Remembering Today 5/9/45 JE Dickinson DFC, RAFVR

Remembering today:
John Edward Dickinson DFC
Flying Officer 176471
RAFVR, 78 Squadron
Died: 5/9/1945
Buried: Mazargues
Son of James and Doris Dickinson, of Crewe, Cheshire. Awarded Gold Medal (H.M.S. Conway).

Remembered with honour.

 

Remembering today:
John Edward Dickinson DFC
Flying Officer 176471
RAFVR, 78 Squadron
Died: 5/9/1945
Buried: Mazargues
Son of James and Doris Dickinson, of Crewe, Cheshire. Awarded Gold Medal (H.M.S. Conway).

Remembered with honour.

Details of the above loss.


5 September 1945

78 Squadron
Dakota IV KP235
Istres

The aircraft was taking off at night in poor visibility and a thick mist beyond the end of the runway, the presence of which Flying Control did not warn the pilot. It is thought that the pilot saw the bank of mist ahead and, thinking it to be high ground, pulled the nose of the aircraft up and stalled. With insufficient height to recover, the aircraft struck the ground and was destroyed. Flying Officers A E & G W Venables were brothers and their parents, Ernest and Kate Venables, lived at Hilsea Portsmouth, they are buried next to each other at Mazargues War Cemetery, Marseilles. The injured were Corporals G W Blewett, G H Orman, E M Lamb, and R W H Williams, and Leading Aircraftmen W Cunningham, E Armitage, and W Graham.

Fatalities

Flying Officer Arthur Ernest VENABLES 23 Pilot
Flying Officer Guy Willberforce VENABLES 21 Bomb Aimer acting as Co-Pilot
Flying Officer John Edward DICKINSON 30 DFC Navigator
Flight Sergeant Eric Frank DEAN 20 Wireless Operator
Corporal Hedley Brightmore ARCHER 23
[FONT=&quot]Corporal George Eric COLDWELL 31
[/FONT]Corporal Joseph HUTCHINSON 31 (died of injuries 6th September)
Leading Aircraftman Alfred Edgar HAMSHERE
Leading Aircraftman Ronald Fullstone ELLIOTT 22
Leading Aircraftman David BRIDDOCK 37
Leading Aircraftman Walter James CHAMBERLAIN 20
Leading Aircraftman Victor Robert HADDOCK 24
Leading Aircraftman Robert BELL 20
[FONT=&quot]Leading Aircraftman Ronald RICHARDS 23
Leading Aircraftman John Ivor MORGAN 20
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Leading Aircraftman George Brice JONES 35


Source - The Price Of Peace - Colin Cummings
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