Air 81/13113 file loss Wellington X3425 in Belgium april 2 1942.

[Alain57]

Hello ,

In the Air81/13113 file page 104 concerning the loss off Wellington X3425 from N° 57 sqdn on april 2 1942 i saw the following text : 0152 hrs SOS by Hull V.M.N.S 4030 thirth class, at 0214 hrs V.M.W.L 4656. Can someone help me with this ?

Regards
Alain57

[MW Giles]

The 57 Sqn target was railways around Hanau-Lohr

Hull was a direction finding station (DF Station)

WL4656 is a co-ordinate and appears to be near Wittlich

Given the a/c was heading home from Hanau area and avoiding the Ruhr, this seems to be on track. It crashed near St Truiden, which again fits the story

NS4030 I cannot place, the co-ordinates are way off the map. Are you sure about the two letters?

Not sure what the two references to VM in the string refers to but I think it is Vector Matching, which is a way of narrowing down where a radio signal is coming from

Martin

[Alain57]

Hello Marton ,

Thanks for the help , indeed the aircraft crashed 50 km north of Sint-Truiden , the crew was buried at Sint-Truiden airfield.

The complete text is :
At 0152 hrs a SOS was recieved from the aircraft by Hull and it's positiob was VMNS 4030 3th class. A second 3th class fix from Hull at 0200 hrs was not acknowlegded , this placed the airctaft at MMNS 3020.At 0203 hrs another fix was obtained VMWL 4656 and at 0217 hrs the 1st class bearing from the aircraft from Hull was 124°. After 1217 hrs nothing was heard from this aircraft.

Greets
Alain57

[Alain57]

Sorry it was VMNS 3020