Operation: Ramrod

Date: 16th April 1943 (Friday)

Unit: No. 486 Squadron (motto: Hiwa hau Maka - 'Beware of the Wild Winds')

Type: Typhoon Ib

Serial: R8881

Code: SA-R

Base: RAF Tangmere, West Sussex

Location: Selsey

Pilot: Fl/Lt. Harvey Nelson Sweetman NZ/40992 RNZAF Age 21. Survived

REASON FOR LOSS:

During a ramrod in the morning engaged fighters over Le Havre.

Understood that the aircraft suffered engine damage but the pilot managed to nurse the crippled Typhoon over the English Channel, cleared the cliffs at 100 ft and force landed his aircraft in a potato field at Selsey, (see map).

The following month he was awarded the DFC.

Went on to become one of the most successful fighter pilots against the V-1 flying bomb, accounting for 11 of them during the autumn of 1944.

Above: 485 Squadron members, Redhill 1941. Front sitting L-R: Fl/Sgt. John Donald Rae, Fl/Lt. Richard Barrett, Fl/Sgt. Harvey Sweetman. Centre: P/O. Henry Wallace Macleod RCAF, Sgt. Ellis Arthur Gilbert Cochrane, Sgt. Lyndon Poynton Griffith, P/O. William Vernon Crawford-Compton, Sq/Ldr. Marcus William Bower Knight, Sgt. Andy S. Kronfeld, P/O. David Thomas Clouston. Rear on Aircraft: Fl/Lt. Robert Harold Strang, Sgt. Arnold George McNeil, Sgt. Lindsay Jack Frecklington, Sgt. Francis, Fl/Sgt. William Max Krebs. (see notes below)

Notes:

F/O. John Donald Rae DFC and bar NZ/402896 - Survived as a PoW.
Fl/Lt. Richard Barrett NZ/391324 - killed on the 17th May 1944.
Fl/Lt. Harvey Nelson Sweetman DFC NZ/40992 - survived the war - Died 15 January 2015 Age 93
P/O. Henry Wallace Macleod J/4912 RCAF - killed 27th September 1944.
P/O. Ellis Arthur Gilbert Cochrane NZ/403950 - Missing - believed killed on the 02nd March 1943.
Fl/Lt. Lyndon Poynton Griffith DFC. 501133 - survived the war - no further information.
Air Vice Marshall William Vernon Crawford-Compton 65500 - Died 02nd January 1988 Age 73.
Sq/Ldr. Marcus William Bower Knight - survived the war - Died 1993.
Fl/Lt. Andrew Samuel Kronfeld NZ/402523 - survived the war - no further information.
Fl/Lt. David Thomas Clouston MiD. NZ/404337 - survived the war - Died 24th March 1998 Age 80.
Fl/Lt. Robert Harold Strang 79515 - Missing - believed killed on the 25th January 1942.
Sgt. Arnold George McNeil NZ/41484 - killed on the 25th February 1942.
Fl/Lt. Lindsay Jack Frecklington NZ/401261 - survived the war - no further information.
Sgt. Francis - survived the war - no further information.
Fl/Sgt. William Max Krebs NZ/402194 - Missing - believed killed on the 26th March 1942

Burial details:

None - survived the war passed away on the 15th January 2014. See obituary here.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this pilot with thanks to the research by Errol Martyn and his publications: “For Your Tomorrow Vols. 1-3”, Auckland War Memorial Museum, Weekly News of New Zealand, other sources as quoted below:

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