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* Report: July 15th, 2023: The Belgians Parade to the London Cenotaph *

RAF aircraft's crash sites in Province of West-Vlaanderen:
Off the Belgian coast

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Last update: 25/06/23


Elegy to
the Heroes of Silence


* To the 2 Squadron *
* To the crew of L4811 *
* To the monument erected in remembrance *
* Cemetery where rest the crew *
* Cemetery where rest the crew *

Crash site of Lysander L4811
31/05/1940

aircraft
cest raf squadron
Unit: 2 Squadron
Aircraft: Lysander
Code: L4811
Base: Bekesbourne
Mission: Dunkerque
Crew officer: P/O DEARDEN, CLIFFORD HERBERT
Incident: Shot down by German fighter

Location: (Prov. West-Vlanderen)

crash

Facts

Westland Lysander Mk.II L4811 (KO-N) 2 Squadron, RAF: Written off (damaged beyond repair) when lost due to combat operations on 31 May 1940. Both crew killed. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/748): "Lysander L4311 [*sic] failed to return from air operations, 1 June 1940. Leading Aircraftman A O'N McCoy: missing presumed dead. Pilot Officer C H Dearden: report of death"
Airborne from Abbeville/Drucat, France for a Tactical Reconnaissance mission between Nieuport and de Panne, Belgium. Believed severely damaged in an attack by Uffz Busch of 2./JG 20 during observation sortie between Nieuport (Nieuwpoort) and Ostend (Oostende), retreated west at low level but shot down by Lt Müncheberg of Stb III./JG 26 between Furnes (Veurne) and Dunkirk at 14.35 hrs.
The fact that the body of the sole crew member to be recovered was buried at DePanne, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, would indicate that the Lysander came down on the Belgian side of the French/Belgian border.
NOTE: The official Air Ministry file AIR 81/748 listed the Lysander as "L4311" [sic]. Serial L4311 was, in fact, allocated to a Vickers Wellington Mk.Ic (one of a batch of 175 serialled between L4212 and L4391). Also, the CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) gives the date of the incident, and the deaths of the two crew, as May 31 1940, but Air Ministry official file AIR 84/748 gives the date of this incident as 1 June 1940 (=next day)

Sources:
Aviation Safety
The International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)
Aircrew Remembered
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