Operation: Conebo (1)

Date: 05th November 1943 (Friday)

Unit: No. 254 Squadron. Coastal Command. 16 Group

Type: Beaufighter TF.X

Serial: LZ178

Code: QY-F

Base: RAF North Coates, Lincolnshire

Location: North Sea off the Dutch coast

Pilot: F/O. William George Palmer NZ/416532 RNZAF Age 27. Missing - believed killed

Obs: F/O. Peter Warren Sykes Smallwood 130841 RAFVR Age 30. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off at 06:30 hrs to attack a group of four E-Boats off the Dutch coast.

LZ178 failed to return and no trace of the pilot was found. The navigator was buried at Bergen-Op-Zoom War Cemetery.

(1) Conebo: This was a British air undertaking by Bristol Beaufighter heavy fighters of Air Chief Marshal Sir William Sholto Douglas’s RAF Coastal Command to blockade the eastern end of the English Channel during ‘Overlord’ and so deny the German navy any opportunity to launch a naval attack on ‘Overlord’, especially by S-boote from bases in the German-occupied Low Countries, but also larger warships from German and Scandinavian ports.

Burial and personal details:

F/O. William George Palmer. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 198. Born on the 21st March 1916 at Dunedin. Worked as a clerk for his fathers accountants company. Enlisted on the 29th November 1941at Levin. Awarded his pilots badge on the 03rd July 1942 when he was also commissioned. Son of Albert Edgar and Jessie Palmer, of Havelock North, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand and husband of June Palmer, of Westminster, London, U.K. 456 flying hours logged and on his 13th operational sortie.

F/O. Peter Warren Sykes Smallwood. Bergen-Op-Zoom War Cemetery. Grave 31. B. 2. Born on the 30th November 1911. Son of John Russell Smallwood and Margaret Hilda Smallwood and husband of Norah Evelyn Smallwood (nee Walford), of Westminster, London. A.C.A.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this pilot with thanks to Jenifer Lemaire and to the extensive research by Errol Martyn and his publications: “For Your Tomorrow Vols. 1-3”, Auckland Library Heritage Collection, AWMM, Weekly News of New Zealand, other sources as quoted below:

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