Winchester, Sidney Arthur (Flight Lieutenant)

Prisoner of War 1944-October-04

Male Head

Birth Date: unkown date

Born:

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Enlistment:

Enlistment Date: unkown date

Decorations: MiD

Mentioned in Dispatches

Service

RCAF

Unit

502 (B) Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
Nihil Timeo I fear nothing

Base

Rank

Flight Lieutenant

Position

Service Numbers

J/10019
PoW: 8717

1944-10-03: embarked on a Rover patrol from 502Sqn aerodrome into the Kattegat region of Sea off Denmark.

They were shot down by an armed steamer and made a safe ditching in the sea sufficient for all crew to de-plane. Their dingy was destroyed in the action so they were left in the very cold sea. About five or six hours after the crash they were picked up by the ship that shot them down. By that time Flying Officer Conlon, W/O McLaughlin and Sergeant Allen were missing. Flying Officer La Palme's body washed up on the shore of Norway and was buried there.

The dead: Flight Sergeant Reginald Godfrey Allen RAF 1397157 KIA Runnymede Memorial : Panel 215. Flying Officer Hugh Thomas Conlin RCAF J/86034 KIA Runnymede Memorial Panel 245. Flying Officer Joseph Armand Roger Lucien La Palme RCAF J/18647 KIA Mandal Churchyard grave I. 2. 12., Norway. W/O Charles McLaughlin RAF 643195 KIA Runnymede Memorial.

Three POWs: W/C Charles Aubrey Maton RAF 76222 POW Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria Flying Officer Ian Edwin Osbourne RAF 142463 POW Stalag 3D Berlin-Steglitz F/Lt Sidney Arthur Winchester RCAF J/10019 POW Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria

Halifax serial: HR686

(RAF Photo, 1942)(Source Harold A Skaarup Web Page) A Royal Air Force Handley Page Halifax Mk. II Series I (Serial No. W7676), coded TL-P, of No. 35 Squadron, RAF, based at Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire in the UK, being piloted by Flight Lieutenant Reginald Lane, (later Lieutenant-General, RCAF), over the English countryside. Flt Lt Lane and his crew flew twelve operations in W7676, which failed to return from a raid on Nuremberg on the night of 28/29 August 1942, when it was being flown by Flt Sgt D. John and crew.

The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester.

The Halifax has its origins in the twin-engine HP56 proposal of the late 1930s, produced in response to the British Air Ministry's Specification P.13/36 for a capable medium bomber for "world-wide use." The HP56 was ordered as a backup to the Avro 679, both aircraft being designed to use the underperforming Rolls-Royce Vulture engine. The Handley Page design was altered at the Ministry to a four-engine arrangement powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine; the rival Avro 679 was produced as the twin-engine Avro Manchester which, while regarded as unsuccessful mainly due to the Vulture engine, was a direct predecessor of the famed Avro Lancaster. Both the Lancaster and the Halifax would emerge as capable four-engined strategic bombers, thousands of which would be built and operated by the RAF and several other services during the War.

On 25 October 1939, the Halifax performed its maiden flight, and it entered service with the RAF on 13 November 1940. It quickly became a major component of Bomber Command, performing routine strategic bombing missions against the Axis Powers, many of them at night. Arthur Harris, the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Bomber Command, described the Halifax as inferior to the rival Lancaster (in part due to its smaller payload) though this opinion was not shared by many of the crews that flew it, particularly for the MkIII variant. Nevertheless, production of the Halifax continued until April 1945. During their service with Bomber Command, Halifaxes flew a total of 82,773 operations and dropped 224,207 tons of bombs, while 1,833 aircraft were lost. The Halifax was also flown in large numbers by other Allied and Commonwealth nations, such as the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Free French Air Force and Polish forces. Wikipedia

YouTube Halifax Heavy Bomber WWII

unvetted Source Harold A Skaarup Web Page

Wikipedia Wikipedia Halifax Bomber

Museum National Air Force Museum of Canada