The 10 OTU left from Abingdon at 1942-09-17 at 20:13

On Thursday 17 September 1942, a member of the 10 OTU, Flight Lieutenant W L Kell (He is second from the left in the second photo, taken in a German prison camp.), took off from Abingdon in the United Kingdom. His mission is mentioned elsewhere on WW2 History Europe. You can find the other details of this mission by searching here. Training and cargo flights are not separately mentioned as a mission. The plane left at 20:13.

He flew with a Armstrong Whitworth Whitley (type V, serial P4931, code -J).

Kell's son:

Hello, I found information about my father, Flight LT WL Kell at the below link on your site. Dad is 97 and still alive and well in Canada at the time of this email. The second link lists the rest of his crew who all survived a ditch-at-sea crash in the North Sean on this mission. Their dinghy drifted to shore at Texel Island where they were captured and turned over to the Gestapo. All survived as POWs until the end of the war and lived to reunite after the war.

Campaign report of the USAAF:

(Twelfth Air Force:) XII Ground Air Support Command is activated at Birmingham, Alabama; the only Twelfth Air Force command to be completely organized in the US, it eventually will proceed directly to N Africa as part of the Western Task Force (WTF). HQ XII Fighter Command moves from Wattisham to Bushey Hall, England.

Campaign report of the RAF:

16/17 September 1942

Essen

369 aircraft, including aircraft from the training groups. 39 aircraft - 21 Wellingtons, 9 Lancasters, 5 Stirlings, 3 Halifaxes, 1 Whitley - lost, 10.6 per cent of the force.

Although much of the bombing was scattered, this was probably the most successful attack on this difficult target. There were 33 large and 80 'medium' fires. 8 industrial and 6 transport premises were hit. The Krupps works were hit by 15 high-explosive bombs and by a crashing bomber loaded with incendiaries. There was much housing damage. In Essen and its immediate surroundings, 47 people were killed and 92 injured.

Many other towns were hit, in particular Bochum with 50 fires and 4 people dead, Wuppertal with 13 dead, Heme with a large fire in a lorry garage and Cochem, a small town on the Moselle 90 miles south of Essen, which received 1 bomb load destroying 4 houses and killing 15 people.

17/18 September 1942

3 Halifaxes on leaflet flights to France without loss.

With thanks to the RAF and USAAF.net!

This record can also be found on the maps of WW2 History Europe with Google coordinates. You can find the maps by clicking on this link on this location.

There are several possibilities to investigate the flight records on WW2 History Europe. All the flights are plotted on maps, sorted "day by day", "by squadron", "by type aircraft", "by year or month", "by location" and much more! Don't miss this!!!

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Your photos and your information are very welcome! The young do care and with your help we keep up the good work.