6 Group Unavailable
218 Gold Coast Squadron (In Time), RAF Downham Market. Stirling Mk III aircraft BK 716 HA-J was shot down by night fighter crew of Leutnant Werner Rapp and Unteroffizier Hans Ortmann of 7/NJG1 during on an operation against targets in Berlin Germany. The bomber crashed into Lake IJsselmeer near Marken, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Flying Officer Harry Gregory Farrington (RCAF), Flight Sergeant John Francis James McCaw (RCAF), Sergeant Charles Armstrong Bell (RAFVR), Flying Officer John Michael Campbell (RAFVR), Flying Officer John Frederick Harris (RAFVR) and Sergeant Leonard Richard James Shrubsall (RAFVR) were all missing, presumed killed in action. No crew remains were originally recovered and they were all commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. However, in 2008 the wreckage of an aircraft was found. A cigarette case belonging to Flying Officer Campbell helped identify the aircraft to be identified but it was not until August 2020, that the remains of the seven crewmembers and their aircraft could begin to be recovered. After multiple problems and delays, the crew were finally buried with a full military service September 28, 2022 at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Jonkerbos War Cemetery in Nijmegen, Gelderland, Netherlands
Nachtjagd Combat Archives 1943 Part 1, 1 January - 22 June by Theo Boiten, page 52
The Night of the Stirling by Evert van Ginkel
From St Vith to Victory, 218 (Gold Coast) Squadron and the Campaign Against Nazi Germany by Stephen C Smith, pages 142,291, 296-315
Flying Officer Farrington and Flight Sergeant McCaw
Stirling BK716 crew finally laid to rest I RAF Memorial Flight Club
Royal Air Force Serial and Image Database
29/30 03 1943 218 (Gold Coast) Squadron Stirling III BK716 HA J Fg...
