Service Details

Birkenhead Institute

Notes

What we know about his last day in 1944. Compiled by Leon Hilleman, Netherlands.
He joined 140 squadron after being a Spitfire pilot, he started to fly with the Mosquito Dh 98 PR Mk XVI.
The 140 squadron was a photo recannaissance group. They photographed the enemy lines, and were looking for launching site's of V1's and V2's.
It is believed on that day in 1944, 6th of June, he and his pilot, Flight Officer Frank George Rudduck, had a PR mission. Their mission should have brought them to Cambrai and Montididier in France, but near Calais, their plane was hit by German flak, and it crashed in the North Sea.
The body of F/O Rudduck washed up ashore on the 18th of June, in the South West of The Netherlands. He was buried on the 20th of June 1944, on the Cadzand General Cemetery in Cadzand, a little village in the south west of The Netherlands
On the 19th of June, German soldiers found a body, on the beach of Cadzand, and brought the body to the Red Cross. It was unknown who this person was.
The Germans thought it was an American airman. Later, in 1948, it came out (not sure how) that it was not an American airman, but an English airman from the RAF. After they found him, they tried to identify the body, but the only thing they found were some personal things: a wristwatch, a nametag, but without a name on it, and a cigarette holder with the initials H.D. And it is because of these initials, that I started to look for information. Until then, I only knew that he was found on the 19th of June 1944, that he was a Flight Sergeant, and navigator. That was it. I tried to look for information, but that was very difficult. Leon Hilleman.
Because this is a newly identified grave, it is not yet accepted or recognised by the CWGC, (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) or the MOD (Ministry of Defence) in the UK.
Leon Hilleman will be submitting his evidence in due course in the hope that it is then recognised.