PL - John Ernst Herlof Evensen KIA

ABOUT
CASPIR Data Archive Mission & Data Sources Significant Canadian Historians Our Team RCAF Assistance CASPIR Volunteering
CASPIR contains documents, images and history of Canada's military aviation. The personnel and aircraft data has been compiled using data provided by trusted Canadian military aviation historians and original source documents. Where possible source documents are linked.
RESEARCH
CASPIR Resources
RCAF Accident Cards (1939-1945)JA Griffin Documents 1968 and 2005 Obtaining a World War II Service File
External Resources
RCAF.info: Research Resources RCAF.info: Finding Your Family Records
Griffin Library, 17 Wing Winnipeg
John Griffin was a significant historian, documenting Canada's Military aircraft
AIRCRAFT
Military Aircraft Associated with Canadians Choose a Specific Aircraft Serial
Lancaster FM213
CWHM flies one of the two airworthy Lancasters in the world. FM213 is usually marked as KB726 honouring Andrew Mynarski, VC.
PERSONNEL
Name or Home Town Search Unit (Squadron) Search Aircraft Type or Serial Search Browse by Letter This Day in History Choose a Day in History
Prisoner of War Evaded Capture Interned in a Neutral Country Catastrophic Losses (Ships Hotels Aircraft)Choose Specific Military Cemeteries (WW1 WW2 and Beyond)
Andrew Mynarski, VC
We Shall Remember Them.
HISTORY
✅ Start Here ✅ Glossary ✅ Canada and World War II ✅ Combatants & First Airmen Casualties ✅ Air Force Operations ✅ Battle of Britain ✅ Women in War ✅ War Artists
"A" Able flying through the Eiffel Tower? (although this event likely happened, this photograph is likely fake.) It is signed by the late Bill Bryant RAF who was the navigator of that aircraft piloted by Bob Boorman RCAF. The caption reads "This Stars Stripes photograph was taken on 14 September 1944 and shows a Mosquito Mk XIII of 409 Squadron RCAF. Pilot - W/O Bob Boorman RCAF Navigator F/S Bill Bryant RAF Flying through the Eiffel Tower."
CONTACT
Click here for Information Requests & Data Submissions
NEW & INTERESTING
Exceptionally Interesting Stories and Aircraft What is new in CASPIR?

Evensen, John Ernst Herlof (Sergeant)

Killed in Action 1944-June-06

Norway

Birth Date: 1915-August-09 (age 28)

Born: Arendal, Norway

Service
RNorAF

Unit
97 (PFF) Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
Achieve Your Aim

Base
Coningsby

Rank

Position
Rear Gunner

Service Numbers
535

Lancaster Mk.III ND815

Bombing St. Pierre du Mont 1944-June-06 to 1944-June-06

97 (PFF) Sqn (RAF) Coningsby

D-Day

ND815 was shot down at ca. 05.00hrs on D-Day, 6 June 1944, by Hauptmann Helmut Eberspächer of Luftwaffe's I.Gruppe, Schnell-kampfgeschwader 10, 3. Staffel, who operated Focke-Wulf 190G night fighter-bombers out of Evreux. Eberspächer survived the war and corresponded with the Dutch aviation historian Theo Boiten. His account is featured in Theo Boiten's Night Airwar. Personal Recollections of the Conflict over Europe, 1939-45. Ramsbury: The Crowood Press, 1999. Eberspächer also wrote an article «Flugtag Juni 1944", in Luftwaffen-Revue 1/95 in 1995. Eberspächer's sortie is also described in Steven J. Zaloga's Smashing Hitler's Guns. The Rangers at Pointe-du-Hoc. D-Day, 1944. Cumnor Hill: Osprey, 2022. However, the kill was also claimed by Feldwebel Kurt Eisele of Eberspächer's squadron.

There were no survivors. Ashpole and an Unknown Norwegian Airman were, as far as we understand, found in the wreckage and buried in the local churchyard in Osmanville. The wreckage is said to have crashed in the garden of the local mayor. Ashpole was identified by the dental surgeon of the Norwegian War Graves Service, Major John Braadvig, in 1950; this was accepted by the RAF and his grave was subsequently rededicated and a CWGC headstone marking his name was installed. It was unfortunately not possible to identify the Norwegian; he was repatriated and is buried as an Unknown Norwegian Airman at Oslo's Western Cemetery.

The Mid-Upper Gunner, Flying Officer McCutcheon of the RCAF, and the Norwegian Rear Gunner, Sgt. Evensen, were found with what I understand to have been another piece of the wreckage, and buried at Bayeux War Cemetery. They were both identified on the basis of the piece of the wreckage and uniform effects. Sgt. Evensen was repatriated to Norway in 1946 and is buried in Oslo's Western Cemetery; being the only Norwegian crew member who is accounted for. As they were not buried in Osmanville but in Bayeux, I surmise that they were not found with Sgt. Ashpole and the Unknown Norwegian Airman.

The story of the Jespersen crew is quite well-known in Norway; there are relatively few RNAF crews that are still unaccounted for, and there is a certain shroud of mystery surrounding the case. The Norwegian War Graves Service has been reviewing and re-reviewing the case over a number of years.

In 2014, to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the Norwegian Armed Forces erected a Memorial to the crew, with all names inscribed, in front of St. Clement's Church in Osmaville, with the attendance of the Chief of the Norwegian Defence Staff.

The Norwegian Armed Forces hold a ceremony there on D-Day each year. At the 80th anniversary in 2004, both the Norwegian Minister of Defence, the Chief of the Norwegian Defence Staff, and the Chief of the Norwegian Air Staff, were in attendance, as well as an honour guard from the Royal Norwegian Navy. Wreaths were laid at the memorial. The Senior Enlisted Leader of the RNAF, Command Sergeant Major Didrik Sand, laid a wreath on Sergeant Ashpole's grave.source: Haakon O. V. Vinje, Royal Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Equality

Sergeant Evensen was an Engineer by profession, having studied at the Technical Institute in Gothenburg, Sweden. Participated in the Norwegian Resistance during the German occupation of Norway and was forced to flee to Sweden. Went to Canada via the UK and joined the RNAF in January, 1942

Memorial to the crew of Lancaster ND 815 St. Clement's Church in Osmaville

Memorial Plaque to Sergeant John Evensen, No Known Grave

Target
Google Map

Google Map

St Pierre du Mont

Lancaster ND815

Sergeant Ashpole, Gerald John James (RAFVR)
Flight Engineer
Killed in Action
1944-June-06
cemetery unknown

Sergeant Evensen, John Ernst Herlof (RNorAF)
Rear Gunner
Killed in Action
1944-June-06
cemetery unknown

Lieutenant Jespersen, Finn Varde (RNorAF)
Pilot
Killed in Action
1944-June-06
cemetery unknown

Sergeant Magnus, Knut Baade (RNorAF)
Bomb Aimer
Killed in Action
1944-June-06
cemetery unknown

Flying Officer McCutcheon, William Robert (RCAF)
Air Gunner
Killed in Action
1944-June-06
Bayeux War Cemetery, Boulevard Fabian Ware, Bayeux, France

Sergeant Munster, Christian Andres (RNorAF)
Navigator
Killed in Action
1944-June-06
cemetery unknown

Sergeant Pedersen, Kare (RNorAF)
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner
Killed in Action
1944-June-06
Bayeux War Cemetery, Boulevard Fabian Ware, Bayeux, France

Avro Lancaster

Avro Lancaster Mk. X RCAF Serial FM 213
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirling, all three aircraft being four-engined heavy bombers adopted by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the same wartime era.

The Lancaster has its origins in the twin-engine Avro Manchester which had been developed during the late 1930s in response to the Air Ministry Specification P.13/36 for a capable medium bomber for "world-wide use". Originally developed as an evolution of the Manchester (which had proved troublesome in service and was retired in 1942), the Lancaster was designed by Roy Chadwick and powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlins and in one version, Bristol Hercules engines. It first saw service with RAF Bomber Command in 1942 and as the strategic bombing offensive over Europe gathered momentum, it was the main aircraft for the night-time bombing campaigns that followed. As increasing numbers of the type were produced, it became the principal heavy bomber used by the RAF, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and squadrons from other Commonwealth and European countries serving within the RAF, overshadowing the Halifax and Stirling. Wikipedia

YouTube Lancaster Bomber

Wkikpedia Wikipedia

General Harold A Skaarup Web Page

last update: 2021-09-18 14:32:33

Lancaster Mk.III ND815

OF

RAF Roundel

M

Delivered originally to No. 156 Sqn, then transferred to No. 97 Sqn (OF-M) Apr 1944. Missing on operation to St. Pierre du Mont5/6 Jun 1944. 32 operational hours.

© Canadian Warplane Heritage 2025