot down a Messerschmitt 109".

He was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches (MiD) on the 13th June 1946.

On the 27th December 1944 flying Typhoon Ib MN641, he was leading a section of 4 aircraft on a bombing mission carrying two 520 lb cluster bombs. After dropping their bombs they set course for home when he discovered that his section was not with him.

He turned about and flew for about 30 seconds at 10000 ft in the direction of the target. About 5 mls SE of St. Vith he sighted a Bf109 going straight up in front of him then turning steeply to port. He climbed and closing to 300 yards firing a long burst and obtained strikes on the port wing. The Bf109 spiralled down doing a complete turn before he could close again. He closed with the enemy aircraft almost directly above and to within 50 yards and fired observing hits all over both wings and cockpit causing the wings to disintegrate and the hood and some engine cowling to fly off. The Bf109 streamed black smoke and dived into the ground.

While he was following the enemy aircraft down he was attacked by three more Bf109s from his starboard quarter and above at about 4000 ft. He avoided them and climbed after the last one in the formation, closed to within 50 yards and pressed the firing button but his guns had jammed. This Bf109 took no evasive as he had not seen him. As he pulled up on the enemy aircraft’s starboard side the Bf109 broke steeply to port and Flt Lt. Jenvey followed closing on his tail until the Bf109 commenced a steep right hand dive at which point Flt Lt. Jenvey broke off and set course for home.

His victim was almost certainly Lt. Gernot Stein, the Staffelkapitän of 7./JG27. His Bf109G-14/AS Werk #784764 "White 8 + -" was shot down in the vicinity of St. Vith by fighters from 440 Sqn on this day. This coincides with the only claim by 440 Sqn on this day. (Aircrew Remembered - Kracker Luftwaffe Archive)

Note: The Bf109G-14/AS was a standardised late production variant G-6 with a Daimler-Benz (DB) 605ASM for high altitude operations.

Burial details:

Above the Enschede Eastern General Cemetery

Flt Lt. Donald Edward Jenvey DFC, MiD. He was recovered and reinterred at the Enschede Eastern General Cemetery, Grave 191. Inscription 'HIS WORK WELL DONE, HIS BATTLE WON, HE HAS GONE TO HIS REWARD'. Born on the 21st January 1921 in Oxford County, Ontario. Son of Earl Stanley and of Mary (née Mitchell) Jenvey, of Ingersoll, Ontario. Husband of Beulah Marguerite (née Chamberlain) Jenvey, of Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada.

Researched by Ralph Snape and dedicated to this pilot and his family.

Other sources as quoted below:

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