Pilot Officer HERBERT LAURANCE WHITBREAD 42034, 222 Sqdn., Royal Air Force who died age 26 on 20 September 1940 Son of Herbert Harley Whitbread and Alice Whitbread, of Ludlow. Remembered with honour LUDLOW NEW CEMETERY 1115hrs: Rochester. Spitfire N3203. 222 Squadron Hornchurch P/O H.L.Whitbread killed. (Shot down by Bf109s and crashed at Pond Cottage. Thrown clear but dead)
Friday 20th September 1940 Spitfire N3203 Crashed at Pond Cottage, Hermitage Farm, Higham, Rochester 1115 am following surprise attack by Bf 109's. Pilot Officer H L Whitbread killed. Aircraft a write-off. ATB - Battle of Britain. There is a picture of the pilot and the crash location if anyone is interested.
Pilot Officer HERBERT LAURANCE WHITBREAD 42034, 222 Sqdn., Royal Air Force who died age 26 on 20 September 1940 Son of Herbert Harley Whitbread and Alice Whitbread, of Ludlow. Remembered with honour LUDLOW NEW CEMETERY 1115hrs: Rochester. Spitfire N3203. 222 Squadron Hornchurch P/O H.L.Whitbread killed. (Shot down by Bf109s and crashed at Pond Cottage. Thrown clear but dead) P/O. Herbert Laurance Whitbread 42034 No.222 Squadron Born in Ludlow in 1914 and educated at the Grammar School there. he joined the RAF on a short service commission in March 1939. He carried out his flying training at Cranwell and was then posted to 222 Squadron at Duxford on 6 November 1939. Whitbread claimed a Bf 109 destroyed on 9 September 1940. He was shot down and killed in a surprise attack by Bf 109s on the 20th. the Spitfire, N3203 crashed at Pond Cottage, Hermitage Farm, Higham, Rochester. Whitbread was 26 years old. 'Men of The Battle of Britain' - Wynn
Thanks again to WW2talk the info posted on here will help provide more info for a family member of Pilot H.L.Whitbread Well done all
Some of the posts on P.O. Whitbread say that his body was "thrown clear" when his plane was shot down. This is not the case, My Dad was a Royal Artillery gunner stationed in Kent during the Battle of Britain. He was part of a gun crew that saw P.O Whitbread's Spitfire come down. He described the Spitfire as falling "like a leaf, swaying from side to side as it came down". He and another gunner ran to the plane as it hit the ground on its belly. He described the pilot, still in his seat, as having his goggles up on his head and he had been hit by a bullet that had entered one of the goggle lens, he was probably killed more or less instantly. (I hope this is of comfort to P.O. Whitbread's family - he did not die a bad death in a burning plane.) My Dad and his colleague removed P.O. Whitbread's body from the plane and laid it out respectfully beside the plane. They got the pilot's identity either from his dog tags or his pay book, I don't remember which. Why do I remember this?? Our family newspaper was the Daily Mirror when I was growing up, but one day every year Dad bought The Times or The Telegraph - can't remember which. The copy he bought had an In Memoriam for P.O. Whitbread. I noticed my Dad reading an unfamiliar newspaper and aksed him what he was doing.....he told me the story above. To this day (my dad died suddenly in 1973) I can see his hand describing the way the Spitfire fell. On the day of the evnt P.O. Whitbread was 26 and my Dad was 23. He never forgot this brave pilot. I can be contacted by email mcdonnk@btinternet.com
