Bernard John Kennedy Rank: Lieutenant Status: Killed in Flying Accident 1945-01-16

736 Squadron Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy Air Station Inskip (formerly HMS Nightjar). On the evening of 16 January 1945, Lieutenant Bernard John Kennedy (RCNVR) boarded a Grumman TBM-1C Avenger torpedo bomber JZ 390 at HMS Nightjar near Lancashire, along with his Navigator Midshipman Gordon Fell (RNVR) and Wireless Operator Leading Airman Phillip Mallorie (RN), for an ill-fated night navigational training flight. On that Friday evening, Kennedy and his flight crew charted a course between Preston and Blackpool. While flying south along the English west coast, the airplane evidently strayed inland and tragically flew into the rock face at Wastwater Screes, in the mountainous Great Gully region in Cumberland County. All three airman onboard were killed instantly. Lieutenant Kennedy was 23 years old.

Canada's Naval Aviators by John MacFarlane and Robbie Hughes, page 92 (navalreserveassociationofcanada)

Avenger JZ390

Grumman Avenger

Grumman Avenger AS 3
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

The Grumman TBF Avenger (designated TBM for aircraft manufactured by General Motors) is an American-built torpedo bomber flown by the RN during the Second World War. The Avenger entered U.S. service in 1942, and first saw action during the Battle of Midway. In service with many Allied nations, the Avenger became the most widely-used torpedo bomber of the Second World War. Greatly modified after the war, it remained in use until the 1960s.

One of the primary postwar users of the Avenger was the Royal Canadian Navy, which obtained 125 former US Navy TBM-3E Avengers from 1950 to 1952 to replace their venerable Fairey Fireflies. By the time the Avengers were delivered, the RCN was shifting its primary focus to anti-submarine warfare (ASW), and the aircraft was rapidly becoming obsolete as an attack platform. Consequently, 98 of the RCN Avengers were fitted with an extensive number of novel ASW modifications, including radar, electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment, and sonobuoys, and the upper ball turret was replaced with a sloping glass canopy that was better suited for observation duties. The modified Avengers were designated AS 3. A number of these aircraft were later fitted with a large magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) boom on the rear left side of the fuselage and were redesignated AS 3M. However, RCN leaders soon realized the Avenger's shortcomings as an ASW aircraft, and in 1954 they elected to replace the AS 3 with the Grumman S-2 Tracker, which offered longer range, greater load-carrying capacity for electronics and armament, and a second engine, a great safety benefit when flying long-range ASW patrols over frigid North Atlantic waters. As delivery of the new license-built CS2F Trackers began in 1957, the Avengers were shifted to training duties, and were officially retired in July 1960. Wikipedia

RCN aircraft were identified in squadron service by a side number, painted on the nose of the aircraft. That number indicated the squadron, and the aircraft number in that squadron. These numbers are shown as "coded" (if known); later the last three digits of the aircraft serial number were used, shown as NAVY+L3.

Avenger serials from US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos--Third Series (50360 to 99860)joebaugher.com, and updated from - Martin "� RCN Aircraft Finish & Markings 1944-1968.

General TBM-3E Avenger RCN

General FPL Avengers

Wkikpedia Wikipedia Avenger