Crew of Halifax JP202
On November 17th 1943, Sgt. Quinn's crew were posted to 419 squadron from No.1664 HCU.
The crew was comprised of
Pilot, Sgt. Joseph Quinn
Navigator, Sgt.Ernest Gares
Bomb Aimer P/O Desmond Lewis-Watts
Wireless Operator Sgt. Fredrick Hickson (RAF)
F/E Sgt. Michael Petrina
Mid/Upper Gunner Sgt. Douglas Weeks
Rear Gunner Sgt. Roy Dwyer.
(Dwyer and Hickson were absent on one operation each)
On one of their earlier operations on the night of November 25/26 they had an encounter with an enemy night fighter thought to have been a FW 190, evasive actions caused the fighter to break off it's attack approach on the port side and slightly above their Halifax. They were one of two 419 aircraft that had passes made at them by Luftwaffe fighters on that operation.
On the mid-January attack on Magdeburg the enemy fighters had devised a method of attack on the bomber formation where they did not use tracer ammunition, causing some alarm amongst the formation as bombers were seen to explode in mid-air for no apparent reason.
After crossing the Danish coast W/O Dwyer in the rear turret position was to
use his skills against an attacking fighter.
The action section of the Combat Report states: "The fighter was first sighted by the rear gunner, in the dark quarter, port quarter down, at 500 yds. range, commencing his attack. Rear gunner gave combat manoeuvre corkscrew port and opened fire with a two second burst. There was no return fire from enemy.
The fighter broke off his attack at 300 yards range, dark area, starboard quarter down. Rear gunner gave resume course and enemy aircraft was lost to view."
Luckly the Halifax substained no damage, although during some point the Halifax's Navigator intercom went u/s it was not noted as when or why it failed. While on two other 419 Halifax aircraft some damaged was reported but both returned to base from that same Op.
On the night of April 18/19 flying Halifax JP202 , VR-T the crew were on a different type of Gardening Operation, some of the formation including VR-T had been assigned to do the marking for the entire Gardening force. Low level flying during Gardening ops. was always a dangerous undertaking, one miscalculation or loss of power and crew could be lost.
The H2S radar system on board the Halifax was being used as a check on the
positioning of the dropped mines. Unknown to the RAF, the Luftwaffe had devised a way of homing in on the H2S system and night fighters
could easily find formations and individual aircraft then move in silently in the darkness. There was also reported to be a light flak
vessel in the area which had holed VR-J during this same operation.
In early February of 1943 a H2S device from an RAF bomber which had been shot down fell into the hands of the Germans who in turn developed the FuG 350 which could home in on the H2S radar system. It was only after a intact crashed Luftwaffe night fighter was fully inspected and the electronics delved into that the RAF found that the Luftwaffe had developed a black box to track H2S. Whether this was a factor in the loss of JP202 will remain unknown.
Our many thanks to Richard Petrina whose extensive research provided the basis for this page including photos biography information and so much more.
I have summarized some of the information and added my thoughts, in regards to the H2S radar, with the hopes of adding more in the future.
The crew was comprised of
Pilot, Sgt. Joseph Quinn
Navigator, Sgt.Ernest Gares
Bomb Aimer P/O Desmond Lewis-Watts
Wireless Operator Sgt. Fredrick Hickson (RAF)
F/E Sgt. Michael Petrina
Mid/Upper Gunner Sgt. Douglas Weeks
Rear Gunner Sgt. Roy Dwyer.
(Dwyer and Hickson were absent on one operation each)
On one of their earlier operations on the night of November 25/26 they had an encounter with an enemy night fighter thought to have been a FW 190, evasive actions caused the fighter to break off it's attack approach on the port side and slightly above their Halifax. They were one of two 419 aircraft that had passes made at them by Luftwaffe fighters on that operation.
On the mid-January attack on Magdeburg the enemy fighters had devised a method of attack on the bomber formation where they did not use tracer ammunition, causing some alarm amongst the formation as bombers were seen to explode in mid-air for no apparent reason.
After crossing the Danish coast W/O Dwyer in the rear turret position was to
use his skills against an attacking fighter.The action section of the Combat Report states: "The fighter was first sighted by the rear gunner, in the dark quarter, port quarter down, at 500 yds. range, commencing his attack. Rear gunner gave combat manoeuvre corkscrew port and opened fire with a two second burst. There was no return fire from enemy.
The fighter broke off his attack at 300 yards range, dark area, starboard quarter down. Rear gunner gave resume course and enemy aircraft was lost to view."
Luckly the Halifax substained no damage, although during some point the Halifax's Navigator intercom went u/s it was not noted as when or why it failed. While on two other 419 Halifax aircraft some damaged was reported but both returned to base from that same Op.
On the night of April 18/19 flying Halifax JP202 , VR-T the crew were on a different type of Gardening Operation, some of the formation including VR-T had been assigned to do the marking for the entire Gardening force. Low level flying during Gardening ops. was always a dangerous undertaking, one miscalculation or loss of power and crew could be lost.
The H2S radar system on board the Halifax was being used as a check on the
positioning of the dropped mines. Unknown to the RAF, the Luftwaffe had devised a way of homing in on the H2S system and night fighters
could easily find formations and individual aircraft then move in silently in the darkness. There was also reported to be a light flak
vessel in the area which had holed VR-J during this same operation.In early February of 1943 a H2S device from an RAF bomber which had been shot down fell into the hands of the Germans who in turn developed the FuG 350 which could home in on the H2S radar system. It was only after a intact crashed Luftwaffe night fighter was fully inspected and the electronics delved into that the RAF found that the Luftwaffe had developed a black box to track H2S. Whether this was a factor in the loss of JP202 will remain unknown.
Our many thanks to Richard Petrina whose extensive research provided the basis for this page including photos biography information and so much more.
I have summarized some of the information and added my thoughts, in regards to the H2S radar, with the hopes of adding more in the future.
