My Grandfather, Claude Lionel Geoffrey Hood was the son of William Herbert Hood and Mable Hood.

Claude attended The City Boys School at Leicester and in 1923, whilst he was in Form 4b, he was awarded the School Prize for Mathematics. During this time the family lived in Doncaster Road, Leicester.

After leaving school he worked in the City Surveyor's Department at Leicester Town Hall, where he met my Grandmother, Marian Eva Hickling, who worked in the City Treasurer's Office. She was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Charles Hickling of Donnington Street, Leicester. My Grandmother's brother owned a Radio Dealer's business, also in Donnington Street.

Claude and Marian at Bishop Street, Leicester
After Their Wedding

Copyright The Leicester Mercury

They married on Saturday 24th December 1932 at Bishop Street Methodist Chapel. The Leicester Mercury referred to their wedding as a "Town Hall Romance", as they had both worked at the Town Hall since leaving school.

My Grandfather had one brother, John H.R. Hood, a Leicester, Solicitor.

The Whitley Aircraft
The first Whitley prototype was designed and built by Armstrong Whitworth, during the years 1934 to early 1936, in response to an Air Ministry requirement for a twin engined heavy bomber. The first Whitley was flown from Whitley Abbey, Nr Coventry on 17th March 1936. Already an initial order had been placed for 80 in 1935 and a total of 1,814 were built, from the Mk 1 through to the Mk VII.

Whitley V, N1435
On the 4th August 1940 at 0645 hrs the crew were returning from an overnight operation to the Ruhr when they encountered thick fog over the base area, unable to locate an aerodrome and short of fuel Captain Stenhouse was forced to land this Whitley in a small field half a mile east of Staxton Wold.

The crew all escaped unhurt and Captain Stenhouse was later congratulated by the Air Officer in Charge for landing his aircraft and saving his crew in such difficult and dangerous circumstances.

Whitley V, P5044
This Whitley was built by Armstrong Whitworth, under Contract No. 751457/39 and fitted with Rolls Royce Merlin X, 12 cylinder engines with 2 speed superchargers, each producing 1,145 hp (max) for take off and 1,101 hp to give a cruising speed of 175 mph at 15,000 feet, with a maximum speed of 230mph. The service ceiling of the Whitley V was 20,000 feet.

The weight empty was 19,350 lb, with a maximum take off weight of 33,500 lb. Whitley P5044 was taken on charge by 6 Maintenance Unit on 21st June 1940 and with 77 Squadron on the 5th August 1940, only 10 days before the fatal crash. This Whitley was to replace N1435 which required repairs after the forced landing in a field on the 4th August.

According to the Log Book of Pilot Officer R.B. Macgregor, Whitley P5044 aircraft letter 'O' had been flying back and forth to Cottam Airfield on 7th, 8th, 10th and 12th August. Cottam Airfield came under Maintenance Command and was only a short distance North of Driffield. On the 12th August the crew took another Whitley N1365 on an Op to Heringen.

The Mk V had a wing span of 84 feet, a length of 72 feet 6inches and a wing surface area of about 1,135 sq feet. Everyone tells me that a characteristic of the Whitley, was that they flew in a nose down position.

The Whitley squadrons later converted to the 4 engined Halifax bombers.

Operation Bordeaux 14/15th August 1940
The original Driffield Operations Order marked 'C52' and 77 Squadron Operations Record Book (ORB) Form 540 indicates that the target was originally an oil refinery at St. Nazaire.

However, there was a late change to Bordeaux as 77 Squadron ORB Form 541 and Appendix 8 confirm. There is some evidence in Air 24/220 indicating that the target Z158 (Ambes, Bordeaux) which was originally allocated to 12 aircraft of 5 Group was now being given to 4 Group. RAF Station Driffield was one of the station's which came under Bomber Command 4 Group.

A second Driffield Operations Order marked 'B71' in the PRO, relating to 77 Squadron Appendix 8, confirms the target to be Bordeaux. Therefore there was a change to the target, which was originally planned for the Operation that night.

Their aircraft took off on its maiden operational flight at 1935hrs, with 11 others of 77 Sqn, on Wednesday 14th August 1940, heading for an oil refinery (Z.158), on the Gironde Estuary near Bordeaux. The Times, London, dated Friday August 16th 1940 has an article entitled "R.A.F. Over The Gironde" covering the operation on the oil refineries at Ambes, Blaye and Pauillac.

P/O G.A.L. Elliot And Sgt E.E. Fenning
Captain Elliot in N1506 was forced to return due to engine trouble.
Captain Fenning in P5056 returned due to intercom failure.

Copyright K N Chetwyyn 2002

Whitley V

Whitley V, P5044 Crew
F/O William Alan Stenhouse, age 26, Captain, of Edinburgh
P/O Robert Butler Macgregor, age 19, Pilot/Navigator, of Nairobi, Kenya
Sgt Claude Lionel Geoffrey Hood, age 31, Observer, of Leicester
Sgt John Burrow, age 20, W/Op., of Blackburn, Lancs.
Sgt Harold Davies, age 20, R/Gnr., of Bridgtown, Cannock, Staffs.

Route
According to the amended Driffield Operations Order for Bordeaux marked 'B71', the route was to be "Via ANVIL POINT - ILE de RE. All aircraft to land at HARWELL on return journey." Anvil Point is on the South coast just south of Durlston Head, near Swanage in Dorset and Ile de Re is an island off the French coast of La Rochelle.

Teleprinted signal "Form B193 14-8-40" at 1520 hrs indicates a total of 22 Whitley's were listed for the operation, 12 aircraft from RAF Driffield and 10 aircraft RAF Dishforth (51 Squadron), the route given was "At Station Commander's Discretion."

An amendment to original Form B193 was sent to the Driffield Station Signal Office at 1604 hrs on the 14th August, from HQ.4 Group, which was also sent to Dishforth, repeated at Linton and Leeming, confirmed that; "Aircraft must be routed out and home so as to cross English coast east repeat east of Selsea Bill. Particular care is to be taken over correct identification and recognition procedure."

This cancelled the previous route instructions on the amended Driffield Operations Order. Recent calculations by a retired Squadron Leader who was an RAF Navigator indicate that the 77 Squadron bombers went back to Driffield instead of landing at Harwell.

Observations and Intelligence
Returning 77 Squadron crews, later reported that on that night it was clear over the target, but 10/10ths cloud had been encountered over Northern France and the English Channel. Landmarks mentioned by these returning crews were "North of Loire", "Angers", "Laval", a "brightly lit factory near Ancenis between Angers and Nantes" and various white rotating beacons near Vitre, Avranches. White flashing beacons south of La Fleche near Angers, a rotating white beacon with small light flashing 'S' at the north end of a lake south of Pouance (Chateaubriant). An E/A landing at Laval aerodrome at 2247hrs, a flare path seen 2256hrs at Laval and also a red signal fired from the ground.

A teleprinted report from Harwell addressed to 6 Group, repeated to 4 Group and Driffield for 1950 14/8/40 to 0500 15/8/40 confirmed "very slight flak over target" and "Heavy AA. at 46 degrees 10' N and 01.06 W. At 23.45 from 6000FT".

The War Room Summaries indicate that two Whitley aircraft crashed due to colliding with British barrages, during the operation.

Whitley P5044 Accident, Nr Eastleigh, 15th August 1940
The Flying Accident Card for P5044 confirms that the Whitley V struck a British balloon barrage after breaking cloud some way off track and crashed 1 mile S.E. of Eastleigh

According to a Balloon Command HQ signal, 77 Squadron and 924 Squadron ORB's, the Whitley collided with a balloon cable of the Southampton Barrage, site 24/7, at 0330hrs, causing 15 feet of wing to be cut off and the aircraft to crash. The balloon height was given as 4,000 feet with unarmed cable.

The Signal relating to the Whitley crash in AIR 16/726 at the Public Records Office.

Crown Copyright

The 77 Squadron ORB indicates the aircraft crashed from a height of 2,500 feet.

Observer Corps (Whitley at Eastleigh)
The Log of the Observer Corps Centre 15.8.40 No 3 Group Winchester indicates:
"03.30 E1 & E3 reported plane in U.8935 which apparently had crashed into the Balloon Barrage at Eastleigh & had come down. On enquiry from Eastleigh we learnt that it had crashed on the edge of the aerodrome. Details very scarce, but Eastleigh are going to let us have fuller details later. Uxbridge & Andover crash station informed This plane was given as 10,000 ft but appeared to lose height and then the crash."

"04.45 Uxbridge enquired of the crashed aircraft reported at 03.30 rang Eastleigh who said it was a British plane but no further details yet.
Uxbridge informed"

The Centre Log also indicates that Red Flares in the air were observed about 5 miles off the coast at Sandown, Isle of Wight in the time leading up to the accident, which seems to indicate that the Whitley was already in difficulty before the aircraft crossed the south coast and encountered the barrage.

The Observer Post E1 at Botley plots the aircraft logged as "unknown", flying in a clockwise semi-circular track from the north of Fareham, over Titchfield, Hamble, Netley, the south-east and eastern districts of Southampton and crashing to the north of West End.

The Observer Post E2 at Upham observed Red and Amber lights on the Whitley immediately before the crash.

The Observer Corps Centre Log, entry for 26.8.40 at "04.27 From County Police" regarding the Blenheim crash, also has a reference to the previous Whitley crash and states: "The balloon with which the plane collided was the same one which brought down the British bomber (Whitley) about 10 days ago. This balloon is the last one. Uxbridge informed." Despite the Whitley and the Blenheim crashing only a few fields apart from each other, the records of Balloon Command give two different balloon site numbers for each collision.

Observer post E3 was at Chandlers Ford. Winchester was the Regional Centre and RAF Uxbridge was the Observer Corps Operations Centre reporting to Fighter Command.

Location (Whitley at Eastleigh)
The Flying Accident Card gives the location as 1 mile S.E. of Eastleigh and the Southampton Fire Brigade Occurrence Book referred to a crashed aeroplane in Allington Lane, West End. The RAF Certificate sent by the Commanding Officer of 77 Squadron to register the deaths, confirms the crash occurred in Allington Lane, West End.

Mr Leng confirmed the crash was in the field opposite Railway Cottages in Allington Lane. Mr Brenton confirms that the Lewington's lived opposite the Whitley crash site, in "Railway Cottages". Also he tells me that the same balloon, situated at Gypsy corner which the Whitley collided with, was also to be the cause of the Blenheim accident about 2 weeks later.

Southampton Echo Report (Whitley at Eastleigh)
The Southampton Echo for the 15th August 1940, an evening paper, reports a bomber crashing into a cornfield near 2 cottages, Mrs Lewington the occupier, said they were awoken by the roar of the planes engine, then there was a crash.

Fawley All Saints
The Whitley Crew of five (see above), were all buried at Fawley All Saints Church in a reserved plot for RAF Airmen on the 21st August 1940, along with airmen from a Hudson which also crashed into a balloon near Eastleigh.

According to Fawley Parish Records, the following Airmen were from RAF Silloth:
F/O Roy Hoole Immelman, age 24, of Craddock, South Africa
P/O Albert Percival Davis, age 24
Sgt John Barlow, age 19, of No.1 OTU Silloth
Sgt Douglas Borthwick Cowie, age 19
Sgt Arthur Martin Froud, age 18
A/C/2 Alexander Taylor
Mr John Scott Whittaker, age 23, His grave citation states, In a Flying Accident. Fawley Parish records, states he was from RAF Silloth.

P/O Martyn Aurel King, age 19, a Hurricane Pilot, from RAF Boscombe Down, who died at Southampton on the 16th August 1940.

The Air Officer Commanding (AOC) No 17 Group and the Officer Commanding RAF Station Calshot attended the Service Funeral, held at 1400hrs. The niece of Sgt Barlow informed me, that his mother recalled the procession marching from Calshot to Fawley, accompanied by an Escort, Firing Party, Band and Pall Bearers for a full Service Funeral. The details are listed in the RAF Station Calshot "Daily Routine Orders", at the Public Records Office.

RAF Cemetery Fawley Church.

Copyright Mark Hood

The Other Whitley V Accident, P4982 Nr Langley, 15th August 1940
This Whitley was also on the Bordeaux Operation, from 51 Sqn at Dishforth. The aircraft collided with a barrage near Langley, Buckinghamshire and crashed at Larborne Farm, near West Drayton, 0403hrs.

The signal A931, dated 15/8 from Balloon Command HQ, states: "Reference my A980 dated 15/8 Aircraft Whitley DPL Fired Aircraft flying 1000 feet searchlight played on it before crash. Crash about two miles away wing completely cut off and found two fields apart."

The Whitley V, P4982 Crew:
F/O Stanley Powell Swensen, age 25, Pilot, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Sgt Anthony Kyle Dawson, age 19, Pilot, of Leicester
Sgt John Barrie O'Brien, age 21, of Halifax, Yorkshire
Sgt Richard Albert William Tait, age 22, W.Op/A.Gnr., of Worthing, Sussex
Sgt Laurence Paul Stubberfield, age 20, W.Op/A.Gnr., of Eastbourne

Four Airmen from this Whitley are buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery, with the exception of Sgt Stubberfield, who is buried at Eastbourne, (Ocklynge) Cemetery.

Hudson I, P9320, at Eastleigh, 15th August 1940
The Flying Accident Card states that the Hudson, from No.1 OTU was "Returning to Silloth, via Northolt after delivering a/c to Eastleigh".

Nature of Accident. "Hit balloon cable on t.o, crashed into house...."
"T.O. with 'yellow' warning in progress & balloons going up from Soton, despite a warning by a civilian & a last minute attempt by the Air Watch Officer to stop him. Climbing steeply to 700' but hit cable"....
Place. "1/2 mile N. Eastleigh"

According to the reverse of the Flying Accident Card, the following is noted:
"pilot delivering a/c to Eastleigh, must return by rail"

Hudson I, P9320 Crew and Occupants:
The Silloth ORB lists the nine crew and occupants of this Hudson belonging to No.1 OTU, which struck a balloon cable whilst taking off from Eastleigh and crashed half a mile north of the aerodrome, as:
S/Ldr Coulson
F/O Immelman
P/O Davis
P/O Whittle
Sgt Froud
Sgt Cowie
Sgt Barlow
AC2 Taylor
Mr Whittaker, Sperry Representative

The No.1 OTU Silloth Daily Routine Orders confirms that S/Ldr Coulson was to be a Duty Officer at Silloth on the 15th August 1940, the day of the accident.

The 924 Balloon Squadron ORB for 1727hrs states:
"Lockheed Hudson aircraft took off from airport during red warning and hit cable of 24/23 which was paying out to operational height. Crew of nine killed. Aircraft crashed into house and it is believed two occupants also killed."

The Royal Observer Corps Logs state:
"Corrected message cancelling message 17.35"
"UXBRIDGE INFORMED"
"Report from E2 1 Hudson took off from Eastleigh at 5.20 hit Balloon cable in Cranbury Road plane crashed at 199 Nutbeam Road...."

Emergency Planning records, Incident No 7. Eastleigh, entered at 20.02 states:
"British Plane crashed....1 house completely demolished & 2 damaged".

The two civilian casualties were Mr & Mrs Craig, of 195 Nutbeem Road, Eastleigh.

Blenheim L8870, Nr Eastleigh, 26th August 1940
According to the Balloon Signal and No.12 Balloon Centre Accident Report, eleven days later a Blenheim, L8870, from RAF West Raynham in Norfolk, crashed at 0247hrs, after colliding with a barrage balloon cable of site 24/15, (known as Gypsy Corner, now called Roddington Forge). The Blenheim crashed in the grounds of "Oaklands" House, Allington Lane, according to the report prepared by the Balloon Centre and the reports by the Observer Corps, at 02.53 and 04.27hrs.

The Flying Accident Card confirms Blenheim L8870 was flying to the target when the collision with the cable occurred.

Observer Corps Log, 26th August 1940
State:"02.53 Very heavy explosion, believed U83 & U93 Sq. reported by E1 in direction of Southampton Drome also reported by J posts G posts M posts H posts & F Posts. Uxbridge and County Police informed."

"The balloon with which the plane collided was the same one which brought down the British bomber (Whitley) about 10 days ago. This balloon is the last one."
"Uxbridge Informed"

101 Squadron Operations Records Book
The entry for 26th August 1940, on RAF Form 540, states the accident occurred "whilst returning for night operations over enemy territory." RAF Form 541 confirms they took off at 0153hrs and the entry for 0620hrs, states that L.8870 "Crashed near Eastleigh, Southampton, returning from target having struck balloon cable." The Operation was St. Malo.

The 101 Squadron ORB contradicts with the Flying Accident Card, also the times in the Balloon Centre Accident Report, signal and the Observer Corps reports are too early for the Blenheim to be returning.

P.C. Molloy
A Southampton Policeman Joe Molloy, recalls seeing an aeroplane flying fairly low and hearing the crash in the direction of West End, after coming off duty from Portswood Police Station, Southampton at 6 a.m. He got on his bike and cycled in the direction of where the crash occurred. He remembers being first there and finding a crashed bomber in a field just to the north of "Oaklands" in Allington Lane.

Letters from Mr Brenton
Mr Brenton and his brother who lived in "Game Keepers Cottage" on the opposite side of the Lane, informed me that they were awoken when the Blenheim crashed at "Oaklands". He also recalls that a piece went through his sister's bedroom window and embedded itself in the bedroom wall, on the opposite side of the room. His brother recalls the balloon at Gypsy Corner being the cause of both plane crashes, (Blenheim and the Whitley about 2 weeks earlier). The Observer Corps records seem to agree with this, however the Balloon Squadron records give 2 different site numbers.

No.12 Balloon Centre Report, Blenheim L8870
The official Accident Report confirms that there were broken windows and a badly damaged conservatory to "Oaklands". The report also confirms that the balloon site was about 440 yards in a north-easterly direction, from "Oaklands" House. The statements from the 2 Sentries at the balloon site, state "...the plane was travelling approximately in a south-westerly direction."

The Report for the Blenheim collision notes that the balloon broke away with an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 feet of cable still attached and the remaining cable from the balloon site fell across Allington Lane into two adjacent fields, one of which was the scene of the crash referred to in a report dated 16th August 1940.

The Blenheim, L8870 Crew:
Sgt John Hawes Balmer, Pilot, age 29, of Watford
Sgt William John Cheshire Corker, age 28, Observer, of Birkenhead
Sgt Thomas George James Cranston, age 22, W.Op/A.Gnr., of Edinburgh

Reference to Whitley P5044 in the Blenheim Report
The signal from Balloon Command for the Whitley V crash on the 15th August was sent on the 16th August 1940 and in the signal it confirmed, "Delay in report due to requiring confirmation". Unfortunately, only the signal document reporting the Whitley crash remains in the PRO file. However, I believe that the other crash referred to in the Blenheim Report, by No 12 Balloon Centre at Titchfield, was that of the Whitley V on the 15th August at Eastleigh. This reference to the previous crash does appear to confirm that the Whitley crashed near Gypsy Corner (now Roddington Forge) and Railway Cottages, north-east of "Oaklands" House. This would also tie up with the Southampton Echo report and the letters I received in 2000 from people who lived in the Lane in 1940.

Conclusions
Losses of friendly aircraft due to collisions with our own cables was high when comparing them to German aircraft losses caused by our balloon cables. There were many complaints between the different Commands about crew and aircraft losses in the PRO files, due to collisions with our balloon cables. Bomber Command wanted the balloons close hauled at night down to 1,000 feet, or the freedom to fly at heights above the barrages, requiring bombers to fly above 4,000 feet.

However, Regulation S.D.158, required that aircraft fly within sight of the ground when over our country, unless the cloud base was a 1,000 feet or lower. This meant that if the cloud base was between 1,000 and 4,000 feet, then returning friendly aircraft flying in sight of the ground could still encounter balloon cables. There were plans in November 1940 to change this regulation, from 1,000 to 2,000 feet. However Bomber Command could see that the change would be of little use, because their aircraft would still encounter balloon cables, during operational sorties in cloudy conditions. Eventually the regulation was relaxed altogether.

A memo from A.T. Harris D.C.A.S. (Deputy Chief of Air Staff) dated 12.3.41 to D.F.Ops.(Director of Flight Ops.) and O.C. War Room, says the following:

"Since the beginning of the war our balloons have brought down 9 enemy aircraft. They have "shared" 2 more with the anti aircraft. A maximum total of 11.
2. Over the same period they have brought down the following aircraft of our own:-"
The 17 aircraft types are listed and a total of "47" aircraft is given.
"3. Of the above total 19 were brought down at night.
4. In the process"....."they have killed 77 of our aircrew personnel and injured 7.
5. In addition there is no doubt that complications of night navigation, due to the presence of our balloons, have been a contributory cause to the loss of other aircraft of ours which crashed in bad weather unable to make their aerodromes.
6. It becomes an urgent matter to decide whether this balloon game is worth the candle. I personally recommend that all our balloons should now be close hauled or grounded until further notice."....

Navigation
Pilots, Observers and Navigators basically navigated the aircraft by a method called 'dead reckoning' using visual sightings to check their track, also they used astro navigation and wireless direction finding.

Dead reckoning is basically flying the aircraft in a set direction on a track (or course), between two set points. They used visual observations of the ground, sighting well known landmarks, towns, rivers, roads and railway tracks to check their track and calculate new bearings to bring the aircraft back on track.

There are a number of problems using 'dead reckoning', with visual observation and these are:

i Cloud
ii Icing and Inclement Weather.
iii Winds and Drift, requiring the Navigator to calculate new courses. The Navigator/Observer, required accurate wind forecasts relating to wind direction and speed, however it was highly unlikely to get accurate forecasts over Europe.
iv Darkness, especially with little moonlight or cloud.
v Following roads, rail tracks and rivers led into towns or near factories protected by barrage balloons, resulting in collisions.

If there was no visual sighting or recognition of the ground, then they were heavily reliant on mathematical calculations, to make course corrections and also on astro navigation to mathematically calculate their position on the earths surface, by measuring the known position of stars in the night sky by means of a bubble sextant.

The Navigator/Observer would use a 'computer' like a circular, disc type scale rule to assist with calculating, vectors, angles, wind speed, drift, distance travelled, time, air speed and any known inaccuracies in the aircraft controls.

The RDF CHL (Chain Home Low) Coastal Stations was in its very early stages compared to the radar and navigational electronics of today.

The Whitley had a D/F (Direction Finding) loop which it rotated to pick up known transmitter and wireless stations, using the geographical locations of these wireless transmission stations the Navigator/Observer could work out his aircraft position.

This system used a loop aerial that could be rotated and had a scale marked in degrees. When the receiver was tuned in to a beacon transmitter or even a commercial station and the loop was rotated, the signal would virtually disappear when the loop was square on to the transmission, at this point the reading would be taken from the scale. If the location of the transmitter was known and the compass bearing of the aircraft was taken, then the direction that the aircraft with respect to the transmitter could be calculated. This could be repeated for a second beacon or transmitter and the actual location of the aircraft be determined. This system had a number of errors and could be affected by reflections from large external objects.

According to files in the PRO, the aluminium coating on the balloons produced in the early war years and the cables, were interfering with G.L. Sets. According to a letter from Bomber Command in the PRO files there was also a "lack of reliable H/F bearings given when the aircraft are more than 100 miles from their base."

In 1940 they were devising a number of barrage warning systems such as a red light positioned 5 miles to the north end of each barrage and a flashing red light positioned 5 miles to the south of each barrage. These lights had to be visible for 40 miles in clear weather. The other system was 'squeakers' which informed the aircraft they were nearing a barrage, however the earliest of these was not in use until near the end of 1940. Cable cutters which were installed in the front edge of the wing were being designed and tested. If an aircraft did encounter a cable, then one hoped that the cable would slide along the wing edge into the cutting mechanism and hopefully trigger the cutting jaws and snap off the cable.

In 1941, improvements were made to ground communications, with extra telephone lines, exchanges and new links in the chain of command and warning structure, resulting in some accidents being averted.

Heinkel 111 Crash, Nr Eastleigh, 19th January 1941, due to AA Fire
About half a dozen replies referred to a German plane crashing in early 1941, also on the same side of Allington Lane as the Whitley and Blenheim accidents, opposite to Allington Manor Farm, in a field just north of the railway. The Heinkel 111 was from 9./KG26, based near Amiens. The Heinkel was flying in a North-westerly direction at 7,000 feet on 19th January 1941 and was shot down by an anti-aircraft position nearby at 2045hrs. The aircraft had the Benito system, similar to X-Gerat, to enable the aircraft to find its way to the target by means of radio beams.
The crew were:
Uffz Karl Linhorst
Fw. Hermann Radke
Gefr Erwin Krause
Obgefr Paul Karzel
Fw Werner Enslin

The T.R.E. (Research Establishment) were able to determine from the W/T operator's notes in his notebook, that the aircraft was equipped with the Benito system.

Acknowledgements:
I am grateful to Kim Chetwyn, who carried out some of the initial hyper text mark up language (html coding), from my written script, so that I could get this project, which I started four years ago on my own personal web site.

I am also grateful to the following sources who provided either copies of documents, information or advice on locating records for this web site.

Public Record Office, Kew (The National Archives since 2003), to consult the 216 Air Ministry Files and RAF ORB's
RAF Museum at Hendon, Whitley Loss Card and Aircraft Cards
Air Historical Branch (RAF), Flying Accident Card
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Barber family Private Collection (relative of Sgt J.Barlow, 1 O.T.U.)
Jan Burrow (relative of Sgt John (Jack) Burrow, 77 Sqn)
Hood family Private Collection
Mrs B. Scurfield (relative of P/O Bobbie Macgregor, 77 Sqn)
Fawley Parish Burial Records
Ron Bridge RAF (Ret'd)
Norman Groom, D/F Navigation
Dennis Leng, ex 'D' Flight HQ (Barrage Balloons)
Guy Jefferson, D/F Navigation and beacon information
Bomber Command Association
The Registry Office at Winchester
Hampshire County Records Office
Southampton Archive Services
Royal Observer Corps Museum
Southampton Hall of Aviation
Pauline of West End Local History Society, Heinkel Report
Leicester Library for "The Times" newspaper
The Times
Leicester Mercury
Southampton Echo
BAA Southampton
Mr Ernest Brenton and his Brother (ex resident Allington Lane 1940)
Mr N.J. Bushell (ex resident Allington Lane 1940)
Ms Barbara Mason (ex resident Allington Lane 1940)
Mr Joe Molloy (ex Policeman at Portswood Station in 1940)
Mr Ben Wood (from Allington Manor Farm in 1940)
Mr Maurice Young

Original Copyrights belong to the Crown, other Repositories, Groups, Newspapers and Private Collections as stated in the text.

The Future
I believe that one day soon there will be no more wars on our earth, that swords will become ploughshares and spears become pruning shears Isaiah 2 v 4. Many people are aware of the Lords Prayer or Model Prayer where we pray for God's Kingdom and soon the benefits of Jesus Christ's rule in heaven will be felt all over our globe, Matthew 6 v 9-15 and Isaiah 9 v 6 & 7. The bible promises us peace, good health, no more famine, no sorrow, or death, see Psalms 37 v 11 and Revelation 21 v 4. This time that I look forward to will truly be a time when peoples of all nations will care for one another, do unto those as you want them to do unto you, Matthew 7 v 12, sometimes referred to as the golden rule. I look forward to welcoming back my Grandfather, his colleagues and German counterparts during the resurrection, in a world where peace and harmony prevail.

This Compilation, Copyright Mark Richard Hood 2002 (updated 2003).