Vickers Wellington

Crew Details (if you haven’t already obtained them from the CWGC website):-
Name: BARRIE, RONALD HARRY JOSEPH. Initials: R H J. Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Sergeant. Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Unit Text: 142 Sqdn.
Age: 21. Date of Death: 26/03/1942. Service No: 967059
Additional information: Son of Ronald Stanley Barrie and Lily Florence Barrie, of Chester.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Allied Plot. Row 1. Grave 22. Cemetery: THE HAGUE (WESTDUIN) GENERAL CEMETERY

Name: WHITE, DAVID JOHN. Initials: D J. Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Sergeant (Pilot). Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Unit Text: 142 Sqdn.
Age: 20. Date of Death: 25/03/1942. Service No: 1166180
Additional information: Son of Thomas and Jennie White.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Allied Plot. Row 1. Grave 20. Cemetery: THE HAGUE (WESTDUIN) GENERAL CEMETERY

Name: JELLY, ALFRED. Initials: A. Nationality: United Kingdom. Rank: Sergeant (W.Op./Air Gnr.)
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Unit Text: 142 Sqdn.
Age: 29. Date of Death: 26/03/1942. Service No: 1309716
Additional information: Son of Alfred and Lilian Mary Jelly, of Rochdale, Lancashire.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Allied Plot. Row 1. Grave 21. Cemetery: THE HAGUE (WESTDUIN) GENERAL CEMETERY

Name: GROVES, ERIC CHARLES. Initials: E C. Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Sergeant. Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Unit Text: 142 Sqdn.
Date of Death: 25/03/1942. Service No: 1375174. Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 84. Memorial: RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL

Name: LENNOX, ANDREW. Initials: A. Nationality: Canadian. Rank: Flight Sergeant (Air Obs.). Regiment/Service: Royal Canadian Air Force. Unit Text: 142 (R.A.F.) Sqdn
Age: 23. Date of Death: 25/03/1942. Service No: R/77507
Additional information: Son of Andrew and Esther Lennox, of Innisfail, Alberta, Canada.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Allied Plot. Row 1. Grave 18. Cemetery: THE HAGUE (WESTDUIN) GENERAL CEMETERY

Name: PIPHER, WILLIAM MELVILLE. Initials: W M. Nationality: Canadian. Rank: Flight Sergeant (Pilot). Regiment/Service: Royal Canadian Air Force
Unit Text: 142 (R.A.F.) Sqdn. Age: 24. Date of Death: 26/03/1942. Service No: R/78467
Additional information: Son of Earl Melville Pipher and Mary Ester Pipher, of Newmarket, Ontario, Canada.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Allied Plot. Row 1. Grave 19. Cemetery: THE HAGUE (WESTDUIN) GENERAL CEMETERY

Apart from Groves, they all remain in company in death, in adjacent plots.
The normal crew complement of a Wellington was 5; the German recovery team may not have looked for more than 5 sets of remains when recovering the crew. Given his youthful age, it’s possible that Sgt White may have been getting his first taste of operational flying in the spare (“dickey”) seat. 5 crew was what they expected and 5 crew they buried and it may not have been noticed that there were actually parts of 6 crew…… hence no known grave for Sgt Groves.

The other slight anomaly is that 3 have 25th March as their Date of Death; the other 3 are shown as 26th March. Obviously being a night attack, it would span midnight, but unless 3 crew succumbed to dying of injuries AFTER midnight and the other 3 were killed outright when crashing BEFORE midnight, surely only one Date of Death should apply.

Obviously there are many more talented than I who may have access to more accurate details of the loss. Perhaps they’ll step forward.

Hope this is of some help.

Happy New Year

The crew were Sgt DJ White, Sgt WM Pipher RCAF, Sgt A Lennox RCAF, Sgt EC Groves, Sgt A Jelly and Sgt RHJ Barrie. All were killed. Sgt Groves has no known grave and the rest are burried in Westduin General Cemetery. Info from RAF Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War – 1942.