On the night of 31st August / 1st September 1943 the crew of this 427 Squadron aircraft took off from Leeming at 20.20hrs to undertake an operational flight to bomb Berlin. The aircraft sustained flak damage to the starboard elevator but the crew were able to bring the aircraft back to base where they landed at 04.00hrs.
Pilot - P/O Elwyn Williams RAFVR (143223).
Navigator - P/O Everett Lennes Brown RCAF (J/17162).
Bomb Aimer - P/O Gordon Warter Heselton RCAF (J/18175).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Alderic Liboire D'Eon RCAF (R/88017).
Flight Engineer - Sgt Maurice Edward Bridewell RAFVR (1394634).
Air Gunner - Sgt Pierre Louis Joseph Marie Quenet RCAF (R/54698).
Air Gunner - Sgt Jean Pierre Aime Joseph Duval RCAF (R/125456).
Pierre Quesnet was born on 26th July 1913 in or around Penity Saint Laurent, in the Brittany area of France and was the son of Ollivier and Marguerite (nee Lucas) Quenet. During the early part of the Second World War he lost three brothers to the German occupation. He emigrated to St.Michel, Quebec, Canada, possibly on his own, around 1930. He was working as a lumberjack when he enlisted for RCAF service in Montreal on 6th January 1940 for general service but appears to have enlisted under an alias of Pierre Quenette and could not speak any English at the time. He married Giselle Lebrun in 1940 and had a baby boy by the time he left Canada for the UK. Having arrived in the UK in January 1942 he served with 418 and 421 Squadrons over the coming year. In February 1943 he remustered as aircrew to be an air gunner and under took air gunnery training at No.1 Air Gunnery School. He was posted to 427 Squadron at Croft on 15th June 1943 just after gaining his air gunner's flying badge. Pierre Quenet was killed on 4th October 1943 when 427 Squadron Halifax LK920 failed to return from Ops to Frankfurt. He was 31 years old and is buried in Hotton War Cemetery, Belgium.
F/Sgt Maurice Bridewell was later posted to 429 Squadron and was killed on 20th February 1944 when Halifax LK993 was shot down over Germany on Ops to Leipzig. He is buried in Berlin War Cemetery. His personnel details are missing from the CWGC database but he was probably born in Paddington, London in Spring 1921.
Jean Duval was awarded the DFM for service with 427 Squadron, Gazetted on 16th November 1943.
Alderic D'Eon was awarded the DFC for service with 427 Squadron, Gazetted on 16th November 1943. He flew a second tour with then and later founded the 427 Squadron Association. He died in November 2004. Mr.Vern White gave a fitting tribute to him on "www.427squadron.com".
Elwyn Williams, Everett Brown and Gordon Heselton would eventually receive the DFC for service with 427 Squadron, Gazetted on 10th December 1943.
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