Sgt Eric Bann, 238 Squadron - Shot Down 21 July 1940?

[Martin Gleeson]

Peter,

The suggestion of an unaccounted for total Hurricane loss greatly piqued my interest, as did his possible service in France during May 1940. Having read the letters referred to and then researched various documents I have come to several conclusions. Without meaning to offend anyone I have to ask was Eric Bann ‘shooting a line’ to his family back home ?
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Firstly regarding his time in France with the B.E.F. The best information we have (‘MEN OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN’ (2015) by Kenneth G. Wynn) is that Sgt. Bann and Sgt. Batt joined 253 Sqn. at Kenley on May 17th, and were posted on to 238 Sqn. at Tangmere on the 21st. From May 16th to 23rd 253 Sqn. was rotating pilots and aircraft to France. The unit was very heavily engaged there on the 18th and 19th , and to a lesser extent on the 21st. This information from the 253 Sqn. ORB.

It seems most unlikely to me that the squadron had the aircraft and pilots to spare training brand new pilots in fighter combat. Sending them to France would have been a liability. Most likely it was decided to get them out of the way. The 253 Sqn. ORB is deficient in many ways for those of us researching the May 1940 campaign, but it does seem to list accurately all those pilots who flew in France and when, whether based there or in England. Therefore, especially due to the short time at 253 Sqn., I do not believe either Bann or Batt went to France in spite of what his letters suggest.

To support this I would also point out the similar case of Sgt. Eric Seabourne, a colleague at 238 Squadron. Wynn states after his training finished he joined 151 Sqn. on May 16th , later to 238 Sqn. on June 12th. In between he did not fly with 151 Sqn. because he had no experience on Hurricanes.

The action on 21 July 1940 with the Luftwaffe aircraft. The 238 Sqn. F.541 specifies 5 aircraft on the patrol from 1420 to 1515 hours. They included S/L Fenton and Sgt. Batt, but no mention of Bann. On the same page Bann is shown participating in another 5-aircraft patrol from1910 to 2015 hours on the same day but with no action. Bann flew on an early morning very short patrol on July 22nd (0830-0840) and later again (1215-1255), but there was no action on either. This is not consistent with a pilot being in the Channel for some time the day before.

I have looked at all the serials listed in the 238 Sqn. F.541 from July 1st to 21st, some 23 in all. All 23 can be accounted for. Between July 3rd and 20th some were damaged and sent for repair, some were lost. The rest were recorded flying on July 22nd or later. I could find no F.1180 accident card, AIR 81 casualty file or AIR 50 combat report matching such a loss. So no unaccounted Hurricane loss based on the above.

The letter that began this search has a line; “The C/O and two of us were out on an early morning patrol….”. In the period July 14th (when S/L Fenton took command) to August 5th Fenton and Bann flew together on patrols about 8 times, but only engaged the enemy twice on July 26th and 27th. The first was a 12-aircraft patrol but the second was just with 3 aircraft (Fenton, Bann and P/O Davis). Some details in the letter match those in the ORB, such as one bomber was claimed, the patrol was to protect a convoy and it was in the morning (0833-1017 hours). Bann flew P2947 on both of these sorties but this aircraft survived until lost on August 8th.

I note too that Sgt. Parkinson baled out of his Hurricane over the Channel on July 20th. He was picked up but sadly died the following day. All of this leads me to believe Bann was conflating a number of events on various dates but ‘spicing’ the story up for his family. I see no evidence that he baled out over or ditched in the Channel.

Hope this helps,

Martin Gleeson.