N° 18 sqdn claim on june 26 1942 near St-Trond airfield Belgium

[Alain57]

Hi ,

At 0200 hrs on june 26 1942 the crew of Blenheim Z-5879 P/O Lowther P , Sgt Ellis and Sgt Drury from N° 18 sqdn claimed a single engine unidentified enemy aircraft 4 miles south of the airfield St-Trond in Belgium. Has someone some more information on this .

Thanks in advance
Alain57

[Sean Welch]

The combat report is available to download from the National Archives:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.g...ils/r/D7452275
However, the Blenheim is declared as Z7304, the single-engined aircraft attacked the Blenheim first and in return fire appeared to explode with a large flash.
Another aircraft operating in the area reported an aircraft on fire on the ground 4 or 5 miles south of St. Trond which was used to confirm the destruction of the aircraft.

Sean.

[Alain57]

Thank you for the reply

Alain57

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Just for curiosity, is there any LW loss for that victory? A Bf 110 or Bf 109 (or other kind of machine)?

A.

[RSwank]

Just searching on the date there is this loss:

http://www.aircrewremembered.com/Kra...rch_type=exact

Belz, Kurt, 4/NJG-3, Bf 110C-4 Werk # 3556 "D5 + CM" (lost 6/26/42),

KIA 26 June, 1942, cause unknown, location not reported. His unnamed gunner also KIA. Bf 110 Loss List.

[Leendert]

Suggested Bf 110C apparently lost near Sylt Island, N. Germany. See https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/235723

Two Blenheims were lost over Belgium that night, one at Wilrijk, the other at Houwaart.

Groet,
Leendert

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Another possibility for a single-engine aircraft loss is the Hurricane IIc HL589 of 1 Sqn that was lost in the night of 25-26 in a night Intruder sortie to Gilze Rijen (according to the book Fighter Command losses).

The pilot, Wt Off G Scott RCAF, was killed and has no known grave, he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

According to the ORB of 1 Sqn he took off at 0015 hrs from Manston so could well have been in St Trond area at 0200 hrs. The airfield to which he was sent is not listed in the ORB. The other five pilots flying that night mainly flew over the Netherlands but one visited Antwerp and Turnhout in Belgium and another pushed into Germany towards Düsseldorf (the first time an intruder of the squadron flew over Germany). They reported no fight with German aircraft but saw several possible crashes. One returning pilot reported seiing an aircraft crash and burst into flames at 0215 hrs south of Turnhout (so from Turnhout in the direction of St Trond). It could have been the aircraft reported by the 18 Sqn crew.

Outside time and location, normally no German single-engine fighter would be used for night patrols at this stage of the war, while the Hurricane was there for attacking German aircraft, and so could have attacked the Blenheim by mistaking it for a German bomber. Hit by return fire, it exploded and that may explain why the body of Wt Off Scott was never found. Of course this is conjecture over conjecture, and Scott could just have crashed in the sea for whatever reason.

[RSwank]

Here is some info on Scott:

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/52760

Claim here is that Scott was shot down by Hauptmann Herbert Bönsch of the Stab III./NJG 2 and the Hurricane went into the Oosterschelde estuary, near the Zijpe distributary; Zeeland. The Germans recovered some parts of the wreck from the water.

Scott's target was the Gilze-Rijen airfield.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks. I did not check Theo's NJG book. On the other hand, Bönsch claimed a Boston, so I did not make the link myself. Not the best target identification of the war