Traces of World War 2 
RAF - No. 500 Squadron
10/05/1940 - 30/06/1940

      home - latest update 7 April 2008


500 SQUADRON - General Reconnaissance, Avro Anson

History | Operations and losses | Sources | Links | Books | Questions and/or remarks



On 7 November 1938 the squadron was allocated the new role of General Reconnaissance and was transferred to coastal Command.

Equipped with Ansons its carried out coastal patrols over the Channel and the North Sea. On 5 September 1939 an Anson of No. 500 Squadron made the first RAF attack of the war on a German submarine.

Blenheims arrived in April 1941, when the squadron took on a more offensive role against coastal targets. Re-equipped with Hudsons, it flew patrols over the Atlantic and Clyde from Scotland and then moved south again to operate from Cornwall.


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Operations and losses 10/05/1940 - 30/06/1940
Not all operations listed; those with fatal losses are.

25/05/1940: Dutch. 1 Plane lost
29/05/1940: Shamrock Patrol. 1 Plane lost, 1 KIA, 3 MIA
30/05/1940: ? 1 Plane lost
30-31/05/1940: Night Patrol, 1 Plane lost, 1 KIA, 1 WIA
01/06/1940: Patrol, Dunkirk
05/06/1940: ? 1 KIA or DOW
13/06/1940: Patrol. 1 Plane lost, 4 MIA
19/06/1940: - loss ex 500 Sqdn Sgt.
28/06/1940: Boulds. 1 Plane lost, 4 MIA

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Fatalities 01/01/1940 - 09/05/1940 (incomplete)

Flying Officer James P.H. Balston, RAF (AAF) 90567, 500 Sqdn., age 27, 27/03/1940, missing - Runnymede Memorial
Hons. Tripos, Mechanical Science (Cantab.).

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25/05/1940: Dutch

Type:
Avro Anson I
Serial number: N9731, MK-U
Operation: Dutch
Lost: 25/05/1940
P/O Grisenthwaite - safe
P/O McLundie - safe
LAC Bowers - safe
AC H.C.R. Hopwood, 903368 - safe
Took off 17.31 hrs from Detling. At 19.12 hrs this Anson carried out a dive-bombing attack on two enemy MTB's with two other squadron planes, but failed to sink them. The Flight then attacked using MG fire during which N9731 was hit in the port engine by return fire from the MTB'. Height could not be maintained and the Anson was ditched on the return flight in position CPTS, 15 miles off Texel, Netherlands. The crew were safely picked up by destroyer HMS Javelin F61 which was guided to the crash position.

Source: 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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29/05/1940: Shamrock Patrol

Type:
Avro Anson I
Serial number: N5227, MK-L
Operation: Shamrock Patrol
Lost: 29/05/1940
Pilot Officer Irvine S. Wheelwright, RAF (AAF) 91003, 500 Sqdn., age unknown, 30/05/1940, missing
Sergeant Herbert W. Johnson, RAF 521711, 500 Sqdn., age 26, 30/05/1940, missing
Leading Aircraftman (W.Op.) Frank H. Giles, RAF 812052, 500 Sqdn., age unknown, 30/05/1940, Ameland (Nes) General Cemetery, NL
Flight Sergeant Russell G.T. Soper, RAFVR 903332, 500 Sqdn., age 22, 30/05/1940, missing
Took off 15.35 hrs from Detling. Last seen on the surface of the sea in position VXWY 1357 near destroyer T61 at 18.00 hrs. The body of LAC Giles was washed ashore on 30th of July 1940.
The dates of death given above are the dates given by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Sources: CWGC; 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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30/05/1940: ?

Type:
Avro Anson I
Serial number: N5065, MK-N
Operation: ?
Lost: 30/05/1940
Names crew members unknown.
Took off from Detling. Shot down by Me 109's of JG26 off Ramsgate, Kent, on the return from a raid.

Source: 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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30-31/05/1940: Night Patrol

Type: Avro Anson I
Serial number: NR3389, MK-W
Operation: Night Patrol
Lost: 31/05/1940
Flying Officer (Pilot) Richard D.C. Chambers, RAF 39494, 500 Sqdn., Mentioned in Despatches, age 23, 31/05/1940, West Thorney (St. Nicholas) Churchyard, UK
P/O D.E. Bond - injured
Cpl Petts - safe
LAC Fish - safe
Took off 23.38 hrs from Detling for a night patrol off North Foreland, Kent. Undershot the landing and hit trees at 01.15 hrs before crashing into a field adjacent to the aerodrome. The Anson caught fire and one bomb exploded killing the pilot. The cause of the crash was blamed on lack of knowledge of the approach to the aerodrome for a night landing.

Cpl Daphne Pearson, [Joan Daphne Pearson, 1911-2000], WAAF, was awarded the George Cross for rescueing the navigator; she went back for the pilot but found him dead.

Sources: CWGC; The Times; 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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01/06/1940: Patrol, Dunkirk

During the Dunkirk evacuation, on 1 June 1940 an Anson of 500 Squadron was attacked by three Messerschmitt Bf109s and claimed to have shot down two of them


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05/06/1940: ?

Aircraftman 2nd Class William J. Smith, RAF (AAF) 812204, 500 Sqdn., age 27, 05/06/1940, Sittingbourne Cemetery, UK

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13/06/1940: Patrol

Type:
Avro Anson I
Serial number: N5225, MK-M
Operation: Patrol S.A.6
Lost: 13/06/1940
Sergeant Norman J. Sparks, RAFVR 754915, 500 Sqdn., age 20, 13/06/1940, missing
Flying Officer Russell K. Curzon, RAF 70156, 500 Sqdn., age 30, 13/06/1940, missing
Aircraftman 1st Class Laurence V. Pepper, RAF 627043, 500 Sqdn., age 20, 13/06/1940, missing
Sergeant George A. Mitchell, RAF (AAF) 812090, 500 Sqdn., age 27, 13/06/1940, missing
Took off 21.48 hrs from Detling. Missing from a convoy escort.

Sources: CWGC and 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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19/06/1940: Blenheim Delivery Flight

See 4 (Continental) FPP for Sgt Alex Scott, ex 500 Sqdn

Source: Gunby-temple, RAF bomber Command Losses in the Middle east and Mediterranean; RAF Commands Forum,

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28/06/1940: Boulds

Type:
Avro Anson I
Serial number: N5226, MK-E
Operation: Boulds (= convoy escort)
Lost: 28/06/1940
Pilot Officer Ian F. Lothian, RAF 42717, 500 Sqdn., age 28, 28/06/1940, missing
Pilot Officer Alan Swainston, RAF (AAF) 90610, 500 Sqdn., age unknown, 28/06/1940, missing
Sergeant John P. Morgan, RAF 626428, 500 Sqdn., age 29, 28/06/1940, missing
Sergeant John W.T. Alderslade, RAFVR 903455, 500 Sqdn., age 29, 28/06/1940, missing
Took off 14.00 hrs from Detling. Missing from a convoy escort.

Sources: CWGC and 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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Sources

Air of Authority - 500 Squadron
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database
Australian War Memorial
Avro Anson - Scramble
Bail-outs for 1940
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Prisoners of War captured in Europe 1940
Royal Air Force - 500 Squadron
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

Christina J.M. Goulter, A Forgotten Offensive, Royal Air Force Coastal Command's anti Shipping Campaign 1940-1945, Frank Cass, London, 1995
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 500 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