Mowbray, Alexander McKenzie (Flight Sergeant)

Killed in Action 1942-October-01

Flight Sergeant Alexander McKenzie Mowbray RCAF

Birth Date: 1920-August-26

Born: Wingham, Huron County, Ontario, Canada

Parents: Son of Robert Mowbray and Margaret Annetta "Etta" (nee MacKay) Mowbray

Spouse:

Home: Whitechurch, Ontario

Enlistment:

Enlistment Date: unkown date

Service

RCAF

Unit

10 (B) Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
Rem Acu Tangere To hit the mark

Base

RAF Melbourne

Rank

Flight Sergeant

Position

Wireless Operator/Air Gunner

Service Numbers

R/78998

Mission

Halifax B.Mk.II BB207

Bombing Flensburg Germany 1942-October-01 to 1942-October-01

10 (B) Sqn (RAF) RAF Melborne

10 Squadron (Rem acu tangere) RAF Melborne. Halifax B Mk II aircraft BB 207 ZA-M was lost over Flensburg, Germany during operations against the shipyards and U-boat pens located there. The cause of loss of this aircraft and all seven crew members was not found, although the Nachtjagd Combat Archive from the night of this operation by Theo Boiten lists an "unidentified Halifax" coned by search lights and shot down by flak

Flight Sergeant Alexander McKenzie Mowbray (RCAF), Sergeant Stanley Childs Carter (RAFVR), Sergeant Kenneth Raymond Curran (RAFVR), Flying Officer John Leslie Jones (RAFVR), Sergeant Maurice Alan Pickering (RAFVR), Sergeant Robert Charles Prior (RAF) and Sergeant Richard Quick Stevens (RAFVR) were all killed in action

Nachtjagd Combat Archive, The Early Years Part 3, 30 May - 31 December 1942 by Theo Boiten

Unvetted Source Royal Air Force Serial and Image Database

Error in opcode: lin

Unit Desciption

10 (B) Sqn Rem Acu Tangere (Blackburn's Own)

No 10 Squadron RFC was originally formed at Farnborough, Hampshire on January 1, 1915. It served on the Western Front in WWI, transferring to the RAF when the latter was formed in 1918. The squadron returned to England in February 1919 and was disbanded on December 31.

The squadron was re-formed as a heavy bomber unit in January 1928. A heavy-bomber unit, it flew Handley-Page Hyderabads, followed by Hinaidis and then Heyfords through the 1930s. By the time that WWII started, the squadron was equipped with Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley aircraft. Operating from Dishforth, Yorkshire, it took part in a number of leaflet raids over Germany, including being the first RAF aircraft to drop leaflets over Berlin on 1/2 October 1939. Detachments of the Squadron were based in France (Villeneuve) and Scotland (Kinloss), between October 1939 and March 1940, the latter being with Coastal Command. The squadron's first bombing raid was on the night of 19/20 March, 1940, attacking the German mining seaplane base at Hornum, on the island of Sylt. When Italy entered the war in June 1940, the squadron flew from Guernsey in the Channel Islands to attack targets in Italy.

In July 1940 the squadron moved to the nearby base of Leeming, Yorkshire, where it remained until August 1942. From December 1942 the squadron was re-equipped with Halifax aircraft. In the first quarter of 1942, There were detachments to Lossiemouth, Scotland, for operations against the battleship Tirpitz, which at that time was based near Trondheim, Norway. It was on one of these operations, on the night of 27/28 April that the squadron commander. W/C D.C.T. Bennett, was shot down, but he and his crew escaped to Sweden and were interned and subsequently returned to England. W/C (later Air Vice Marshal) Bennet subsequently was appointed to form and lead the Pathfinder Force, which became No. 8 Group of Bomber Command. From June 1942 a detachment of the squadron (16 aircraft and crews) moved to Palestine and then to Egypt, operating against Tobruk. This detachment then combined with No. 6/462 squadron to form No.462 (RAAF) Squadron in September 1942. The main No. 10 Squadron continued to operate with No. 4 Group, Bomber Command from Leeming at this time, but then moved to Melbourne, Yorkshire in August 1942, where it remained until May 1945. It was transferred to Transport Command on May 7, 1945 and disbanded on December 20 1947. It later was re-formed and flew Canberras and Victors.