Date of birth:

October 8th, 1920 (Victoria/British Columbia, Canada)

Date of death:

January 23rd, 1945 (Bergen-Belsen/Hannover, Germany)

Mentioned on:

Air Forces Memorial Runnymede
Plot: 278. 

Service number:

J/3467

Nationality:

Canadian

Edward Weyman "Teddy" Blenkinsop was born in 1920 in Victoria, British Columbia and attended school in that city before articling as a Chartered Accountant with a Vancouver firm. When war broke out, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at Victoria in June, 1940 and trained as a pilot-navigator. He was posted to No. 425 Squadron in 1943 and flew Wellingtons in North Africa. Upon completion of his first tour he volunteered for a second tour with No. 405 Squadron of the Pathfinder Force.
120 Halifaxes, 16 Lancasters en 8 Mosquito’s (144 aircraft) of Bomber Command attacked the docks near the Antwerp-Aachen at Montzen, Belgium on the night of 27/28 April, 1944, a border town. The raid was one of hundreds in preparation for the invasion of occupied France.
De Lancaster III of "Teddy" Blenkinsop was one of in total eight Pathfinders. Teddy's plane JA976 "S for Sugar" was shot down on April 28 02.05 hours on an raid that lasted only ten seconds. The Lancaster came down in Webbekom. Five crew members didn't survive the crash. A sixth member was probably killed after he had bailed out at low altitude with his parachute. The seventh was severely wounded and was left to his fate. After three days withoutout any nursing he died.
Teddy was thrown out of the airdraft and survived the crash. Blenkinsop was picked up by members of the Belgian resistance, who risked their lives to save his. Four farm families took turns hiding him for a week or two each before, in July 1944, he was taken in by a family in the rural town of Meensel-Kiezegem. The Belgian Underground prepared two escapes for him but eventually had the intention to hand him over as their 'trophy' to the ever advancing allied forces.
Blenkinsop was caught, almost by accident, when German and Flemish SS troops raided the town that August in retaliation for the killing of one of their own- collaborator Gaston Merckx -. Four villagers were killed and 91 arrested; 71 of them. Only eight survived the war.
Blenkinsop, accused by the Gestapo of co-operating with the resistance, was denied his rights as a prisoner of war. He was held at St.Gilles Prison in Brussels and while detained transmitted his identity to an American officer POW by tapping in Morse code over steam pipes. After that he was pressed into forced labour in the shipyards and arms factories around Hamburg and may have spent time in Bergen-Belsen. Teddy Blenkinsop died 23 January 1945 in concentration camp Bergen-Belsen due to heart failure following torture, beatings, forced labour, starvation, and various other inhumane depravations and sufferings.

In the town of Meensel-Kiezegem there's a marker for Blenkisop. He's rmembered there, together with 71 of the inhabitants who lost their lives due to the German terror. On Nov. 1, All Saints Day, the people of Meensel-Kiezegem put fresh flowers on his headstone, just as they do every year, just as they'll do again today.
The Blenkinsop-story was put down in a book called 'One Who Almost Made It Back'.

Promotions:
December 21st, 1940: Pilot Officer;
September 1st, 1941: Acting Flying Officer;
December 21st, 1941: Temporary Flying Officer;
December 21st, 1942: Temporary Flight Lieutenant;
October 3rd, 1943: Acting Squadron Leader;
1944: Temporary Squadron Leader (as form October 3rd, 1943).

Career:
June 4th, 1940: RCAF Vancouver;
June 5th, 1940: No. 1 Depot, Manning;
June 24th, 1940 - July 20th, 1940: No. 1 Initial Training School';
July 23rd, 1940 - September 15th, 1940: No. 8 Elementary Flying Training School;
October 15th, 1940 - December 20th, 1940: No. 4 Service Flying Training School;
January 4th, 1941 - April 1941: No. 1 Air Navigation School;'
April 1941 - August 18th, 1941: Instructor No. 1 Air Navigation School;
August 24th, 1941 - April 24th, 1942: Instructor No. 2 Air Navigation School;
April 29th, 1942 - November 17th, 1942: Navigation Instructor Nieuw Zeeland;
February 15th, 1943 - April 15th, 1943: No. 3 (P) Advanced Flying Unit;
April 20th, 1943 - June 28th, 1943: No. 22 Opeartional Training Unit;
June 28th, 1943 - July 10th, 1943: No. 311 Flying Training Unit;
July 15th, 1943 - July 20th, 1943: No. 424 Squadron;
July 21st, 1943: No. 425 Squadron;
February 28th, 1944 - April 28th, 1944: No. 405 Squadron;
August 11th, 1944: Arrest;
August 12th, 1944 - August 30th, 1944: St. Gilles Prison, Brussesl;
?: forced labour Eurotank Oil Raffinary;
?: forced labour Deutsche Werft;
? - January 23rd, 1945: Concentrationcamp Neuengamme.

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