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Re: The pilot who sank the BJÖNN?
Our friend Geoffrey Sinclair wish to add the following
The aircraft that sank the BJÖNN was not from Bomber Command, which on 9
December 1941 sent 4 Stirlings on cloud cover raids to Essen, 2 from 7
squadron found a tanker with escort off Holland 5155N 0345E, 1 managed
to drop 16x500 pound bombs claiming near misses.
220 Squadron Coastal Command ORB, 9 December 1941, Hudson T/220 F/S
Stone, Sgt Brown, Sgt Eyre, Sgt Foster, Vaaro patrol, take off 1220,
land 1900, sighted 1 MV and 4 EV estimated 3 probably 4 hits on MV.
In case that is not it:
Coastal Command Weekly report says on 9 December sorties were 10
intelligence (mostly PR and Weather), 5 ocean and 5 coastal convoy
escort, 6 defensive, 4 sea mining and 31 other offensive sorties, 3
aircraft missing. Ross McNeill reports 4 losses, 1 PR Spitfire and 3
Beauforts, 1 in the Bay of Biscay, 1 to a convoy off Holland and 1 from
42 squadron sent to Kristiansund but early in the morning, take 0ff 0550.
The weekly total says 137 out of 191 other offensive sorties were
Hudson, so most probably the attacker was from one of the nine
operational Hudson squadrons. During the week 2 Beaufort, 1 Liberator
and 12 Hudson attacked merchant ships, dropping 7.76 tons of ordnance
but no results are given. On 12 December Coastal Command reports Hudson
squadrons 48, 53, 59, 206, 220, 224, 233, 269, 320, 407 and 608 were
operational, 500 squadron was not.
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