Pilot Officer 90497 Royal Air Force Age 23 Grave 26.
600.Squadron [AAF] was stationed on the large AFB Manston in Kent, nowadays still in use as an airfield. The squadron was equipped with the poorly performing Blenheim 1.F, a twin engine fighter fitted with six .303 machine-guns. It was totally inapt for the fighter-role that it bore, because the airframe was extremely vulnerable, the plane poorly manoeuvrable and above all painfully slow. In the morning of May 10th, 1940, the squadron was instructed to give ground support to the British commando parties around Pernis and in doing so sweeping the German landed airplanes on Waalhaven. In the end only B-flight managed to reach the opposite site of the Northsea around 1130 hrs (Dutch time). It was immediately intercepted by a swarm of Bf-109 and Bf-110 fighters of the Luftwaffe, that were at that time packing the skies around disputed Rotterdam. Within minutes five of the six Blenheim fighters were picked out of the sky, with only one Blenheim barely escaping notwithstandig severe damages sustained. Seven RAF aircrew perished, one was captured by the Germans and three eventually returned with RN ships [only S/L Wells flew with a crew of three, the other with just two].
P/O Anderson and LAC Hawkins were chased by a German Bf-110, after which one of the engines burst into flames, forcing the Blenheim to a crash landing. Before crashing the plane in a field at Hoogvliet, a German fighter had been shot down by the air-gunner Hawkins. The pilot Anderson was tragically beheaded and also lost a leg during the impact. The air-gunner LAC Hawkins had been killed in his narrow seat. Both men were burried in Spijkenisse cemetary as unidentified British airmen until 1981 when they were finally identified due to local research.
600.Squadron [AAF] was stationed on the large AFB Manston in Kent, nowadays still in use as an airfield. The squadron was equipped with the poorly performing Blenheim 1.F, a twin engine fighter fitted with six .303 machine-guns. It was totally inapt for the fighter-role that it bore, because the airframe was extremely vulnerable, the plane poorly manoeuvrable and above all painfully slow. In the morning of May 10th, 1940, the squadron was instructed to give ground support to the British commando parties around Pernis and in doing so sweeping the German landed airplanes on Waalhaven. In the end only B-flight managed to reach the opposite site of the Northsea around 1130 hrs (Dutch time). It was immediately intercepted by a swarm of Bf-109 and Bf-110 fighters of the Luftwaffe, that were at that time packing the skies around disputed Rotterdam. Within minutes five of the six Blenheim fighters were picked out of the sky, with only one Blenheim barely escaping notwithstandig severe damages sustained. Seven RAF aircrew perished, one was captured by the Germans and three eventually returned with RN ships [only S/L Wells flew with a crew of three, the other with just two].
P/O Anderson and LAC Hawkins were chased by a German Bf-110, after which one of the engines burst into flames, forcing the Blenheim to a crash landing. Before crashing the plane in a field at Hoogvliet, a German fighter had been shot down by the air-gunner Hawkins. The pilot Anderson was tragically beheaded and also lost a leg during the impact. The air-gunner LAC Hawkins had been killed in his narrow seat. Both men were burried in Spijkenisse cemetary as unidentified British airmen until 1981 when they were finally identified due to local research.
Pilot Officer 90497 Royal Air Force Age 23 Grave 26.
600.Squadron [AAF] was stationed on the large AFB Manston in Kent, nowadays still in use as an airfield. The squadron was equipped with the poorly performing Blenheim 1.F, a twin engine fighter fitted with six .303 machine-guns. It was totally inapt for the fighter-role that it bore, because the airframe was extremely vulnerable, the plane poorly manoeuvrable and above all painfully slow. In the morning of May 10th, 1940, the squadron was instructed to give ground support to the British commando parties around Pernis and in doing so sweeping the German landed airplanes on Waalhaven. In the end only B-flight managed to reach the opposite site of the Northsea around 1130 hrs (Dutch time). It was immediately intercepted by a swarm of Bf-109 and Bf-110 fighters of the Luftwaffe, that were at that time packing the skies around disputed Rotterdam. Within minutes five of the six Blenheim fighters were picked out of the sky, with only one Blenheim barely escaping notwithstandig severe damages sustained. Seven RAF aircrew perished, one was captured by the Germans and three eventually returned with RN ships [only S/L Wells flew with a crew of three, the other with just two].
P/O Anderson and LAC Hawkins were chased by a German Bf-110, after which one of the engines burst into flames, forcing the Blenheim to a crash landing. Before crashing the plane in a field at Hoogvliet, a German fighter had been shot down by the air-gunner Hawkins. The pilot Anderson was tragically beheaded and also lost a leg during the impact. The air-gunner LAC Hawkins had been killed in his narrow seat. Both men were burried in Spijkenisse cemetary as unidentified British airmen until 1981 when they were finally identified due to local research.
600.Squadron [AAF] was stationed on the large AFB Manston in Kent, nowadays still in use as an airfield. The squadron was equipped with the poorly performing Blenheim 1.F, a twin engine fighter fitted with six .303 machine-guns. It was totally inapt for the fighter-role that it bore, because the airframe was extremely vulnerable, the plane poorly manoeuvrable and above all painfully slow. In the morning of May 10th, 1940, the squadron was instructed to give ground support to the British commando parties around Pernis and in doing so sweeping the German landed airplanes on Waalhaven. In the end only B-flight managed to reach the opposite site of the Northsea around 1130 hrs (Dutch time). It was immediately intercepted by a swarm of Bf-109 and Bf-110 fighters of the Luftwaffe, that were at that time packing the skies around disputed Rotterdam. Within minutes five of the six Blenheim fighters were picked out of the sky, with only one Blenheim barely escaping notwithstandig severe damages sustained. Seven RAF aircrew perished, one was captured by the Germans and three eventually returned with RN ships [only S/L Wells flew with a crew of three, the other with just two].
P/O Anderson and LAC Hawkins were chased by a German Bf-110, after which one of the engines burst into flames, forcing the Blenheim to a crash landing. Before crashing the plane in a field at Hoogvliet, a German fighter had been shot down by the air-gunner Hawkins. The pilot Anderson was tragically beheaded and also lost a leg during the impact. The air-gunner LAC Hawkins had been killed in his narrow seat. Both men were burried in Spijkenisse cemetary as unidentified British airmen until 1981 when they were finally identified due to local research.
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