Whitley P4961 damaged by flak, returned to Leeming airfield.
On the night of 17th / 18th September 1940 the crew of this 10 Squadron aircraft were tasked with an operational flight to bomb German battleship The Bismark at Hamburg or
the secondary target of The Tirpitz at Wilhelmshaven. They left base at 22.14hrs and attacked the primary target at between 00.35hrs and 01.05hrs twice but did
not see the result of their bombing. Anti-aircraft fire was intense and the Whitley was struck in the starboard side of the fuselage and shrapnel hit the second
pilot but did not injure him. The pilot was able to make a safe return to base and land at 05.40hrs.
Pilot - F/Lt Dennis Brendon Geoffrey Tomlinson RAF (37989).
Second Pilot - P/O Kenneth Douglas Brant RAF (81655).
Observer - Sgt Wilfred Campbell Walters RAF (581003).
Wireless Operator - Sgt Eric Downing Polkinghorne RAF (632893).
Air Gunner - P/O Herbert Andrew RAF (43256).
Kenneth Brant received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 29th June 1940. He survived the crash of Whitley P4967 at Nether Silton, on the edge of the North
York Moors, on 4th September 1940 and on 21st October 1940 he was the pilot of Whitley P4961 that suffered an engine fire and made a landing at Cold Kirby, these incidents are
detailed on this website. He was later awarded the DFC for service with 10 Squadron,
Gazetted in March 1941 but no citation has yet been found. He was sadly killed on 26th June 1941 while flying with 21 OTU at Kinloss in Whitley N1379 whilst
almost certainly instructing when the aircraft crashed near Kinloss soon after taking off for a training flight. He is buried in Worthing Cemetery, Sussex.
I thank Ms Nikki Sheeran for the photograph of his gravestone shown here.
Dennis Tomlinson received a commission on 4th August 1936 to the rank of Acting P/O on probation and was graded as P/O on 8th June 1937. The date he was
promoted to F/O is not known. He had been promoted to F/Lt on 3rd September 1940 and later to Acting S/Ldr on 1st September 1941. On the night of 3rd/4th
September 1940 F/Lt Tomlinson was piloting Whitley P4967 crashed landed at Nether Silton in Yorkshire on return from Ops. F/Lt Tomlinson was also to be
involved in another incident only weeks later above Thirsk while flying Whitley T4143 was partly abandoned and this saw two of his then crew being killed.
He was awarded the DFC for service with 10 Squadron on 17th January 1941 and completed his Tour with 10 Squadron and was posted for an instructional role
with 10 OTU based at Abingdon. When he was killed on 2nd June 1942 10 OTU were one of a number training units instructed to put up a number of bombers for
Ops to Essen on this night. This was the night of the second Thousand Bomber raid. He was pilot of Whitley Z6581 which was shot down by a night fighter to
the east of Arnhem and is buried in Gendringen Roman Catholic Cemetery, Holland. He was married to Hannah Tomlinson (who was either local to Abingdon or had
gone with him to the airfield). Dennis Tomlinson was twenty six years old.
Wilfred Walters was later posted to 35 Squadron. On 24th July 1941 he was flying in Halifax L9512 which was shot down on an attack of the German battleship
The Scharnhorst. The whole crew became PoWs. On 30th December 1947 he was belatedly Mentioned in Despatches for his actions in damaging the battleship. The crew
were re-united forty years later and flew into Linton on Ouse in a Piper Lance in 1981. He died in October 1982.
Sgt Eric Polkinghorne was killed on 16th January 1941 while flying in Whitley T4220 on Ops to Wilhelmshaven, the aircraft was lost without trace and the
crew are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. He was married and was thirty two years old.
Herbert Andrew received a commission on 7th April 1940 to the rank of P/O on probation. he arrived at 10 Squadron in mid-1940 and acted as a spare
rear gunner for much of 1940. He received promotions to F/O (war subs) on 7th April 1941 and F/Lt (war subs) on 7th April 1942. Nothing more is known
about his Wartime service but one would expect him to have received a promotion to S/Ldr before the end of the War but this promotion has not been located
in the London Gazette. He remained in the forces after the war and on 16th September 1948 he transferred to the Secretarial Branch of the RAF. He was
promoted to S/Ldr on 1st July 1949 and then transferred to the Equipment Branch on 28th December 1949. He retired from the RAF on 14th January 1958.
Whitley P4961 was built to contract 75147/38 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd. at Baginton and was awaiting collection in mid-April 1940. It was allotted to 10 Squadron at Dishforth on 19th April 1940 amd was taken on charge by them at Dishforth on 8th May 1940 during their conversion from Mk.IV Whitley's to MkV's. Following flak damage on 18th May 1940 Cat.M/FB damage was the assessment and it was repaired on site.. The aircraft then moved with the unit to Leeming 8th July 1940. It was damaged by flak on 12th August, Cat.M/FB damage being the damage assessment. Again it was repaired on site and returned to the unit. On 8th / 9th September 1940 the aircraft was being flown on Ops to Bremen when the rear gunner baled out over Germany slightly damaging it. It was swiftly repaired on site It was damaged again a few days later by flak on 17th / 18th September 1940. On 21st October 1940 it suffered minor battle damage and was repaired (possibly at Cold Kirby if the damage prevented the aircraft being ferried back to Leeming). On 21st December 1940 the aircraft was returning from ops to Berlin when it was abandoned near Harleston, Suffolk and its then crew escaped injury. The aircraft was written of as a result of this incident. The aircraft was struck off charge on 2nd January 1941 when the paperwork caught up.