16 Operational training Unit (OTU) - Hampden and Hereford
Bomber Command
History | Operations and losses | Sources | Links | Books | Questions and/or remarks
Formed at Upper Heyford on 8 April 1940 from the No 4 Group Pool , which comprised No's 7 and 76 Squadrons, within No 6 Group, to train night bomber crews equipped for which it was equipped with Hampdens and Herefords. It was transferred to No 7 Group on 15 July 1940 until 11 May 1942 when No 7 Group was renumbered No 92 Group. It converted to Wellingtons in April 1942 and from March to December its HQ moved to Barford St John whilst runways were laid at Upper Heyford. It disbanded on 1 January 1945.
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Operations and losses 10/05/1940 - 30/06/1940
Not all operations listed; those with fatal losses are.
27/05/1940: Training, UK. 2 planes lost, 3 KIA, 3 MIA, 1 DOI
02/06/1940: Training, UK. 1 Plane lost, 1 KIA
04/06/1940: Training, UK. 1 Plane lost
13/06/1940: Training, UK. 1 Plane lost, 3 WIA
13/06/1940: Instrument flying practice, UK. 1 Plane lost, 3 KIA
21/06/1940: Training, UK. 1 Plane lost, 1 WIA
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02/06/1940: training, UK
Type: Hampden Mk I
Serial number: P1179, ?-?
Operation: Training
Lost: 02/06/1940
Pilot Officer (Pilot) Basil Simpson, RAF 42444, [16 OTU], age 22, 02/06/1940, Upper Heyford Cemetery, UK
Took off at 17.00 hrs from Upper Heyford for the pilot's first Hampden solo flight. While banking to the left it flew into a tree and burst into flames.
P/O Simpson was a regular service officer.
Sources: CWGC and W.R. Chorley, Bomber Command Losses. Volume 7. Operational Training Units 1940-1947, Midland Publishing, 2002
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04/06/1940: training, UK
Type: Hampden Mk I
Serial number: P4295, ?-?
Operation: Training
Lost: 04/06/1940
Sgt G.E. Cowan, RAF 565574 - safe
Took off from Brackley for a two hour exercise in night circuits and landings. While landing at 00.10 hrs, held off too high and in the ensuing heavy landing the starboard engine and undercarriage was torn from the mainplane. Sgt George E. Cowan was to die in a raid on Mannheim, in the night from 16 to 17 December 1940, with 61 Squadron.
Sources: CWGC and W.R. Chorley, Bomber Command Losses. Volume 7. Operational Training Units 1940-1947, Midland Publishing, 2002
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13/06/1940: Training, UK
Type: Hampden Mk I
Serial number: L4138, ?-?
Operation: Training
Lost: 13/06/1940
P/O A.C. Rowe - injured
P/O M.S. Blythe - injured
LAC Evitt
Took off at 12.00 hrs from Upper Heyford. At 20 feet it was hit by 61 Squadron Hampden I P4339 QR-H which had taken off on what proved to be a converging course. P/O Rowe and P/O Blythe were rushed to hospital, very seriously injured, but LAC Evitt escaped relatively lightly. From the wreckage of the 61 Squadron machine two were found dead but two were still alive, both badly hurt.
Sources: CWGC and W.R. Chorley, Bomber Command Losses. Volume 7. Operational Training Units 1940-1947, Midland Publishing, 2002
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13/06/1940: instrument flying practice, UK
Type: Hampden Mk I
Serial number: P4297, ?-?
Operation: instrument flying practice
Lost: 13/06/1940
Flying Officer (Pilot) John E.S. MacAlister, RAFVR 70415, age 27, 13/06/1940, Upper Heyford Cemetery, UK
Pilot Officer (Pilot) Edgar A.E. Sedgley, RAF 42443 (NZ), age 22, 13/06/1940, Middleton Stoney (All Saints) Churchyard, UK
Aircraftman 2nd Class (W.Op./Air Gnr.) James Lennon, RAF 634058, age unknown, 13/06/1940, Middleton Stoney (All Saints) Churchyard, UK
Sedgley was the second pilot, of the three man crew. He had 70 hours solo on Hampdens. See his page on the Cenotaph Database
During Local instrument flying practice the plane stalled on a turn at 1000 feet and crashed at Iwerne Minster, near Blandford, Dorset.
Sources: CWGC; W.R. Chorley, Bomber Command Losses. Volume 7. Operational Training Units 1940-1947, Midland Publishing, 2002; Errol Martyn, For Your Tomorrow
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21/06/1940: Training, UK
Type: Hampden Mk I
Serial number: P1268, ?-?
Operation: Training
Lost: 21/06/1940
Sgt H. Woolstencroft - injured
Took off from Upper Heyford for night circuits and landings. Undershot the runway and crashed at circa 23.40 hrs, smashing into a fuel bowser. No serious injuries reported.
Source: W.R. Chorley, Bomber Command Losses. Volume 7. Operational Training Units 1940-1947, Midland Publishing, 2002
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Sources
Air of Authority - 16 OTU
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database
Bail-outs for 1940
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
RAF Bomber Command
RAF - Campaign Diary - The Battle of France (May-June 1940)
RAF Museum: British Military Aviation in 1940
RAF Order of Battle, France, 10th May 1940
RAF Upwood - 17 OTU losses
Royal Air Force History Section
The Royal Air Force, 1939-1945
The Second World War - a day by day account
The War in France and Flanders, 1939-1940, by Major L.F. Ellis, 1954
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Books
W.R. Chorley, Bomber Command Losses. Volume 7. Operational Training Units 1940-1947, Midland Publishing, 2002
See: www.rafinfo.org.uk/BCWW2Losses/ for updates.
Errol Martyn, For Your Tomorrow - A record of New Zealanders who have died while serving with the RNZAF and Allied Air Services Since 1915 (Vol One: Fates 1915-1942)
Clayton Moore 'Lancaster crew'
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Links
Air Aces
Airwar over Denmark
Allied World War II Casualties in the Netherlands
Armée de l'Air - Order of Battle,
10th May 1940
Australian Wargraves
Axis History Factbook
Battle-of-Britain.com
De Belgen in Engeland 1940-1945 (in Dutch)
Belgian Aviation History Association Archaeological Team
British Aircraft Directory
British Aviation Archaeological Council - Books and research links
HMS Cavalier
Ciel de Gloire (in French)
RAF Squadrons
CWGC Cemeteries Germany
CWGC Cemeteries Netherlands
Czechoslovak airmen in
the RAF 1940-1945
Danish WW2 Pilots
Håkans aviation page (from Sweden, in English)
'High flight', poem by John Gillespie Magee
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, poem by W.B. Yeats
Jagdgeschwader 27 (in German)
Luchtoorlog ('Arial War', in Dutch, with many photos)
Land Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth
The Luftwaffe, 1933-1945
Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum
The National Ex-Prisoners of War Association
Naval History.net
Nordic Aviation during WW2
Pilotfriend.com: aircraft of WW2
Polish Air Force 1940-1947 Operations Record Books
RAF Battle of Britain
De Slag om de Grebbeberg (Dutch)
Warbird Alley
War over Holland
World War II Aircraft wrecksites in Norway
www.bomber-command.de
Bills-Bunker.de
North East Diary 1939-1945
Wartime Leicester and
Leicestershire
The Aerodrome -
Aces and Aircraft of World War 1
WW1 Cemeteries
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This page is dedicated to the men of 16 OTU.
© Bart FM Droog / Rottend Staal Online 2008. Permission granted for use of the data gathered here for non commercial purposes, if this source is mentioned with a link to http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/index.html
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