This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this siteplease consider making a donation.
Site Home
WW2 Home
Add Stories
WW2 Search
Library
Help & FAQs
WW2 Features
Airfields
Allied Army
Allied Air Forces
Allied Navy
Axis Forces
Home Front
Battles
Prisoners of War
Allied Ships
Women at War
Those Who Served
Day-by-Day
Library
The Great War
Submissions
Add Stories
Time Capsule
TWMP on Facebook
Childrens Bookshop
FAQ's
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Volunteering
Contact us
News
Bookshop
About
258919S/Lt. Jens Bull Arentz
Royal Air Force No. 333 (Norwegian) Squadron
from:Stavanger, Norway
(d.30th Apr 1944)
Jens Arentz was my maternal uncle. I have long wanted to visit Buddon Ness, Angus, where his Mosquito B went down during target shooting. He was a veteran pilot, having being trained at Little Norway in Montreal, Canada after fleeing Norway, traveling via North Africa, Russia, and China. He was very special to my mother and she never quite recovered from the news of his death. She was a refugee in Stockholm at the time, and my father worked for Special Operations Executive in London after having been hurriedly evacuated by a Mosquito flight in Autumn 1943.On 30th April 1944, my uncle was killed during a training exercise at RAF Leuchars (in Broughty Ferry, Angus), when the Mosquito he was piloting suddenly crashed into the sea next to the airfield. With him died a fellow crew-member named Per Walderhaug Korsnes. Concerning the accident, the RNLI Records of Service (1939-46) state the following:- 30/04/44, 333 Sqn Mosquito II DZ744 Code G Op: Training, RAF Leuchars, Time Up 11:30 S/Lt. Arentz RNorNAS LAC Korsness RNorNAS: The aircraft took off for APC practice and completed the exercise. The range officer, F/Sgt Cowle, reported that the Mosquito made a turn out to sea then returned before diving into sea 1 mile west south west of Buddon Ness, Angus. Salvage of the aircraft was attempted then abandoned on the 9th of May 1944. Only oil and wreckage (1 wheel and 1 fuel tank) were found.
A communication I received from Kjetil Korsnes, a relative of Per Korsnes, provides additional details: âIn his diary, Gunnar Helgedagsrud (navigator B-flight) wrote: The 30th April 1944 was a sad day. S/Lt. Arentz dived straight into the sea, close to the airfield. He wasn't flying with his navigator Bjorn¸, but with one of the ground crew named Per Walderhaug Korsnes (flysoldat, born 22.09.21). Arentz was doing shooting practice and seemed to be finished. He was entering his final approach for landing, when the aircraft took a nose-dive for some unexplained reason. Arentz was one of the nicest men we had.
I think Lauritz Humlen (navigator B-flight) and Egil D. Johansen (A-flight) are still with us (I met them a few years ago).
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area?
If so please let us know.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items.
The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved
We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.