LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Kenneth BELL
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
Service No: 565626
Born: Date, Location unavailable
Enlisted in the RAF: Date unavailable
Unit: No. 269 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Wick, Scotland
Died: Air Operations: (No. 269 Squadron Hudson I aircraft N7278), off the Norwegian Coast, 1 May 1940, Age Unavailable
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of John Clement Bell and May Bell, of Greenwich, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 11, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Hudson N7278 took off from Wick at 0559 hours on 1 May 1940 tasked with a bombing attack on Sola Aerodrome, Norway. The aircraft was shot down about 10 miles west of the coast of Norway at 0823 hours by Lieutenant G Schirrnbock of 4/JG77. The crash was witnessed by HMS Triton but due to enemy air activity no investigation of the crash site was possible.
The crew members of N7278 were:
Sergeant Kenneth Bell (RAF) (565626) (RAF) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Alfred Henry Hayter (41289) (RAF)
Sergeant George Kelly (522560) (RAF)
Leading Aircraftman John Hastings MacKenzie (552160) (RAF) PoW
Leading Aircraftman George Welsh (617385) (RAF)
References:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
McNeill R (Ross), Royal Air Force Coastal Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 1 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1939-1941, Midland Publishing UK, 2003