61Sq Raid on Brest 1 april 41

[alex crawford]

Hi jerry,

According to Chroley's Bomber Command Losses vol 2 there were three losses on 1 April. Two were training sorties involving 50 and 311 Squadrons, while the other was 144 Squadron as mentioned by Amrit1.

The only 61 Squadron loses either side of that date were 23-24 March when X3005 was lost returning from an operation to Keil. The aircraft was hit by flak and abandoned over Driffield.

The other loss was on 8-9 April when AD827 was lost on an op to Keil.

Alex

[brewerjerry]

Hi All,
I am confused...

John Foremans book says..

'61Sq had been temporarily placed under control of coastal command and had flown down to St Eval ....
....to attack Brest....the a/c flown by P/O Hartop lost touch.... 61 Squadron X3129 P/O Hartop & crew lost'.

So was It 144Sq at St Eval (or 50 or 311?)

Is '1941 the turning point' wrong in this case ?

Cheers
Jerry

[alex crawford]

Hi Jerry,

A quick search on the 'net would indicate that in the summer of 1942 61 Sqn was loaned to Coastal Command on two occasions, nothing about 1941.

I checked for 61 Sqn losses in April 1942 in case John got mixed up with his dates, but no losses here either.

Coastal Command losses Vol 1 by Ross McNeil has two 235 Sqn Blenheims lost (both appear to be training sorties) for 1 April 1941.

Alex