Flight Sergeant Douglas John Frederick Jefferis
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 51 Squadron
from:Brislington, Bristol
(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) -
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. Thomas James BASTON (Pilot) -
- P/O. Cecil Ernest CRICHTON -
- Sgt. James Leonard EVANS -
- P/O. Kenneth N. HOLLAND (Navigator)
Sgt. Jefferis: Plot 1, Row AA, Grave No. 10 -
- Sgt. Evans: Plot 1, Row AA, Grave No. 9 -
- 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.
