No. 50 Squadron Royal Air Force In World War Two

No. 50 Squadron Royal Air Force In World War Two

The Diary of a WWII Bomber Squadron - Part 5, 1942 to 1943

Diary of 50 Squadron based at RAF Skellingthorpe including night bombing of Bochum, Germany; laying mines in the Baltic Sea off Gdynia, Poland with the loss of one aircraft; ditching in the North Sea off Denmark, having been attacked by the night fighter of Oberleutnant Werner Speidel. Confirmation via Red Cross of safety of six crew members with the loss at sea of navigator, Sergeant Bernard 'Bunny' Ridsdale. The survivors, Pilot Officer R M Code RCAF, Sergeant H J Boyton RAFVR, Sergeant E F Coling RAFVR, Sergeant A E Langford RAFVR, Sergeant C R Moad RCAF and Pilot Officer A Noble RCAF were made prisoners of war.
During the month of September 1943 the squadron lost 6 aircraft and 21 men killed with 7 being prisoners of war. All aircraft are noted as now being equipped with 'Monica' and some additionally equipped with 'Mandrell.

Two page typed document

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No. 50 Squadron Royal Air Force In World War Two
The Diary of a WWII Bomber Squadron- Part 5, 1942 to 1943.

[underlined] September 1943, Based At RAF Skellingthorpe, Lincoln [/underlined]

[underlined] 29/30 September 1943- Night bombing BOCHUM [/underlined]

Twelve aircraft were detailed to attack Bochum this evening. All took off with eleven bombing successfully, one returning early due to A.S.I. failure and the remainder returning safely to Base before midnight. The weather was good with no cloud but, as was common, a ground haze prevented surface features from being seen; yet again the PFF T.I.’s proved their worth. No losses this raid, defences were generally rated as poor. ‘Monica’ serviceability seems to have greatly improved, ‘Window’ was dropped by all aircraft and some used ‘Mandrell’, again the equipment seems to be performing well.

[underlined] 29/30 September- Night ‘Gardening’ in the SPINACH 1 AREA [/underlined]

Two further aircraft were detailed tonight to position sea-mines (‘Vegetables’) in the Spinach 1 Garden’ (Baltic Sea off Gdynia), a good 4 Hours flying time from base. One aircraft dropped mines with no opposition and in good weather with no Moon. The second aircraft, JB143, failed to return and the crew were posted as ‘Missing’ after various positional reports from RAF Heston gave a final position somewhere in the North Sea off Denmark.

It was later established via the International Red Cross that six of the crew were safe but one had not been found after the aircraft intentionally ditched in the North Sea. Post-war crew debrief reports gave detail to the story. Lancaster B. Mk. III JB143 ‘VN-L’ was attacked by a Night Fighter (Oblt. Werner Speidel of 10/ NJG 3) and eventually ditched in the North Sea at 55.50N, 05.38E (about 100Km West of Esbjerg, Denmark) at 1.43hrs on the 30th. All the crew survived the ditching and although six made it into the aircraft’s Dinghy, the Navigator, Sgt. Ridsdale was washed away by a wave and disappeared, never to be found.

The six survivors drifted for days until they were luckily picked-up by fishermen on the Danish fishing vessel ‘FN416’ “Niels Aaen” of Frederikshavn and dropped off at Thyborǿn Harbour, on the North-Western coast of Denmark on the 3rd October 1943. All six were made POW’s.

They were:
Pilot P/O R.M. CODE RCAF
Sgt. H.J. BOYTON RAFVR
Sgt. E.F. COLING RAFVR
Sgt. A.E. LANGFORD RAFVR
Sgt. C.R. MOAD RCAF
P/O A. NOBLE RCAF

Navigator 1457270 Sgt. Bernard Ridsdale RAFVR perished, his body never being recovered. He is commemorated at the Runnymede Memorial, Sussex and also by way of a plaque in front of the memorial erected by Tuborg Breweries and The Danish Resistance movement in 1948 at Tuborg Harbour, Hellerup, Copenhagen.

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[underlined] September 1943, Based At RAF Skellingthorpe, Lincoln [/underlined]

[underlined] 30 September 1943- Air-Sea Searches [/underlined]

The Chopping and Mason crews took Two aircraft to carry out searches of the North Sea today, unsuccessfully, for JB143’s crew leaving at around 4pm this afternoon.

[underlined] Squadron Losses- September 1943 [/underlined]

This month the Squadron lost 6 aircraft and 21 men killed on operations and training. Seven were taken P.O.W.

[underlined] Representative Aircraft [/underlined]

(Lancaster B. Mk. I) W4905 ‘H’, W4161 ‘J’, W5004*, R5546 ‘T’;

(Lancaster B. Mk. III) DV124*, DV217, DV227 (badly damaged, air combat), DV234, EE120 (badly damaged on landing), EE124 ‘B’*, ED189 ‘S’, ED393 ‘K’, ED415, ED470 ‘O’, ED588 ‘G’, ED755 ‘Q’, ED876, EE189, JA899, JA961, JB143, JB147.

All aircraft are now ‘Monica’ equipped; those marked * are additionally equipped with ‘Mandrell’.

[underlined] Representative Crews [/underlined]

Adams, Brown, Banks, Bolton, Chopping, Coates, Code, Cole, Duncan, Edward, Heckendorf, Lees, Litherland, Lloyd, Mason, McFarlane (C.O.), McLeod, Medley, Nelson, Parks, Pullen, Ruskell, Shortt, Smith, Taylor, Thompson, Thomson, Toovey, Weatherstone, Wilkie,

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