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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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44
44 Squadron Hampden I P2123 F/O. David Albert Alton Romans DFC

Operation: Berlin

Date: 31/01 September 1940 (Saturday/Sunday)

Unit: No. 44 Squadron (Fulmina regis iusta - 'The King's thunderbolts are righteous') 6 Group

Type: Hampden I

Serial: P2123

Code: KM-?

Base: RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire

Location: North Sea

Pilot: F/O. David Albert Alton Romans DFC. 42265 RAF Survived (1)

Obs: P/O. Donald E. Stewart RCAF Survived

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Cpl. Harry Logan RAFVR Survived

Air/Gnr: Cpl. .John James Mandale RAFVR Survived

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off at 20:05 hrs with three other aircraft from the squadron. Twenty four others from various squadrons from Scanpton, Hemswell and Lindholm joined them to bomb various targets in Berlin, this was the maximum range for the Hampden. 44 squadron were to bomb the BMW aeroengine factory in the Spandau. 44 squadron aircraft would carry 500-lb. GP with different delay fuzes and 250- lb. bombs.

The returning crews described that the weather conditions as very bad and low visibility due to ground haze and waving searchlights, 10/10 clouds down tp 2,000 ft. which made that main target was not found by the bombing crews. Flak over the target was intense but below the bombers.

On the return journey having flown for over nine hours it was clear they would soon run out of fuel. The pilot ordered the crew to jettison all the guns and ammunition, it wasn't enough to enable them to make landfall. The pilot made a very skilful ditching at 05:35 hrs three miles from Salthouse near Cromer. The Sheringham lifeboat 'Foresters Centenary' (2) was launched at 06:00 hrs to pick up survivors or bodied. On arrival the crew had already left and had made their way to the shore in aircrafts rubber Dinghy.. It was heavily mined but incredibly all four uninjured crew crossed safely. The crew on the Foresters Centenary salvaged gear and wreckage from the site and then returned to their station at Sheringham.

In 1975 two fishermen, Ronald Bishop and George Cook were out collecting the famous Cromer crabs when they found the pots snagged on some wreckage. Following this the fishermen told a local Mr. John Wise a design and manufactuerer pf underwater equipment who helped them free the pots.

Mr. Wise decided that he would raise one of the engines using special list bags he had designed with the help of the fishermen. The engine was kept on the lawn of Mr. Wise home in Grove Lane Holt in Norfolk.

Later it had been at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum at Flixton, near Bungay, Suffolk. (See link below)

In late 2024 a Mr, Rob Spray, a diver from Suffolk, came across the Handley-Page Hampden off Salthouse on the north Norfolk coast while filming sea life. Initially the dive team were confused what aircraft it was as only one engine was located. Mr Spray, chair of the Marine Conservation for Norfolk Action Group, found the aircrat lying in about 23ft. (7m) of water. Paul Hennessey, from Norfolk Wreck Research, helped identify the bomberas P2123, but the task was made harder because only one engine was present.

(1) F/O. David Romans DFC later lost his life on the 08th September 1941 with all other 6 crew. Flying with 90 squadron on a B-17 Fortress AN525 WP-D.

DFC Citation London Gazette 30th July 1940'.

'Pilot Officer Romans was navigator and bomb aimer in an aircraft engaged in a recent bombing attack on Eschwege aerodrome. During the attack, the aircraft was hit by a shell from the ground defences, and the pilot was rendered unconscious. Pilot Officer Romans, realising that the aircraft was flying in an erratic manner, and receiving no communication from the pilot, proceeded to the pilot's cockpit, and sitting on the unconscious pilot's knees, gained control of the aircraft. He continued to fly it under these conditions until the injured pilot was removed some twenty minutes later by the remainder of the crew. This officer per formed a fine feat of airmanship and showed great presence of mind in gaining control of the aircraft under such difficult conditions, especially as it was flying at a dangerously low altitude and subjected to intense and accurate anti-aircraft fire. He further succeeded in flying the aircraft safely back to its base, which necessitated accurate navigation without assistance'.

F/O. David Romans had a further lucy escape. On the 06th July 1940 flying Hampden P4290 KM-B the aircraft departed RAF Waddington on an operation to Szczecin (Stettin), Poland. It was ditched off Lowestoft after running out of fuel. The crew were saved, uninjured, by a passing patrol vessel. (Crew: P/O Arche Ronald Kerr (3), Sgt. Harry Logan, Sgt Simons)

(2) Foresters Centenary was built by Groves and Gutteridge at Cowes in 1935, costing £3,569. She was named by the Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Roger Keyes, on the 18th July 1936 and was a gift from the Ancient Order of Foresters to the RNLI. She served at Sheringham, Norfolk from 1936 to 1961 and was Sheringham's first motorised lifeboat. She became known as the 'airmen's lifeboat' because she rescued more RAF personnel than any other lifeboat. She stood by for hours during over 1000 bombing raids and is credited with being launched 129 times and saving 92 lives. Foresters Centenary was sold in 1961 into private ownership. She had a cabin and wheelhouse fitted at this time and was converted to a fishing hire boat. She was renamed 'Seal Morning' and kept this name until 1998. In January 2003, she was put on display at Sheringham.

Above: Memorial to the crew. (View larger image of plaque)

(3) 19 year old, P/O. Arche Ronald Kerr 79182 RAFVR lost his life on the 20th November 1940. With 44 squadron flying as navigator returning attack an oil refinery in Lutzkendorf near Leipzi, on Hampden I X3023 crashed at 06:30 hrs in atrocious weather at Templewood, Northrepps 4 miles south east of Cromer Norfolk. (Crew killed: pilot: Jack Leonard Frederick Ottaway, wireless operator/air gunner: 21 year old, Sgt. Stanley Federick Elliott) The fourth member air gunner Sgt. Stanley Hird survived the crash and served to the end of the war as a Flying Officer and awarded the DFC. A memorial was erect on the spot to its crew in the form of a tree stump and commemorative plate in November 2014.


Burial details:

F/O. David Albert Alton Romans DFC, Bygland Churchyard, Norway. Born on the November 27, 1920 in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia Son of David James (died 01st Jul 1952, age 86) and Rachel Louisa Ley Romans (died in1962, age 80), of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Epitaph: 'Whosoever Loseth His Life For My Sake, Shall Find It'.

P/O. Arche Ronald Kerr. Carlisle Cemetery (Dalston Road). Ward 11. Sec.tion B.1. Grave 65. Son of Robert Gilmour Kerr and Margaret Jamieson Kerr, of Long Sowerby, Carlisle. Epitaph: 'Son Of R.G. And M.J. Kerr 10 Well Bank, Carlisle. Epitaph: 'He Died That We Might Live'.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to the National Archive.s Kew, AIR-27/453/891, AIR-27-980-18. Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum, Government of Canada WW2 service records, National Historic Ships, BBC East.

KTY 15.12.2024

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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 Captain 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', Andrew Mielnik: Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Polish graves: https://niebieskaeskadra.pl/, PoW Museum Żagań, 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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