09/09/2020
RCAF Flying Officer Richard John Watts Askwith, born 3 October 1919 in Ottawa, Ontario was shot down and killed on his first operational mission over Holland on 28 April 1942.
On 27 April 1942, Richard was taken on strength at 418 Squadron. That same day, he was given his first mission - an Intruder operation to Gilze along with navigator Norman Mapes. Rounding and air gunner Flight Sgt Gordon James Hardy of Sherbrooke, Quebec, who had joined the RCAF in November of 1940.
Hardy had been in England since early September, 1941. The objective, Gilze-Rijen, was an airbase located near Breda, Holland. It was expanded by the Germans in 1940 and built into one of the largest airfields in Europe. It was used to launch interceptors against allied aircraft who were en route to bomb Germany and it had heavy FLAK defenses.
Boston MK III Z2240, TH-T took off from Bradwell Bay at 0008 on 28 April 1942 but did not return as it crashed near Noordschans. Navigator Norman Mapes managed to bail out and survived the crash.
His son, Bob Mapes recalls his father telling him: “It was cloudy all the way over the Channel. When they came out of the clouds over Holland it must have been a moonlight night. Dad said he could see boats on the canals from 10,000 ft. This sight seeing didn’t last for long. Almost instantly dad saw a night fighter and intercommed the pilot. Next thing the plane was shuddering either from a stall or the pilot firing the guns (they would have been on both sides of Dad in the nose.) The next thing he remembers is trying to get away from the plane (it was a common experience for aircrews to be attached to the aircraft by their intercom cable) then pulling his ripcord (sit pack). Dad’s theory was that whatever force threw him out of the aircraft must of also thrown the gunner out.
Unfortunately, to operate the guns his pack had to be stored on the wall. The pilot being in the center of gravity went down with the plane. Dad always thought that the fighter seemed to be waiting for them.”
Flying Officer R.J. Askwith (Pilot) RCAF and Sgt. C.J. Hardy, (Air Gunner) are burried at the Canadian War Cemetery, Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands.
Colour by Jake Colourised PIECE of JAKE
A ‘thank you’ to ‘HistoryDigger’ for pointing out this story and photo.
https://instagram.com/history_digger?igshid=jhf5t5p6ujun
Source: www.mygrandfatherswar.ca/wp-content/uploads/pdf/askwith.pdf
