Henzell, John

Date of birth:: 1918 (Newcastle-upon-Tyne/England, Great Britain)
Date of death:: April 4th, 1942
Mentioned on:: Commonwealth Memorial of the Missing Singapore
Plot: 415.
Service number:: 641447
Nationality:: British (1801-present, Kingdom)

Biography

John Henzell was an apprentice plumber for Vickers Amstrong Ltd at the Naval Yard in Walker, Newcastle when he enlisted on April 27th, 1939. He attended Flight Training School in December 1939, did a stint with the aircraft assembly unit then was assigned to No. 23 squadron on the May 28th, 1941. No. 23 Squadron received its first monoplanes in the form of the Bristol Blenheims and these were used as night fighters in the early days of WW2 whilst based at Wittering. By July 15th, 1941 he was transferred to No. 413 Squadron and was dispatched to India

John Henzell, a son of Joshua and Frances (née Murray) Henzell was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1918. He joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve qualifying as an Air Gunner.
He was killed on April 4th, 1942 whilst flying in Catalina I AJ155/QL-A of No. 413 Squadron. The aircraft had only arrived in Ceylon two days earlier and tasked with searching for the Japanese Fleet in the Indian Ocean. Leaving RAF Koggala at dawn they encountered the Nagumo Force 12 hours later and radioed its position back to base before being heavily engaged and subsequently shot down by enemy A6M fighters. The Japanese continued to strafe the wreck seriously wounding Henzell in the front turret. He was lost when the aircraft sank along with W/O Colarossi. The Japanese continued their attack on the survivors in the water killing Sgt Davidson. The remaining six crew members were eventually picked up by the Japanese destroyer Isokzae. Henzell was 23 and is commemorated on Column 415 on the Kanji War Memorial in Singapore.

As a result of the sighting being radioed in the Royal Navy sent its Ceylon fleet to sea and the RAF were in a position to repulse the enemy aircraft when the Japanese dropped their bombs on Colombo on April 5th, 1942. The Japanese withdrew its large attack force from the Indian Ocean and abandoned plans to invade India by way of Ceylon. BIRCHALL become known as the "Saviour of Ceylon".

Other crew members –
Pilot - S/Ldr Leonard J. Birchall (RCAF-) – POW
Flt Eng – Brian Catlin – POW
Bart Onyette (RCAF) – POW
‘Ginger’ Cook – POW
P.O. Kenny – POW
Wireless Op – Fred Philips – POW
W.OP/AG - W/O Lucien Angelo Colarossi (812318) †
W.OP/AG - Sgt Ian Nicholson Davidson (972081) †.

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