209 SQUADRON - Bomber, Saro Lerwick
History | Operations and losses | Sources | Links | Books | Questions and/or remarks
The Squadron was equipped with Stranraers, which arrived in December 1938. On the outbreak of World War Two, No.209 moved to Invergordon to fly patrols over the North sea between Scotland and Norway. In October 1939 it moved to Oban for patrols over the Atlantic and in December began to re-equip with Lerwicks. The type was not a success (only 21 were built) and after flying patrols from Wales and Scotland they were replaced by Catalinas in April 1941.
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Operations and losses 01/01/1940 - 30/06/1940
Not all operations listed; those with fatal losses are.
20/02/1940: Escort. 1 Plane lost, 1 KIA, 3 MIA
29/06/1940: Escort. 1 Plane lost
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20/02/1940: Escort
Type: Saro Lerwick
Serial number: L7253, WQ-G
Operation: Escort
Lost: 20/02/1940
Flight Sergeant (Pilot) George A. Corby, RAF 561526, 209 Sqdn., Mentioned in Despatches and 2 Bars, age 27, 20/02/1940, Langdon Hills (St. Mary and All Saints) Old Churchyard, UK
P/O W.E. Ogle-Skan, 41609 - safe
AC2 Taylor - safe
Aircraftman 1st Class Richard J. Webber, RAF 569704, 209 Sqdn., age 20, 20/02/1940, missing
Aircraftman 2nd Class Lawrence H. Trumay, RAF 531133, 209 Sqdn., age 24, 20/02/1940, missing
Leading Aircraftman George Peterson, RAF 520852, 209 Sqdn., age unknown, 20/02/1940, missing
Took off from Oban at 11.30 hrs. Forced to return at 12.30 hrs due to bad weather. On reaching Oban the pilot decided to land well out in the Firth of Lorne due to poor visibility. Apparantly owing to an error in judgment he stalled the aircraft onto the water causing it to bounce several times some 5 miles west of Oban off the lighthouse at the southern point of Lismore Island. In doing this the starboard wing tip float was knocked off and the aircraft heeled over causing water to enter through the windows. All the crew managed to get out into the water before the aircraft sank. F/Sgt Corby's body was recovered later. Those who were never found are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
Sources: CWGC and Ross McNeill, Coastal Command Losses of the Second World War, 1939-1941
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29/06/1940: Escort
Type: Saro Lerwick
Serial number: L7261, WQ-L
Operation: Escort
Lost: 29/06/1940
F/O E.M. Pain - safe
F/O W.H. Flint - safe
P/O W.E. Ogle-Skan - safe
and six other crew members - safe
Took off 03.35 hrs from Oban for an escort operation, but ran into bad weather west of Coll and returned to base. Waterborne at 04.30 hrs. When taxying across wind to take up moorings the starboard float apparantly broke adrift and the aircradt subsequently capsized and sank in Ardantrive Bay at about 05.00 hrs. The aircraft was later recovered.
Source: Ross McNeill, Coastal Command Losses of the Second World War, 1939-1941
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Sources
Air of Authority - 209 Squadron
Air Force POWs 1939-1945
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database
Australian War Memorial
Bail-outs for 1940
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The London Gazette
Prisoners of War captured in Europe 1940
Royal Air Force - 209 Squadron
RAF against odds (Time, USA, 27/05/1940)
RAF - Campaign Diary - The Battle of France (May-June 1940)
RAF Museum: British Military Aviation in 1940
RAF Order of Battle, France, 10th May 1940
Royal Air Force History Section
The Royal Air Force, 1939-1945
The Second World War - a day by day account
The War in France and Flanders, 1939-1940, by Major L.F. Ellis, 1954
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Books
Peter D. Cornwell, The Battle of France, Then and Now, 2008
Ross McNeill, Coastal Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 1 (1939-1941), Midland publishing, 2003. ISBN: 1 85780 128 8
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Links
Discussion Groups
Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum
RAF Commands Forum
Other
Abbreviations used in the Royal Air Force
Code Names & RAF Vocabulary
Air Aces
Airwar over Denmark
Allied World War II Casualties in the Netherlands
Armée de l'Air - Order of Battle,
10th May 1940
Australian Wargraves
Axis History Factbook
Battle-of-Britain.com
De Belgen in Engeland 1940-1945 (in Dutch)
Belgian Aviation History Association Archaeological Team
British Aircraft Directory
British Aviation Archaeological Council - Books and research links
Canada's Air Force History
HMS Cavalier
Ciel de Gloire (in French)
RAF Squadrons
CWGC Cemeteries Germany
CWGC Cemeteries Netherlands
Czechoslovak airmen in
the RAF 1940-1945
Danish WW2 Pilots
Dutch Pilots in RAF Squadrons
Eagles Squadrons (American pilots in the RAF)
Foreign Aircraft Landings in Ireland 1939-1946
Håkans aviation page (from Sweden, in English)
'High flight', poem by John Gillespie Magee
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, poem by W.B. Yeats
Jagdgeschwader 27 (in German)
Luchtoorlog ('Arial War', in Dutch, with many photos)
Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth
The Luftwaffe, 1933-1945
Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum
The National Ex-Prisoners of War Association
Naval History.net
Nordic Aviation during WW2
Pilotfriend.com: aircraft of WW2
Polish Air Force 1940-1947 Operations Record Books
RAF Battle of Britain
RAF Upwood
De Slag om de Grebbeberg (Dutch)
Warbird Alley
War over Holland
World War II Aircraft wrecksites in Norway
www.bomber-command.de
Aircraft crashes on the North Yorkshire Moors, England
Bills-Bunker.de
The Lancastershire Aircraft Investigation Team
Luftfahrt-Archäologie in Schleswig Holstein (in German)
North East Diary 1939-1945
Wartime Leicester and
Leicestershire
The Aerodrome -
Aces and Aircraft of World War 1
WW1 Cemeteries
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This page is dedicated to the men of 209 Squadron.
© Bart FM Droog / Rottend Staal Online 2008. Permission granted for use of the data gathered here for non commercial purposes, if this source is mentioned with a link to http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/index.html
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