218 SQUADRON CREW LIST 14-05-40
 

I am trying to identify the eleven crews from 218 Squadron who flew during the afternoon of 14 May, 1940. Seven Battles attacked a column on the Bouillon-Givonne road, the other four machines attacked a bridge at Douzy. Ten were shot down and one returned.

I have The Battle File / Chorley / Valient Wings. The NA has provided citations for awards of the DFC to Acting Flight Lieutenant J M M HUGHES and the DFM to Corporal J A DRUMMOND both covering the 14th May. As the content in both is very similar I 'presume' that they could be Pilot and Gunner respectively. I am also assuming that their's was the surviving 11th aircraft? Can anyone identify the third memeber of this crew?

All offers of help or suggestions regarding further sources will be gratefully received.

Regards – Malcolm.

Re: 218 SQUADRON CREW LIST 14-05-40
 

Since my original posting I have managed to identify the third crew member in Acting Flight Lieutenant J M M HUGHES Fairey Battle. Unfortunately I have not be successful in attributing a serial number to this aircraft.

Once more I would like to ask if any Forum member can help me with information relating to the losses suffered by 218 Squadron on 14.05.40 or have knowledge of photographs taken of 218 squadron machines. I have seen several examples depicting crashed aircraft belonging to other AASF units taken by German troops and hope that examples may exist recording 218 losses.

Can anyone offer any help?

With kind regards, Malcolm.

Re: 218 SQUADRON CREW LIST 14-05-40
 

Hi Malcolm
From Battle of France-then and Now,P Cornwell there are accounts of 5 218 Sqn Losses and a note that positive evidence of 5 more has not so far been found.
Attacking bridge at Wadelincourt
P2360 P/O R T Butting and AC1 W C Waterston both MIA no 3rd crew member reported
L5422 F/O J F R Crane KIA, AC1 T W Holloway POW
L5232 P/O W A R Harris baled out burned, Sgt N B Herriot and AC1 W Robinson KIA
Bouilon-Gavonne road
L5235 Bf 109 attack, belly landed P/O A M Irvine POW LAC A J Taylor POW, died of wounds
P2324 F/O D A J Foster and AC1 T J Bryan both POW
It seems from the book that Battles did not always fly with a 3rd crew member
Regards
Dick

Re: 218 SQUADRON CREW LIST 14-05-40
 

Hello Dick,

Thank you for the reply and interesting information.

With this project I am trying to identify the other 218 Squadron machines that were possibly lost on that day. It is recorded that in total 10 aircraft were lost and one returned. I now know the identity of the crew of the surviving aircraft, but not the serial number. I would like to discover the identity of the other 5 aircraft involved. A tentative attribution has been suggested in several publications for these machines but due to a lack of official records these are not proven.

One question I am trying to answer is this. If records were lost, where has the information that ten Battles in total were destroyed originated?

Five are recorded as such and I have no issue with these. But what of the others? Are the identities attributed correct? Or could other machines have returned that day?

Any help or thoughts will be most appreciated.

Kind regards, Malcolm.

Re: 218 SQUADRON CREW LIST 14-05-40
 

Part 1 of 3 - due to connection problems.

Hallo Malcolm,

This is a fascinating puzzle, but one where the answer may be in front of us. I put forward the following for discussion.

Please bear with me while I first outline the well-known background which is vital to my argument. On re-reading the relevant entries for 218 Squadron in The Battle File, Valiant Wings, Peter Cornwell's The Battle of France T&N and other sources one can determine the following.

May 10th: 218 flew 4 sorties this day.
All 4 Battles were damaged, but returned to base.
One was later abandoned as D.B.R. (L5402).
One crew member was KIA, the other 11 returned safely.

May 11th: 218 flew 4 sorties this day.
All 4 aircraft were lost ( K9325, P2203, P2249 HA-U and P2326 ).
Of the crewmen 4 were KIA and 8 became POWs.

May 12th: 218 flew 3 sorties this day.
2 aircraft lost (K9353 and P2183), one returnrd to base.
Of the crewmen 4 were KIA, 2 evaded and 3 returned safely.

May 13th: 218 flew no sorties this day.

May 14th: 218 flew 11 sorties this day.
5 aircraft were lost (L5232, L5235 HA-W, L5422, P2324 and P2360).
In the above 5 Battles there were 11 crewmen on board; of whom 6 were KIA, 4 became POWs and one was wounded but returned.

This leaves 6 Battles to account for. It is my contention that the second 5 aircraft reputed to have been lost this day were in fact all badly damaged but returned to their airfield. The following day (May 15th), as per Peter Cornwell's book, these 5 Battles were abandoned at Auberieve when the squadron moved to a new base.

To be continued....

Martin Gleeson.

Re: 218 SQUADRON CREW LIST 14-05-40
 

Hi,

I have one remark:

12.05.40 K9353 HA-J.

Regards

Robert

Re: 218 SQUADRON CREW LIST 14-05-40
 

Part 2 of 3.

These 5 had to be from the 6 serial numbers quoted on page 283; K9251 HA-K, K9256, K9273 HA-R, L5192 HA-P, P2189 and P2192 HA-E. However I do have a concern for the inclusion of K9256. Referring to Sidney Shail's excellent The Battle File he records that K9256 went to 218 Squadron on 11.10.1938, next to 2 Salvage Section on 7.3.1940, then to 21 Aircraft Depot on 25.3.40 and finally that it was "presumed abandoned in France 6.40". If it went to 21 A.D. at Chateau-Bougon near Nantes then it was most unlikely to have been returned to 218 Squadron by May. In fact reading through the individual Battle histories in Shail's book shows a journey to 21 A.D. was one-way ! Via 21 A.D. to the scrapyard at Chateau-Bougon or back to the UK, but almost never, if ever, back to the front-line squadrons.
I believe the 6th Battle abandoned at Auberieve should be L5402, as suggested by Peter Cornwell himself on page 183 of his book.

It is worth noting that Sidney Shail on page 58 of his book believed that the second 5 Battles reputedly lost on May 14th were probably the 5 mentioned in the paragraph above, but not including K9256. So I am not breaking entirely new ground with this post. However he nowhere records that the squadron abandoned aircraft at Auberieve on the following day.

As an aside both The Battle File and Valiant Wings claim that a 218 Squadron Battle was destroyed on the ground at Auberieve by enemy bombing on May 15th. As Peter Cornwell does not record it I assume he found insufficient evidence to support this. Having gone through all the 218 Squadron Battle individual histories in Sidney Shail's book I could not find any possible match, unless it was one of the already damaged aircraft from May 14th.

I am baffled also by the two different HA-R marked Battles shown on page 272 of The Battle of France T&N. I cannot explain this little anomaly. It needs more research - and photos of 218 Squadron Battles ! Ed West, bless him, only a few nights ago posted another photo of K9273 HA-R.

To be concluded....

Martin.

Re: 218 SQUADRON CREW LIST 14-05-40
 

Part 3 of 3.

To support my argument about the second 5 'lost' Battles which I believe returned damaged to Auberieve I draw your attention to the fate of the crews of aircraft lost on May 11th (4), 12th (2) and 14th (the first known 5). Only 2 men from one crew returned unhurt, the other 27 became casualties. If another 5 Battles had been lost on May 14th - all or most with a 2-man crew - then we would have up to 10 or 12 more KIA/WIA/POWs. Nowhere has any evidence surfaced to support any extra casualties for 218 Squadron on May 14th.

In five days from May 10th to 14th 218 Squadron carried out 22 sorties. They lost 11 Battles and abandoned or wrote-off another 6. Worse, they lost the equivalent of 11 crews. With only 22 sorties to contend with one can relatively easily account for all of the squadron aircraft. Again from checking The Battle File - and trusting the details are all present and correct - one finds the following.

218 Squadron had 18 Battles on hand on May 10th;
K9251, K9273, K9323, K9325, K9353, L5192, L5232, L5235, L5237, L5402, L5422, P2183, P2189, P2192, P2203, P2249, P2324 and P2326.
They received another 4 as replacements between May 10th and 18th inclusive; L5514, L5579, P2315 and P2360.
On May 21st they transferred their remaining 5 operational Battles to 103 Squadron (L5514 and P2315) and to 150 Squadron (K9323, L5237 and L5579). These transfers are confirmed by various entries on pages 65-74 of The Battle File.

This I believe accounts for all of their aircraft proving, I hope, that only 5 Battles were lost in action away from their airfield on May 14th, though 10 in total were effectively lost as a result of the mission that day.

It would be very interesting if someone could tell us the source for the story of the '10 lost Battles'.

Unfortunately Malcolm, if I am correct, the 3 crew members you referred to at the beginning of this thread could therefore be from any of the 6 returning Battles. Sorry if that throws a spanner in your work !

Regards,

Martin.

Re: 218 SQUADRON CREW LIST 14-05-40
 

Hello Martin,

Thank you for the fascinating reply. Since my updated post I have also been collecting data from the publications you mention. I can now cross reference both to see what I have missed!

I think that your research is getting to the truth regarding 'losses' on the 14.05.40. I did suspect as much, hence my request for knowledge of the original source for these figures. It would be fantastic 'if' photo evidence could be located. A lot machines that became casualities during this campaign were photographed by German troops, who thankfully all seemed to carry cameras. These images often turn up on ebay.

I will be pouring over your research over the next few days and will come back with more questions!

I agree it is a fascinating puzzle, one from a fascinating campaign!

Kind regards, Malcolm.

PS: Do any Forum members have photographs relating to 218 Squadron during this period? If so, I would be very interested to hear from you!

Re: 218 SQUADRON CREW LIST 14-05-40
 

Hello,

I have noted from my old notes for my article "lost Battles" for Air Enthusiast that the following aircraft were abandoned at Auberive.

K9251 HA-K
K9273 HA-R
P2192 HA-E

I have photos of all three aircraft - in the case of K9273 and P2192 both Battles have had tailplanes/ailerons/props removed suggesting that they were being stripped down before being shipped off for repair. K9251 seems to have suffered port u/c failure and has had merlin removed.

It seems likely that HA-P L5192 was also abandoned at Auberive. Photos also exist of Battle L5402 which was burnt-out at Auberive.

Hope this helps,
Simon