On
a cool and cloudy day on the 9th of September, 1944, F/O Hewson
strapped in Typhoon MP152 for his first mission of the day, and
unknowingly, his last of the war.
Here
is what the mission summary has to say on the incident that occurred
on the Squadron's second mission of the day..
For
the first time in many days, the Squadron was briefed to carry out a
genuine Ramrod. The target was a concentration of barges on the canal
at map reference D4123 on the Zutid Beveland peninsula just a few
miles east of Flushing. For this show the aircraft carried 500 pound
bombs (tail instantaneous) and were led into the air by W/C Judd, DFC,
AFC, at 13:15 hours.
Lowering
clouds made it necessary to fly at 4000 feet over the target area and
the target was attacked in a rather shallow dive from the east. All
bombs burst in the area and twelve barges were believed destroyed or
heavily damaged.
Intense
light flak was thrown up from the target area and the aircraft flown
by J21152 F/O G.W. Hewson was hit in the bottom of the dive. The
aircraft streamed glycol and then black smoke. Hewie pulled up and
baled out.
His
parachute opened safely and he was last seen floating down easily into
the inlet. He may have touched down on the mainland. We hope to see
him again soon....
Tiger
Squadron
