Bristol 142 Blenheim | Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives

The airplane departed Port Sudan at 0430LT on a reconnaissance mission. It is believed that it was shot down around 0900LT by the pilot of an Italian fighter and crashed into the Red Sea. All three crew members were killed.
Crew:
F/O Thomas Gerald Rhodes, pilot,
Sgt Maurice Edmund Frank Hitchin,
Sgt Sidney Clarence Lewis.

Probable cause:

Shot down by an Italian fighter.

Crash of a Bristol 142 Blenheim IV in Downham Market

Date & Time: Dec 4, 1940 at 0745 LT

Type of aircraft:

Bristol 142 Blenheim

Operator:

Registration:

T1813

Flight Phase:

Flight Type:

Survivors:

Site:

Schedule:

Bodney - Bodney

Location:

Country:

Region:

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Circumstances:

The airplane departed RAF Bodney in the evening of December 3 on an operation to Essen. While returning to base the following morning, the crew encountered poor weather conditions over East Anglia. Unable to find a gap, the crew decided to abandon the aircraft at an altitude of 6,000 feet in the vicinity of Bircham Newton. The aircraft entered a dive and crashed on Denver Sluice in Downham Market, bursting into flames. All three crew members were uninjured.
Crew:
S/L J. H. McMichael,
Sgt T. C. P. Hodges,
Sgt L. A. Lawrence.

Crash of a Bristol 142 Blenheim IV in Waltham: 3 killed

Date & Time: Dec 4, 1940 at 0610 LT

Type of aircraft:

Bristol 142 Blenheim

Operator:

Registration:

T2161

Flight Phase:

Flight

Flight Type:

Bombing

Survivors:

Site:

Plain, Valley

Schedule:

Bodney - Bodney

Location:

Country:

Region:

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Circumstances:

The airplane departed RAF Bodney in the evening of December 3 on an operation to Essen. While returning to base the following morning, it crashed in unknown circumstances in Waltahm, Kent. All three crew members were killed.
Crew:
Sgt Norman Byng Cartwright, pilot,
Sgt Frederick Charles Benbow, observer,
Sgt Peter Crawford, wireless operator and air gunner.

Crash of a Bristol 142 Blenheim IV in Southend: 3 killed

Date & Time: Dec 4, 1940 at 0430 LT

Type of aircraft:

Bristol 142 Blenheim

Operator:

Registration:

N3578

Flight Phase:

Flight

Flight Type:

Bombing

Survivors:

Site:

Plain, Valley

Schedule:

Bodney - Bodney

Location:

Country:

Region:

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Circumstances:

The airplane departed RAF Bodney on the evening of December 3 on an operation to Essen. While returning to base the following night, it crashed in unknown circumstances in Southend. All three crew members were killed.
Crew:
P/O Thomas James McCartney, pilot,
Sgt James Henderson, observer,
Sgt Jack Ratcliffe, wireless operator and air gunner.

Crash of a Bristol 142 Blenheim IV at RAF Oulton

Date & Time: Dec 4, 1940 at 0205 LT

Type of aircraft:

Bristol 142 Blenheim

Operator:

Registration:

T2279

Flight Phase:

Takeoff (climb)

Flight Type:

Bombing

Survivors:

Yes

Site:

Airport (less than 10 km from airport)

Schedule:

Oulton - Oulton

Location:

Country:

Region:

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Circumstances:

At 0205LT, the airplane took off from RAF Oulton on an operation to Germany. It failed to gain sufficient flying speed during the takeoff attempt and crashed into trees on the airfield boundary. All three crew members evacuated safely.
Crew:
F/L D. C. Smythe +2.

Probable cause:

The cause of the accident was attributed to a severe frost which had left a considerable accumulation of ice on the upper surface of the wings.

Crash of a Bristol 142 Blenheim IV near Almelo

Date & Time: Dec 4, 1940

Type of aircraft:

Bristol 142 Blenheim

Operator:

Registration:

N3594

Flight Phase:

Flight Type:

Survivors:

Site:

Schedule:

Bodney - Bodney

Location:

Country:

Region:

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Circumstances:

The airplane departed RAF Bodney in the evening of December 3 on an operation to Essen. While cruising over the Netherlands, it crashed in unknown circumstances in an open field located in the region of Almelo. All three crew members became PoW.
Crew:
Sgt William Hubert Maxwell Butcher,
Sgt James Ferguson,
Sgt Walter John Patrick Sheppard.

Crash of a Bristol 142 Blenheim IF in Woolley Bridge

Date & Time: Dec 3, 1940

Type of aircraft:

Bristol 142 Blenheim

Operator:

Registration:

K7172

Flight Phase:

Flight Type:

Survivors:

Site:

MSN:

8125

YOM:

1938

Location:

Country:

Region:

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Circumstances:

The crew encountered poor weather conditions and attempted an emergency landing when the airplane crash landed in a field and came to rest upside down. Both crew members were uninjured.
Crew:
P/O Donald Anderson, pilot +1.

Crash of a Bristol 142 Blenheim I in Khalkis

Date & Time: Dec 1, 1940

Type of aircraft:

Bristol 142 Blenheim

Operator:

Registration:

K7103

Flight Phase:

Flight Type:

Survivors:

Site:

MSN:

8056

YOM:

1937

Location:

Khalkis

Central Greece / Στερεά Ελλάδα

Country:

Greece

Region:

Europe

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Circumstances:

On 1 December 1940 three Blenheims from 30 Sqn RAF returning over the mountains to their Greek base from a raid on Valona ran into a severe front which caused ice to begin forming on the wings, badly affecting control of the aircraft. As conditions deteriorated further, the formation leader, Flt Lt Alfred Llewellyn Bocking, a Canadian in the RAF since 1935, started to consider whether or not the crews should all bale out. At that point however, a murky gap in the snow clouds was sighted and Bocking and another pilot managed to dive through it, emerging in clearer air between the whitened mountain-sides, and reached base. The third pilot, Sgt G. Ratlidge, became separated in the dive, so he attempted to climb over the cloud layer. However, at 20,000 feet his Blenheim I K7103 wallowed so badly that, despite full power and his strenuous efforts, it kept slipping back into the clutches of the cloud, taking on more ice, which soon blocked a carburetor air intake. One engine stopped, flipping the aircraft into an immediate spin in the cloud. Ratlidge ordered his crew to abandon the aircraft but the violent spin had flung the observer’s parachute pack into the well, way out of reach so he could not clip it on. The pilot and the air gunner decided to stay with him aboard the aircraft, which lost 13,000 feet and spun out of the cloud at 7,000 feet into a narrow valley near Khalkis with sheer mountain faces rising into the cloud on either side of them. The pilot recovered from the spin and on sighting a small but rough cultivated area made a successful ’dead-stick’ forced landing on to it - the only possible place to put the aircraft down for miles around. All three crew were safe. The Blenheim was not recovered.
Source:
http://aviationarchaeology.gr/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Bristol-Blenheim-losses-in-Greece-1940-1941.pdf

Crash of a Bristol 142 Blenheim IV into the North Sea: 3 killed

Date & Time: Nov 30, 1940

Type of aircraft:

Bristol 142 Blenheim

Operator:

Registration:

R2796

Flight Phase:

Flight

Flight Type:

Bombing

Survivors:

Site:

Lake, Sea, Ocean, River

Schedule:

Bodney - Bodney

Location:

Country:

Region:

Crew on board:

Crew fatalities:

Pax on board:

Pax fatalities:

Other fatalities:

Total fatalities:

Circumstances:

The airplane departed RAF Bodney at 2030LT to attack aerodromes. It was slot without trace, maybe after it crashed somewhere in the North sea. All three crew members were killed.
Crew:
SGt George Gordon Moffat,
Sgt William Reginald Starns,
Sgt Raymond Brooks Stilwell.