103 SQ Battle Losses during the Phoney War

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo all,

Paul,
You are correct concerning the death of C.D. Perry. That was just laziness on my part.

Larry,
I have a small concern about the crash location for P2256. I passed this on to Peter Cornwell some months ago.

Regards,

Martin.

[Peter Cornwell]

Indeed Martin has been most generous with his continuing help in accurately documenting Fairey Battle losses of the period. His specific concern raised in relation to the loss of P2256 resulted in the following amended entry to my loss lists:

26 March 1940: Battle P2256. Hit trees on take-off for night bombing exercise over the ranges at St-Hilaire-le-Petit and crashed and burned out in woods near Moronvilliers, three miles south-west of Bétheniville, 10.15 p.m. Pilot Officer I. P. Hinton, Sergeant D. C. Findlay and AC2 J. A. Sharpe killed. Aircraft a write-off.

Thanks again Martin.

[paulmcmillan]

Originally Posted by Larry Hickey

Paul, et al.

Should have posted this before: I'm actually looking for three first names and crew positions for the March 2, 1940 Battle loss for 103 SQ:

2 March 1940: Battle L5236. LAC Madkins broken wrist

Well I downloaded and looked on the Air 78 / 101 Airmans Name Index Reference at National Archives and the most likely Madkins (all other Madkins have "to late service numbers" is:

Norman Frederick Madkins Service Number 514928

Service Number is right for someone enlisting in mid to late 1920's early 1930's

505001 to 549999 Oct 1925 Civilians


His Birth was registered Sep 1910

[Larry Hickey]

Paul,

Thanks for taking the time to follow through on this. Martin Gleeson is now assisting Peter Cornwell with our EOE British airmen loss DB entries for the 1939-40 period, taking over responsibility for getting full names for all British airmen referenced in DB entries. This is a huge but important task. All of us appreciate your help with this.

Regards,