97/Deverill Crew: Deverill, DFM award
Name/Title
97/Deverill Crew: Deverill, DFM awardEntry/Object ID
2023.1567Description
Ernest Alfred Deverill, pilot, then serving on 206 Squadron, 16 Group, Coastal Command. Letter to his mother, Elsie, 3 May 1940.Context
This letter to his mother, written on the same day that he had a extremely close brush with death, tells his story of the incident on 3 May 1940 which would win him the DFM. Letter transcript reads: Dear Mum Just a very few lines to forestall a possible mention of name in a casualty list. Just wounded in action, only a few slight flesh wounds in the leg although definitely in action. I can’t tell you much in a letter but briefly this is what happened. I was navigating the plane early this morning somewhere near Germany when three ME109’s fighters dropped on us. We got one of them then, the gunner was killed, the pilot wounded, I was scratched. The other two Huns ran out of ammo and I flew the kite back. It was shot to hell, and when I ‘landed’ on the drome it just collapsed. No more damage done. Still we were very lucky, to have got back. Two ME’s and us with no rear gunner left, and then they didn’t get us. Anyway, I’ll let you know. Or maybe you will hear it over the radio. The DFM citation reads: On 3rd May 1940, this airman was the second pilot and navigator of a HUDSON aircraft carrying out reconnaissance duties in the vicinity of BORKUM when it was attacked by three Messerschmitt 109’s using cannons and machine guns. During the engagement the rear gunner was killed and Sgt Deverill, although wounded in the knee himself, attempted to remove him from the gun turret but was unable to do so, owing to violent manoeuvres carried out by the pilot. After the enemy had withdrawn, this airman took the controls from the first pilot, who had also been wounded and was showing signs of collapse from loss of blood, and, without a navigator or wireless assistance succeeded in bringing the badly damaged aircraft to a home base without further injury to personnel. The rear gunner was Ernest Townend, a Leading Aircraftman, who was 28 years old. He is buried at Great Bircham, St Mary, just south of Bircham Newton and only three miles from Docking where Deverill himself would be buried three and half years later. Raymond Thomas Kean, the first pilot on the Hudson, a New Zealander, did not long survive his lucky escape. Having recovered from his injuries, he was back flying by the end of May. He died on 5 August whilst flying with 206 Squadron, and is buried in Hunstanton, some eight miles from Docking.Collection
97 Squadron, PFF Relatives and Friends, RAF Coastal Command, YDEV: ERNEST DEVERILL COLLECTIONCategory
QAE: Personal letters, cards, postcards, telegrams