Stirling EH924 25th/26th July 1943 Essen

Its been a while since I posted anything to blog. There are no major reasons as to why I haven't posted, just haven't had anything major or interesting to say.

However while doing research about my Grandfather's RAF career I came across this comment in the 51 Squadron Operations Record book for the night of the 25th/26th July 1943.

Details of Sortie on Flight
.... "An aircraft flying immediately behind this Halifax was shot down in the Goch area. Halifax itself however returned to base without incident."

I was curious as to which aircraft was shot down, and a web search revealed the following on lostbombers.co.uk. The data on that site being taken from William Chorley's excellent books about RAF Bomber Command's losses during the Second World War. Note the information on lostbombers.co.uk is out of date and was compiled from William Chorley's books without permission from William or his publishers.

Stirling EH924 Information
Type Stirling
Serial Number EH924
Squadron 620
X1D QS-B
Operation Essen
Date 1 25th July 1943
Date 2 26th July 1943

Further Information

"Serial Range EH921 - EH961. 41 Stirling Mk.111. Part of a batch of 120 Short S.29 Stirling Mk.111. EH875-EH909; EH921-EH961;

EH977-EH996; EJ104-EJ127 Mk.111, of which EH897, EH950 and EJ106 were converted to Mk.1V. Delivered by Austin Motors Ltd between Jun43 and Sep43.
Contract No.B982939/39. Delivered to No.32MU 30Jun43, to No.620 Sqdn 11Jul43.
EH924 was one of three No.620 Sqdn Stirlings lost on this operation. See: BF511; EE906.
Airborne 2226 25Jul43 from Chedburgh. Cause of loss not established. Crashed at
Asperden, 3 km from Goch. Those killed were taken for burial in the Stadtfriedhof at Monchengladbach. They have been subsequently re-interred in the Rheinberg War Cemetery. Sgt J.D.Rathbone KIA Sgt J.H.Wallace KIA Sgt R.Wild KIA F/O J.F.Shepherd KIA Sgt J.F.Wells KIA Sgt A.Simons KIA Sgt D.H.Castling RCAF Inj Sgt D.H.Castling was confined to Hospital due injuries. No PoW No.

No other bomber lost that night crashed anywhere near Goch. So it looks as if EH924 was shot down by a German night-fighter. I hope somebody out there finds this information useful.