Operation: Training

Date: 28th August 1942 (Friday)

Unit: 13 Operational Training Unit (OTU)

Type: Blenheim IV

Serial: V6197/and N6169

Base: RAF Bicester, Oxfordshire

Location: North Sea off Flamborough Head, Yorkshire, England

V6197:

Pilot: Sgt. Stanley Charles Moss 408513 RAAF Age? Survived(1)

Obs: Sgt. Francis Arnold Winter Nice 1376879 RAFVR Age 30. Killed

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. Frank Henry Edwards 1376134 RAF Age 27. Killed

N6169:

Pilot: Sgt. Eric Armstrong Hooker 1319945 RAFVR Age 21. Killed (2)

Obs: Sgt. Frank Leslie James 1191205 RAFVR Age 28. Killed

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. Colin William Free 1376731 RAFVR Age ? Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

V6197 took off at 09:05 hrs from RAF Bicester, Oxfordshire with N6169 taking off slightly later at 09:25 hrs. Both on a navigational exercise. A routine transmission at 10.09 hrs was received at Bicester from V6197. At some time after 10:58 hrs the two aircraft collided head on, both aircraft fell into the North Sea some 26 miles north east of Flamborough Head.

Miraculously, the pilot of V6197, Sgt. Stan Moss, was thrown clear of the aircraft, he remained in his dingy adrift for some 50 hours prior to being picked up twenty miles off the coast.

Sgt. Stanley Charles Moss

Aircrew Remembered are in contact with Stan Moss, his story can also be read on our website.

(1)Sgt. Stan Moss was shot down just a few months later whilst serving with 464 squadron.

(2) Sgt Eric A Hooker flying an Oxford AT621 out of Holme on Spalding Moor had a narrow escape earlier on the 3rd June 1942. He was undertaking a Beam Approach training flight when the aircraft swung on landing and, out of control, it ran into a deep ditch on the edge of the airfield and overturned at 09:00hrs. The other pilot, Sgt. W.C. Herr RCAF also survived.

Burial details:

V6197:

Sgt. Francis Arnold Winter Nice. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 90. Son of Francis Richard and Maria Louisa Nice, of West Norwood, London, husband of Olive Nice, of Morden, Surrey, England.

Sgt. Frank Henry Edwards. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 82. Son of Henry Herbert Edwards and Winifred Edwards, of Croydon, Surrey; husband of Stephanie Jeanne Edwards, of Shirley, Surrey, England.

N6169:

Sgt. Eric Armstrong Hooker. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 86. Son of William J. Hooker, and of Winifred Hooker, of Seven Kings, Essex, England.

Sgt. Frank Leslie James. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 86. Son of Richard L. and Florence James, husband of Gwendoline Bessie James.

Sgt. Colin William Free. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 83. The son of Alfred and Annie E (née Bailey) of Westham, Essex, England.

Researched for relatives of the crews. With thanks to Stanley Moss, Fay and Gerald McPherson. For Stanley Charles Moss, in preparation to his story on his Prisoner of War days, hoping to be published by Aircrew Remembered. Further details kindly supplied by Dave Champion - July 2018.

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