Date: 10th June 1944 (Saturday)
Unit: No. 248 Squadron (Coastal Command)
Type: Mosquito FBVI
Serial: HR117
Base: Portreath
Location: Ushant, Island off France.
Pilot: Fl/Lt. Edmund Henry Jeffreys D.F.C. 116717 R.A.F.V.R. Age ? Killed
Navigator: F/O. Dudley Albert Burden 144193 R.A.F.V.R. Age ? Killed
REASON FOR LOSS:
During attacks on U-821 by 4 mosquitoes these aircraft used so much force off Ushant that the crew abandoned ship! The U-Boat was then sank by a Liberator V from 206 squadron at 11.45 hrs.
Later on that afternoon a follow up strike was called in, the motor launch that picked up the survivors of the U-821 crew fired on Mosquito HR117, shooting it down. The launch was then quickly sank by the mollins canons from the other Mosquitoes. 50 people were killed with a single person surviving.
Memorial near the crash site (Courtesy Roland Grard)
Michel Guillot (Courtesy Jean-Claude Langevin)
A local eye witness to the Mosquito crash, was a Michel Guillot who, then aged 16, lived in the area.
After the war Michael had to leave the Island returning to the mainland for work. When he retired in 2002 he returned to his home.
He has never forgotten this event on that Saturday and decided to honour this crew with this memorial. He approached the Ministry of Defence for permission and approval, after this was granted, he commissioned the memorial shown. Since 2006 this has been placed in the cemetery of Ouessant.
View of the crash site (Courtesy Jean-Claude Langevin)
LR347 flown by Fl/Lt S.G. Nunn on this attack, seen here a few weeks later returning from another strike on 16th July 1944 with port engine feathered and tail hit by flak, the aircraft crash landed back at Portreath.
Oblt. Ulrich Knackfuss U-821
Memorial to Fl/Lt. Edmund Henry Jeffreys D.F.C. and others from his family (Courtesy of Geoffrey R. Gillon)
This family memorial stands in the parish Church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist at Doddington, Kent.
Burial details:
We would like to make contact with relatives of this crew
Fl. Lt. Edmund Henry Jeffreys D.F.C. Runnymede War Memorial. Panel 202
No further details
F/O. Dudley Albert Burden. Runnymede War Memorial. Panel 202
No further details
Researched by Kelvin T. Youngs, David King from A.R. Society, Also - Roland Grard for photographs of the memorialnear the crash site. With further information and location photographs from Jean-Claude Langevin and Michel Guillot. Thanks also to Geoffrey R. Gillon for the use of the family memorial photographs taken at St John the Baptist Church, Doddington, Kent.
