RAF 95, squadron leader

The Lost Crews of 95 Squadron

Coastal Command West Africa

Lost Crew of L5805 B/95 - 11 June 1942
Detailed to escort a ship to Freetown, Sierra Leone went missing.

Lost Crew of DV975 H/95 - 28 November 1942
Crashed in the river BUNCE off JUI after a D/F exercise with a H.S.L.

Lost Crew of W6063 N/95 - 29 March 1943
Searching for survivors of SS Celtic Star, flew too low and hit a large wave, crashed into the sea

Lost Crew of JM6775 S/95 - 28 May 1943
Floating Refueller next to aircraft caught fire

Lost Crew of DV973 P/95 - 13 April 1944
Escort to convoy S.L. 155 - aircraft crashed on landing

Lost Crew of DW105 T/95 - 5 January 1944
Starboard engine caught fire filling the aircraft with smoke - exploded and crashed in the water

 

In 1944, following the North African landings the allies swept the Germans out of West Africa.

No 95 Squadron, who had been based further down the West Coast of Africa in Bathurst (now Banjul), had also set up an Ops base in Port-Etienne (now Nouidhibou) Mauritania (approx. 1100km from Bathurst), in a joint effort with the free French to launch attacks on the U boats and to escort troopships and convoys.

Founded by the French in 1905 and named after one of their colonial officials, Eugene Etienne (1844-1921), Port-Etienne, or Nouadhibou as it is now called, stretches along a thin peninsula running out from and parallel to the mainland in a southerly direction, of which the western side is part of The Sahara. Desert. The airmen based there referred to it as "Rag City", due to the amount of Bedouin tented encampments.

It was from the harbour here, that the Sunderlands continued their Atlantic U-boat patrol sorties and escorts to the ship convoys. (Centre below, 2 ground crew are rolling depth charges along the bridge for loading).


Alan Gardner and Crew Port-Etienne Cabo-Blanco WW2 Port-Etienne

WW2 Port-Etienne Ops Base - Port-Etienne Cabo-Blanco - WW2 Port-Etienne  

 

 

cwgc

967558 Sergeant C.L. Hadwell