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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19.05.1940 No. 150 Squadron Fairey Battle I P5235 JN-H P/O. David E.T. Osment

Operation: Intruder operation on enemy troops, France

Date: 19th May 1940 (Sunday)

Unit: No. 150 Squadron

Type: Fairey Battle MkI

Serial: P5235

Code: JN-H

Base: Pouan France

Location: near ‘Chêne Tonneau’ at Barby 3 miles West of Rethel France

Pilot: P/O. David Ernest Thomas Osment 40742 RAF PoW No: 506 Camp: Stalag Luft Sagan and Bellaria

Obs: Sgt. G.W. Clifford 524803 RAFVR PoW No: 13058 Camp: Stalag Kopernikus

Air/Gnr: AC1 W.G. Slade 616565 RAFVR PoW No: 13093 Camp: Stalag Kopernikus

REASON FOR LOSS:

P/O. David Osment’s aircraft was badly damaged in action on an enemy armour patrol north of the Aisne west of Rethel by A/A fire and belly landed near “Chêne Tonneau” Barby, 3 miles West of Rethel at 11.15 hrs.

P/O. Osment was captured by German forces near Charleville, some 25 mile to the North of the crash site while his two crew members Sgt. Clifford and AC1. Slade were captured to the South near Reims”

P/O. Osment spent the remainder of the war a prisoner in Stalag Luft III. On returning to Britain in 1945 he rejoined the RAF having originally been commissioned as a Pilot Officer on May 7th 1938. He served through the 1950′s and retired from the RAF as a Sqd.Ldr. in 1964. David Ernest Thomas Osment was born on the island of St Vincent, West Indies on the 14th October 1916. Son of Thomas and Eliza Laughlin (née Richards) Osment. Husband to Joan Eleanor (née Randell) Osment who predeceased him on the 9th April 2005. David died on the 11th May 2008 in Kintbury, Berkshire, England aged 91.

Burial details:

None - all crew survived.

Researched by Michel Beckers for Aircrew Remembered November 2015. Photographs from his own collection. Thanks Tom Osment for additional for his father Sqn.Ldr. Osment.

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