Operation: Intruder

Date: 10th April 1943 (Saturday)

Unit: No. 410 Squadron (motto: ' Noctivaga - 'Wandering by night)

Type: Mosquito NF.II

Serial: DZ743

Code: RA-?

Base: RAF Coleby Grange, Lincolnshire

Location: IJlst, Friesland, Netherlands

Pilot: F/O. John Edward Leach J/15578 (R/88672) RCAF Age 26. Killed

Obs: F/O. ' Monty' Roland Montgomery Bull J/8604 (R/88746) RCAF Age 24. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off at 08:55 hrs together with P/O. Johnny A, Watt (pilot - J/16945) and Eric Collis (navigator - 138305) in Mosquito NF.II DZ694 on an operation to attack enemy locomotives. DZ694 had to return early due to mechanical problems and landed back at base at 09:35 hrs.

DZ743 continued to the target area. The pilot turned sharply and flew from Oosthem toward IJlst at a low altitude. While they were firing at a locomotive, the right wingtip of their aircraft touched a treetop, careered to the right and headed for the town in flames. The pilot turned his airplane to the left, hit the trees in the Stadslaan and crashed at 10:30 hrs, killing both of the crew,

Burial and other details:

Both crew were buried on the 12th April 1943 by the Germans with full military honours. Unusually they permitted the local inhabitants to lay flowers. To this day the only CWF

Left: John Edward Leach with his wife Daphne Minto Shaw (courtesy Operation Picture me)

F/O. John Edward Leach. Ijlst General Cemetery. Row 14. Grave 430. Born on the 28th September 1916 in Glasgow, Scotland. Enlisted on the 07th January 1941. Son of Thomas Austin (died 27th June 1969, age 79) and Beatrice May Leach (née Plumb - died 12th February 1964, age 71), of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Husband of Daphne Minto Leach (née Shaw, later Bentley - married on the 29th September 1941 - died 15th March 2007, age 81) of 1100 A. Yonge Street, Toronto. Epitaph: 'Until The Day Break'.

F/O. Roland Montgomery Bull. Ijlst General Cemetery. Row 14. Grave 429. Born on the 12th January 1919 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Enlisted on the 08th January 1941 in Toronto. Son of Colonel Roland Osborne Bull (died 15th November 1972, age 77) and Edna Weston Bull, (née Montgomery- died 02nd May 1966, age 71) Brother of Mary Minette and Anne Barbra. Roland married Ruth Ruston (née Flanders - died 22nd December 2007, age 92) a few months after the death of his first wife in November 1966, of First Street, Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Epitaph: 'Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That A Man Lay Down His Life For His Friends'.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to the National Archive Kew, AIR-27/1802/41 /42, Government of Canada WW2 Service Fils, Parade RCAF Archives..

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