Date: 27th February 1945
Unit: No. 464 Squadron R.A.A.F. (2nd T.A.F.)
Type: Mosquito FB VI
Serial: PZ309
Code: SB-Z
Base: Rosieries, France
Location: Namurok, Namur, Belgium
Pilot: Fl/Lt. John Frederick Filteau J/45432 R.C.A.F. Age 24 Killed
Navigator: F/O. H.I. Storen J/45432 R.C.A.F. Injured
REASON FOR LOSS:
Not too much details on this loss available. It seems that Mosquito PZ309 was on night intruder attacks on enemy communication systems over North Western Germany. The navigator F/O. Storen baled out injured and suffered memory loss and consequently no further details were available for the reasons of this loss.
464 Squadron raid on the Gestapo H.Q at Aarhus University. (A.R.Society Archive)
On the 31st October 1944 25 Mosquitoes from 21, 464 and 487 Squadrons destroyed the Gestapo H.Q at Aarhus University in Denmark. (Together with the incriminating records held!)
These were pinpoint raids and the Mosquitoes were flying so low that the bombs were hitting the target before the safe/live mechanism had "unwound" so the armorers cured the problem by cutting the thread of the fuse from four inches to about two so that the bomb became live virtually the moment it left the aircraft.
Mosquito FB VI OF 464 Squadron R.A.A.F.. 140 Wing, No 2 group 2nd T.A.F.
Hotton War Cemetery (C.W.G.C)
Burial details:
Fl/Lt. John Frederick Filteau. Hotton War Cemetery. Grave. III.C.6
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
For the relatives of Fl/Lt. John Frederick Filteau - Mr. Peter Brown and family.
With thanks to the following: Bill Chorley - "Bomber Command Losses", Martin Middlebrook "Bomber Command War Diaries". The superb work of the C.W.G.C.
