204 SQUADRON - Bomber, Short Sunderland
Coastal Command
History | Operations and losses | Sources | Links | Books | Questions and/or remarks
In June 1939, the squadron began to receive Sunderlands and following the outbreak of war the squadron began patrols of the English Channel and Western Approaches. When Germany invaded Norway in April 1940 and British forces were sent to support the Norwegians, the squadron was moved to Sullom Voe to patrol the North Sea and Norwegian coast.
The squadron remained in the Shetlands after the withdrawal of British forces and the collapse of Norway, but in April 1941 it moved to Reykjavik in Iceland. However, its stay in Iceland was brief and in July it was sent to Gibraltar and the following month, even further south to Gambia in West Africa, where it remained for the rest of the war, disbanding on 30 June 1945.
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Operations and losses 10/05/1940 - 30/06/1940
Not all operations listed; those with fatal losses are.
21/06/1940: Shadowing duty, Norway
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Fatalities 01/01/1940 - 09/05/1940 (incomplete)
Type: Sunderland I
Serial Number: L5799, KG-D
Operation: Reconnaissance
Lost: 08/04/1940
Flight Lieutenant Robert P.A. Harrison, RAF 37599, 204 Sqdn., age 23, 08/04/1940, missing.
Pilot Officer Ronald F. Hoskins, RAF 43152, 204 Sqdn., age 27, 08/04/1940, missing.
Leading Aircraftman Albert F. Roberts, RAF 522093, 204 Sqdn., age 25, 08/04/1940, missing
Leading Aircraftman Dennis S. Lloyd, RAF 547593, 204 Sqdn., age 19, 08/04/1940, missing
Aircraftman 1st Class Bernard V.H. Bulmer, RAF 569834, 204 Sqdn., age 20, 08/04/1940, missing.
Aircraftman 1st Class Charles A. Hughes, RAF 333908, 204 Sqdn., age 38, 08/04/1940, missing
Aircraftman 1st Class Leonard J. Fowell, RAF 622095, 204 Sqdn., age 20, 08/04/1940, missing.
Aircraftman 2nd Class Herbert Harrott, RAF 618068, 204 Sqdn., age unknown, 08/04/1940, missing.
Aircraftman 2nd Class William H.U. Dolley, RAF 648552, 204 Sqdn., age 18, 08/04/1940, missing.
Took off 10.30 hrs from Sullom Voe, tasked with a recce mission off the coast of Norway. the Sunderland failed to return after signalling an ETA 30 minutes before it was due to start the return leg and was shot down in a running dogfight with a Heinkel 111 of 1(F)./122 and crashed into the sea west of Bergen, Norway. Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial
Sources: CWGC; Ross McNeill, Coastal Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 1 (1939-1941)
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21/06/1940: Shadowing duty, Norway
Sqdn Ldr Thomas in F/204 N9046 and Flt Lt. Phillips in A/204 N9028 were on shadowing duty escorted by 254 Squadron Blenheims from Sumburgh. Unfortunately the Blenheims peeled off to attack a Do 18 and then left for Base, leaving the Sunderland's on their own.
Later on Me109's attacked and after one went down into the sea in flames A/204 returned to Base with holed fuel tanks and the Rear Turret out of action.
Source: Halley, Famous Maritime Squadrons of the RAF, via Alex Smart, TOCH Forum)
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Sources
Air of Authority - 204 Squadron
Air Force POWs 1939-1945
Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database
Australian War Memorial
Bail-outs for 1940
The Campaign in Norway
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The London Gazette
Prisoners of War captured in Europe 1940
Royal Air Force - 204 Squadron
RAF against odds (Time, USA, 27/05/1940)
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
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
Peter D. Cornwell, The Battle of France, Then and Now, 2008
Ross McNeill, Coastal Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 1 (1939-1941), Midland publishing, 2003. ISBN: 1 85780 128 8
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Links
Discussion Groups
Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum
RAF Commands Forum
Other
Abbreviations used in the Royal Air Force
Code Names & RAF Vocabulary
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
Canada's Air Force History
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
Dutch Pilots in RAF Squadrons
Eagles Squadrons (American pilots in the RAF)
Foreign Aircraft Landings in Ireland 1939-1946
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
Order of Liberation (in French/English/Spanish)
Pilotfriend.com: aircraft of WW2
Polish Air Force 1940-1947 Operations Record Books
RAF Battle of Britain
RAF Upwood
RAF WWII 38 Group Squadrons Reunited
De Slag om de Grebbeberg (Dutch)
Warbird Alley
War over Holland
World War II Aircraft wrecksites in Norway
www.bomber-command.de
Aircraft crashes on the North Yorkshire Moors, England
Bills-Bunker.de
The Lancastershire Aircraft Investigation Team
Luftfahrt-Archäologie in Schleswig Holstein (in German)
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 204 Squadron.
© 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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