James Francis Andrew

In January 1944, 184 Squadron were flying Hawker Typhoon aircraft out of Detling, Maidstone in Kent. As the final preparations were being made for D-Day in the months prior to June, the R.A.F flew sorties across the channel with a variety of objectives.

 

On 6th January at 13:50, James took off in his Typhoon from Detling, along with three other aircraft. They were attempting a “rhubarb” – where a section of fighters or bombers, at times of low cloud and poor visibility, crossed the English Channel then dropped below cloud cover to search for opportune targets like trains, military vehicles, troop movements, or aircraft on the ground.

 

The four Typhoons made landfall at Le Touquet, circled and flew into the enemy coast again a few miles further North, intending to go in at extremely low level (“0 feet”). When they hit the coast that second time, the Germans were waiting for them with accurate, mobile small arms fire and Bofors guns.

 

One of the Typhoons was hit, set on fire and went down, crashing into sand dunes and bursting into flames on the ground. At the same time, a second Typhoon was hit in the tail plane by fire from the Bofors guns. The pilot, W/O Sellers decided to crash land inland. At this point, James “orbited” Sellers until Sellers changed his mind and pulled out again. James was never seen again.

 

Sellers, meanwhile, after being hit again in the mainplane, made it home to Detling along with the other Typhoon at 15:10.

 

James is buried at the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery.