Introduction

RAF Bomber Command aircrews suffered a very high casualty rate. More than 57,000 of the 125,000 airmen who flew with Bomber Command were killed on operations. Another 10,000 were shot down over enemy occupied territory but survived. They became prisoners of war and spent the remainder of the war in captivity in German prisoner of war camps. Such was the fate of the six crew members of Wellington Z1203. They were forced to bail out over The Netherlands and were captured on the ground by the Germans. These six men spent over three years in captivity before returning home.

Target Lübeck

RAF Bomber Command tried to inflict damage on the German war machine from the air . At first, by means of strategic bombardments on industrial and military targets. But when Air Marshall Sir Arthur Harris was appointed as its new commander in the spring of 1942, ‘area bombing’ became the new strategy. Harris’ tactics entailed indiscriminate attacks on cities with industrial and military importance. The first operation under the new directive had been to Essen on the night of 8/9 March 1942. The mission on the night of 28/29 March was still one of the very first ‘area bombing’ operations. The target for this night was the town of Lübeck. This town was chosen because of its light defences so the new tactics could be carried out with little opposition.

Bomber Command detailed 234 aircraft (146 Wellingtons, 41 Hampdens, 26 Stirlings, 21 Manchesters) to bomb the town. No.142 Squadron, based at RAF Grimsby, delivered seven Wellingtons for the attack. One of these aircraft was Wellington Z1203 (QT-O). The crew of this machine was as follows:
Pilot: Pilot Officer John Hubert Hall (27 years old, Canadian)
2nd pilot: Sergeant Lawrence Hugh Houghton (21 years old, British)
Observer: Flight Sergeant John Edward Harritt (29 years old, Canadian)
Air Bomber: Sergeant Arthur Richard Tidder (25 years old, British)
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: Sergeant Geoffrey Peter Wadsworth (21 years old, British)
Air Gunner: Sergeant Ernest Joseph Pettitt (20 years old, British)

This crew had not been trained together at an Operational Training Unit (OTU). The airmen had been posted to No.142 Squadron on different moments. John "Shorty" Hall was the most experienced; he had been posted in on 20 June 1941 together with Pilot Officer John Scott (see article about Wellington Z1207). Scott had been his 1st pilot whilst Harritt and Tidder were also members of Scott’s crew until early December. When Scott was put in command of another crew, Hall took over as 1st pilot. Houghton and Pettitt joined the crew and they had flown five operations together up to March 1942. Wadsworth had the least operational experience. He had been posted in on 24 October 1941 (together with Eric Groves – see article about Wellington Z1321) and had only flown with the crew once; during the operation to Essen three nights before.

Fatal flight

Out of the seven aircraft sent on this operation by No.142 Squadron (see below for serial numbers and crews) Wellington Z1203 was the sixth to take off at 21:28 hrs. The pilots had to set course to Saltfleet and then cross the North Sea to Büsum. From there they flew to Travemünde and then turned south-west to Lübeck. Wellington Z1203 had reached the target without problem and dropped its bomb load. But shortly afterwards the aircraft got in trouble. They had to set course to Friederichskoog but ended up further north near Kiel where they encountered anti-aircraft fire and got hit. The rear gunner Sergeant Pettitt recalled: "As we were crossing the coast near Kiel there was a sudden thud, immediately afterwards the two pilots and the navigator discussed our problems. Apparently a blockage had occurred in one of our petrol tanks, and we were relying on one tank only for fuel. They decided this was insufficient for us to get back to England and that we had to prepare for a landing in the sea or to bale out over occupied territory."

The crew decided their best chance of survival was to bail out over The Netherlands. So they kept course until they had passed the Dutch island of Texel. Here they fixed their position and sent the coordinates to their base in England. Hall headed south along the coastline and then turned inland near Noordwijkerhout. Pettitt was the first to bail out, followed by Tidder, Wadsworth, Harritt, Houghton and Hall. The Wellington crashed in a meadow along the Tienboerenweg in Mijdrecht.

Pettitt had been injured in the face when he made his way out of his turret. He had also lost one of his flying boots. He came down near the Nieuw Venneperweg in the village of Nieuw-Vennep. He received help from the local police officer and his wife who dressed his facial wounds. They explained to him that he had to surrender to the Germans to prevent any reprisals to the civilians. He was arrested by the German field police in the morning. Tidder and Wadsworth had come down in the village of Kudelstaart where they initially hid in the Roman Catholic church. But they were also convinced to give themselves in to prevent reprisals. Harritt and Houghton had come down in the village of De Kwakel. Houghton had hid himself through the night in a haystack of a farm. The next morning he walked into the village where he found Harritt. They had breakfast at the house of a young family and shortly after they were arrested by the local police who handed them over to the Germans. Hall had come down in the Thamerpolder near the village of Uithoorn. He hid his parachute and walked in the direction of the village of Nes aan de Amstel. While passing through the Bovenkerkerpolder he approached a farm. The farmer however did not speak any English and didn’t know what to do with the Canadian airman. Moments later the local police officer came to the farm to collect his milk. The men decided it was best for Hall to surrender to the Germans so he accompanied the officer to the local police station where the Germans arrested him.

All six crew members were taken to Amsterdam where they were interrogated by Luftwaffe officers. They were then taken to the railway station from where they were taken to prisoner of war camps in Germany by train. Hall was separated from his crew and taken to Dulag Luft in Frankfurt. After a month he was sent to Stalag Luft III in Sagan where he remained for three years. The rest of the crew were initially taken to Stalag 8B in Lamsdorf. Harritt, Tidder and Wadsworth ended up in Stalag Luft III in Sagan as well. Pettitt spent the next three years in various camps near Dresden, Sagan, Heydekrug and Fallingbostel. The men were liberated in April and May 1945.

With no news on the fate of the crew, Wing Commander Stanley Bertram (Officer Commanding No.142 Squadron) had informed the next of kin of the crew that they were missing on the morning of 29 March 1942. After four weeks they received the news through the Red Cross they had survived and were now prisoners of war.

In 2018 an information panel was erected at the edge of the meadow in which the Wellington had crashed.

Information panel near the crash site. Source: Pieter Schlebaum

An overview of the other Wellingtons of No.142 Squadron which were detailed for the operation to Lübeck on the night of 28/29 March 1942.

Wellington Z1324 (QT-A)
Pilot: Pilot Officer Ronald Waters (age unknown, British)
2nd pilot: Sergeant Leonard Hewitt (age unknown, British)
Observer: Pilot Officer Howard Walter Dale (age unknown, Canadian)
Air Bomber: Sergeant Russel Harry Winter (age unknown, British)
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: Sergeant Andrew Bryson Hamilton (age unknown, British)
Air Gunner: Sergeant John Frederick Russell Tate (age unknown, British)

Wellington Z1221 (QT-Y)
Pilot: Pilot Officer Stanley Bryan Chritchison (21 years old, British)
2nd pilot: Pilot Officer Haydn William Goule (age unknown, British)
Observer: Flight Sergeant Joseph Edward Hector Emond (27 years old, Canadian)
Air Bomber: Sergeant William Ernest Hudson (age unknown, British)
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: Sergeant Herbert Sidney Stock (36 years old, British)
Air Gunner: Sergeant John Charles Skelton (28 years old, British)

Wellington Z1338 (QT-D)
Pilot: Flight Lieutenant Eric Frank Knowles Campling (21 years old, British)
Observer: Pilot Officer Joseph Arthur Goring (29 years old, Canadian)
Air Bomber: Sergeant James Stewart Spence (age unknown, British)
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: Sergeant A. E. Elphick (age unknown, British)
Air Gunner: Flight Sergeant Francis Henry Lang (25 years old, Canadian)

Wellington Z1208 (QT-S)
Pilot: Flight Sergeant William Fleming Caldow (21 years old, British)
Observer: Flight Sergeant Percy Henderson Stewart (29 years old, New Zealand)
Air Bomber: Sergeant James Octon Straffen (22 years old, British)
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: Sergeant Stanley James Oertel (20 years old, British)
Air Gunner: Sergeant Joseph Eugene Roger Pichette (age unknown, Canadian)

Wellington Z1206 (QT-F)
Pilot: Flight Sergeant Norman John Warfield (20 years old, British)
2nd pilot: Sergeant Herbert John Green (age unknown, British)
Observer: Pilot Officer Eric John Robert Yates (21 years old. New Zealand)
Air Bomber: Sergeant William Lusk Harper (age unknown, British)
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: Sergeant Walter Gilroy (age unknown, British)
Air Gunner: Sergeant John Howarth (age unknown, British)

Wellington Z1274 (QT-P)
Pilot: Sergeant George Thomas Leather (20 years old, British)
2nd pilot: Sergeant Wilfred Clarence Picher (24 yeard old, Canadian)
Observer: Sergeant Gerald Patrick Murray (21 years old, British)
Air Bomber: Sergeant Hugh James McHutchison (20 years old, British)
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: Sergeant Horace James Whale (British)
Air Gunner: Sergeant Kenneth William Smith (20 years old, British)

This crew was lost on this operation as well. The crew is buried in Hamburg Cemetery.