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Archive Report: Allied Forces

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.
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460 Squadron Crest
02/03.06.1942 460 Squadron Wellington IV Z1394 UV:Q Fg.Off. J.W. Keene

Operation: Essen

Date: 2nd/3rd June 1942 (Tuesday/Wednesday)

Unit: 460 Squadron (RAAF)

Type: Wellington IV

Serial: Z1394

Code: UV:Q

Base: RAF Breighton, Yorkshire

Location: Ellewoutsdijk, Netherlands

Pilot: Fg.Off. John Walter Keene 402742 RAAF Age 25. Killed

Obs: Flt.Sgt. Ronald Frederick Waldon 400894 RAAF Age 23. Killed

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. William Kendall 1309012 RAFVR Age 26. Killed

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. Douglas Graham Butterworth 404471 PoW No: 12675 Camp: Stalag Lamsdorf

Air Gnr: Flt.Sgt. Reginald John Biglands 407282 RAAF Age 28. Missing - believed killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off at 23:26 hrs from RAF Breighton to attack the city of Essen. One of 10 aircraft from the Squadron detailed to bomb the city of Essen. The weather that night was fine with little or no cloud


A relatively small force of 195 Aircraft took part - 97 Wellingtons, 38 Halifaxes, 27 Lancasters, 21 Stirlings and 12 Hampdens in the second night in succession bombing Essen. The attack was widely scattered and records show that only 3 high explosive and 300 incendiary bombs hit the city with no serious damage or injuries.

The RAF however lost 14 aircraft! 68 crew members were killed with a further 15 made prisoners of war.

The Squadron lost another crew on this operation: Wellington IV Z1249 UV-K. Flown by 22 year old Flt.Sgt. Solomon Levitus 402910 RAAF - missing with all crew.

Above: Wellington Z1394 UV:Q Left to Right: Sgt. Hedley Hawkins, Plt.Off. John Keene, Sgt. Graham Berry, Sgt. Doug Butterworth, Sgt. Ronald Waldron, Sgt. Reg Biglands.

(Note on photograph: Sgt. Graham Royston Berry 407281 RAAF was ill on the night this aircraft was lost - his replacement had been Sgt. William Kendall. Sgt. Berry was shot down in Lancaster W4273 UV:A on an operation to Stuttgart - the first Lancaster lost with 460 Squadron on the 23rd November 1942. All the crew survived as either PoW or evading capture. Sgt. Hawkins may be Sgt. Hedley Maurice Hawkins 404433 RAAF lost on a Gardening Operation whilst with 101 Squadron on the 22nd September 1942)

After they had dropped their bomb load they started on the return flight, flying very low (200-300 ft) to avoid German night fighters.

The crew did not report that a night fighter shot the aircraft down and according to the surviving crew member the reason for the aircraft crashing was probably due to instrument malfunction or that the pilot never realised precisely how low they were when they had just set a course for home.

However, Nachtjagd Combat Archive (30 May - 31 December 1942) The Early Years Part 3 - Theo Boiten, records a probable (confirmation date unknown) claim for Z1394 by Oblt. Dr. Horst Patuschka, his 5th Abschuss, from 7./NJG2 at 02:50. Additionally the aircraft was also claimed by 32. MS Flotilla. See Kracker Luftwaffe Archive on this site.

Statement from Sgt. Doug Butterworth described that after the aircraft hit the water, both he (suffering from cuts on temple and scalp, right knee and left ankle dislocated) and Plt.Off. Keene (no severe injuries) spoke to one another and started to swim ashore but became separated. No sign of Sgt. Kendall and Sgt. Biglands. Two young German Navy sailors in a small launch captured Sgt. Butterworth some 3 hours after the crash and took him to the closest German Navy establishment at Flushing, Holland

"Extremely low we were - I can remember sandbanks and dinghies whipping in and out of view. Then things changed abruptly from the visual to the audio mode, with a crashing, rending noise as we hit the water. To my knowledge I don't think we were shot down. The navigator had just given the pilot the course for home, and as the pilot set the verge ring on the compass, which was positioned at a very low height, he must have pushed the stick forward. I can remember rolling over and over in the turret, tangled up with oxygen hoses and intercom wires. Also, my feet were tangled up in the wreckage. It looked like curtains, until I was able to force my feet out of my flyings boots. The next thing I remembered was swimming upwards with lungs bursting. Apparently the turret must have broken away from the main fuselage."

Three of the crews bodies were washed up on the shore at Wissenkerke on the 3rd June and buried on the 5th, the same month. The fourth crew member, Sgt. Biglands was never recovered and is thought that either he went down with the aircraft or is buried as unknown.

(Note: some of the crew were posthumously promoted which is why some details show different ranks. Douglas Butterworth passed away in 2010)


Burial details:

Fg.Off. John Walter Keene. Flushing Northern Cemetery (Vlissingen). Row B. Grave 31. Born on the 25th October 1916 in Sydney, the son of William Henry and Ada Millicent Keene, of 133 Darley Road, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia.

Flt.Sgt. Ronald Frederick Waldon. Flushing Northern Cemetery (Vlissingen). Row B. Grave 30. Born on the 16th September 1918 in Beechworth, Victoria the son of Albert David and Rosina Sydney Waldon, of Korford Road, Beechworth, Victoria, Australia.

Sgt. William Kendall. Flushing Northern Cemetery (Vlissingen). Row B. Grave 28. Son of William and Rose Kendall, of Birmingham and husband of Mavis Kendall, of Rubery, Birmingham, England.

Flt.Sgt. Reginald John Biglands. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 111. Born on the 23rd May 1914 in Adelaide, the son of Percy and Pearl Martha Biglands and husband of Olive May Biglands, of Kilburn, South Australia.

For further details our thanks to Wayne Butterworth, grandson of Sgt. Butterworth who contacted us in March 2017. To Des Philippet Find A Grave for grave photographs. Also thanks to the following sources:

RS 15.09.2020 - Update with German fighter claim

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Acknowledgements
Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and MWO François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Stan D. Bishop, John A. Hey MBE, Gerrie Franken and Maco Cillessen - Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vols 1-6, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiton - Nachtjagd Combat Archives, Vols 1-13. Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
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