Looking for photos of British Wellington 1A Bombers involved in or shot down during the Battle of the Heligoland Bight 18.12.39

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

Parallel with research for a major EoE painting on the Luft side (see Luft Board post), I'm looking for photos of the various British Wellington IA from 9, 37 and 149 SQs RAF Bomber Command that participated in, were damaged, crash-landed or were shot down during the "Battle of the Heligoland Bight," especially:

1) "Wellington IA N2936. Shot down by fighters and crash-landed on Borkum Island (Germany) about 1.45 p.m. Sergeant T. W. Holley and Corporal F. J. Taylor both killed in fighter attacks, Sergeant H. Ruse, Sergeant T. May, and Leading Aircraftsman H. A. Jones all captured. Aircraft LF*J a write-off."

Plus several others that landed damaged back at British bases.

Who can help?

Regards,

[ahafan]

Originally Posted by Larry Hickey

Hello,

Parallel with research for a major EoE painting on the Luft side (see Luft Board post), I'm looking for photos of the various British Wellington IA from 9, 37 and 149 SQs RAF Bomber Command that participated in, were damaged, crash-landed or were shot down during the "Battle of the Heligoland Bight," especially:

1) "Wellington IA N2936. Shot down by fighters and crash-landed on Borkum Island (Germany) about 1.45 p.m. Sergeant T. W. Holley and Corporal F. J. Taylor both killed in fighter attacks, Sergeant H. Ruse, Sergeant T. May, and Leading Aircraftsman H. A. Jones all captured. Aircraft LF*J a write-off."

Plus several others that landed damaged back at British bases.

Who can help?

Regards,

Hi
aircraft of the aces- me 109 aces first 1939-41 but only 2 pictures in the book..
sharon
and google -too...

[MW Giles]

There is a picture of the burned out fuselage of N2936 in the photographic section of the book "The Battle of Heligoland Bight 1939 - The Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe's Baptism of Fire" by Robin Holmes, Grub Street, London 2009 ISBN 13-9781906502560.

On the previous page there is a glimpse of what might be N2980 - R, pre its ditching in Loch Ness

Regards

Martin Giles

[BigWeeker]

Hi, Forumites
N2980, the Wellington at the Brooklands Museum, flew on that raid whilst with 149 Sqn. Thus, it is the only Wellington in existance to have seen active, combat service... The RAF Museum example is a late War, non operational version of the aircraft
Regards,
Andy BigWeeker

[Larry Hickey]

Martin, only yesterday I ordered a copy of the Robin Holmes book, but won't get it for a while here in America. Thanks for the heads up about the photo there. It's going to be very important that we get the markings of any British Wellingtons in the artwork rendered correctly, so if any can help with that from photos of unit a/c during this period I would appreciate copies.

BigWeeker: to your knowledge, do any photos exist of N2980 contemporary to the time of the Helgioland Bight raid?

Thanx,