6 Group Unavailable
405 Vancouver Squadron (Ducimus), RAF Pocklington. Wellington II aircraft W 5551 LQ-U was part of Operation Sunrise, a daytime mission to sink the German pocket battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in the harbour at Brest, France. The bomber was shot down by German ME 109 fighters, but the crew abandoned the aircraft before it crashed at Ploudaniel,15 km NE of Brest
Flying Officer Robert George Murray Whigham (RAFVR) was killed in action
Pilot Officer William Minto MacKay (RCAF), Sergeant Robert Henry Westbury (RAFVR) survived to become Prisoners of War
Sergeant Melville Hermes Joseph Dalphond DFM, OBE (RCAF) evaded for a time with the aid of the French Resistance, travelling as far as the Franco/Spanish border before being caught and arrested. Sent to a prison in the South of France, he later escaped 1942-09-05 and was returned safely to the UK
Sergeant John Shedden Paton (RCAF) and Wing Commander Peter Alexander Gilchrist (RAF)(Can) both survived and evaded capture
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Crash of a Vickers 416 Wellington IC in Ploudaniel: 1 killed I Bureau of Aircraft...
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