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16th June 1941On this day:
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
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Remembering those who died this day.
- Cotton Howard Ernest. Cpl. (d.16th June 1941)
- Jefferis Douglas John Frederick. Flight Sergeant (d.16th June 1941)
- Leavers Evered Arthur Reginald Rex. Flt.Sgt. (d.16th June 1941)
- McMullen Sidney Charles. Pte. (d.16th Jun 1941)
The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please
Add a Name to this List
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Want to know more about the 16th of June 1941? There are:10 items tagged 16th of June 1941 available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Stories from 16th June 1941
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Flight Sergeant Douglas John Frederick Jefferis. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 51 Squadron. (d.16th June 1941) Douglas John Frederick Jefferis was born on 6th November 1919 in Bristol. He was my mother's elder brother and thus, my uncle.
At the outbreak of War he left his job as a lithographic printer and joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, adding a year to his age in order to gain entry.
By 1941 he was a Flight Sergeant serving as Tail Gunner on Whitley V's with 51 Squadron stationed at Dishforth in North Yorkshire.
At 2243 on 16th June 1941 Whitley Z6479 MH-M took off as part of a 105 strong bombing raid on the railway yards of Cologne. The crew were:
- 902482 F/Sgt. Douglas John Frederick JEFFERIS (Tail Gunner)
- - Sgt. Thomas James BASTON (Pilot)
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- P/O. Cecil Ernest CRICHTON
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- Sgt. James Leonard EVANS
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- P/O. Kenneth N. HOLLAND (Navigator)
Having dropped their bombs,they were intercepted on the return journey by two German night-fighters. Apparently F/Sgt. Jefferis shot one of them down but was heard to say over the intercom, "Damn the searchlights - they're blinding me!". Shortly afterwards they were hit. Jefferis said, "I've had it!", and then seconds later, "That's it!". No further contact was made with him and he was assumed dead.
Sgt. Baston managed to crash land the Whitley on the Tenhaagdoorn heathland near Houthalen, Limburg, Belgium at 0226 on 17th June 1941.
Sergeants Jefferis, Baston and Evans were found dead. Their bodies were washed and prepared for burial by local people, who then tended the graves in defiance of the Germans. My family is still in contact with one of these courageous young women. Originally buried in the town cemetery in Houthalen, the airmen were exhumed on 6th April 1961 due to subsidence caused by mine workings. They were subsequently re-interred at the Canadian War Cemetery in Adegem, Belgium. Their graves can be found at the following locations:
- Sgt. Jefferis: Plot 1, Row AA, Grave No. 10
- - Sgt. Evans: Plot 1, Row AA, Grave No. 9
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- Sgt. Baston: Plot 1, Row AA, Grave No. 8.
Also commemorated on the Warkworth War Memorial in Northumberland.
Pilot Officer Holland survived the crash and was on the run with a bad head wound for several days before stumbling into a German sentry. He spent the rest of the war as a POW, but returned to duty on being repatriated in 1945. He visited my grandparents, Sgt. Jefferis's parents, and it was he who related the details of my uncle's and the Whitley's demise. After a period as an interpreter in Japan, Ken Holland was stationed in Surrey. He died as a passenger in a car crash, travelling with several other officers to the Officers' Mess one morning.
Eyewitnesses reported than the Germans escorted another man from the crash site. This must have been P/O Crichton. Nothing has been heard of him since that day. There appears to be no record of him as a POW, nor is there a record of his burial. He is commemorated on Panel 32 of the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey.
Later research revealed that Whitley Z6479 MH-M was brought down by Oberfeldwebel Reinhard Kollak, 1./NJG1. Kollak and his Radio Operator, Hans Hermann, had taken off from Venlo in the Netherlands. It is believed this was amongst the first of Kollak's 49 kills in WWII, all of them at night. He went on to become one of the Luftwaffe's top aces and was decorated with the Knight's Cross.
In 2006 the crews of four British bombers, Z6479 amongst them, were honoured on a monument entitled "Fallen Wings" erected in the cemetery in Houthalen. Jeremy Nicholson
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Pte. Sidney Charles McMullen. British Army, 2nd Battalion, A coy. Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. (d.16th Jun 1941) Private Sidney Charles McMullen was born in 1915, the youngest son of five siblings. I don't know the name of the ship he sailed on but Sidney states in his letter home from HM Ships "touched lucky on board a 20,000 tonner her first trip as a troop ship. We sleep 6 to a cabin, it has a smashing bathroom just for ourselves with ultra modern fittings and best of all we sleep on sprung mattresses. It's just like a floating hotel. You can get a 1lb of tobacco for 7/6d and the panelling is all oak." At the time of writing they had just dropped anchor. His next letter states that was just their first port of call and they had another 4 weeks to go and he was getting fed up with the voyage.
Sid talked about the port they visited, how they had stayed for 48 hours. He said it was a pretty place with mountains in the background and little red-topped houses dotted about in the valley. Dark skinned natives came out in little boats loaded with fruit, and if you threw a penny in the water they would dive down to get it. At night the lights of the town were all lit up and Sid said "you couldn't see a prettier sight if you wished to". At their second port of call they were allowed onshore, it was very hot. Sid found a Woolworths and went inside for an iced drink where Sid found an old friend from "Palm" who had been in the same convoy all along.
On arrival at his destination Sid writes "it's a pretty desolate hole, and nothing much happens where we are. Around the back of us are big rocky hills, we went for a walk up one, every step we took in the sand we slid back two. It took all the go out of you and we were nearly creased up by the time we got to the top."
Sidney was killed in action on 16th June 1941 and is buried at the Halfaya-Sollum War Cemetery. He was a single young man just 26 years old and much loved by his family. Carol Smith
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Cpl. Howard Ernest Cotton. British Army, 1st Btn. Royal Fusiliers. (d.16th June 1941) Howard Cotton was killed in action on 16th of June 1941 on the Damascus Road at or near Qouneitra in Syria.
Also killed (presumably at the same time) was 6459991 Fusilier A. T. Curtis.Michael Lofty
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Flt.Sgt. Evered Arthur Reginald Rex Leavers. DFM Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 21 Squadron. (d.16th June 1941) Flight Sergeant (Pilot) Reginald Leavers was the son of Jessie Leavers of Dunkirk, Nottingham.
He was 24 when he died and is buried in the Baflo (Den Andel) Protestant Cemetery, Groningen in The Netherlands.
s flynn
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