223286 Flt.Sgt. Francis Rodney "Rodney" Hughes Royal Australian Airforce 40 Squadron from:Sydney, NSW, Australia (d.2nd/3rd June 1944) My Uncle Rodney was a member of 40 Squadron RAF from about November 1941 until his death in 1944. He was pilot of NL120 a Wellington X bomber that nominally had a crew of 6 but in actuality flew with a crew of 5, 2 Australians and 3 Brits.
At the time Uncle Rodney died they were flying night bombing missions from Foggia Main to the Balkans. In 1945 my mother, Isabelle Samuelson Hughes, who worked for the RAAF pay office in Sydney, was told by returning members of the Squadron that Uncle Rodney's plane had gone down over Yugoslavia but only 4 parachutes were seen and they felt Uncle Rodney had gone down with his plane after keeping the plane in the air as long as possible while his crew ejected.
This was all we knew for 62 years.
Then I started research on the Internet in 2006 and found the family of the other Australian crew member who had travelled to Yugoslavia to find out what happened to the crew of Wellington Bomber NL120 on that fatal night of 2/3 June 1944.
Squadron were returning from night bombing raid over Giugiu, Romania to Foggia Main, Italy when NL120 crashed outside Krupac Yugoslavia. Eye witnesses to the crash (who were teenagers at the time) recounted that 4 crew members had successfully parachuted out -- this being consistent with the stories told to my mother. Two of the British crew were reunited in Krupac with many hugs but the crash had been witnessed by nearby Bulgarian Facist Soldiers who turned up in the village and took these two crew members prisoner never to be seen again. The third British crew member fled into the mountains and joined the partisans eventually making it back to England where he recounted his story for the BBC in about 2008.
The fourth Australian member died from bullet wounds inflicted by the Bulgarian soldiers while hanging in a tree from his parachute. Apparently a wedding ring was removed from this crew member's finger.
The fifth Australian crew member was removed from the plane after it crashed.
The bodies were interred in Krupac Church and then after an extensive search in 1945/46 by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission were moved to the War Cemetery in Belgrade (back row). The grave does not carry any identification because it could not be reliably established which body was which. That is they knew that they were the two (2) Australians but they weren't sure whether it was Uncle Rodney who died in the tree or whether he died in the plane.
However, by putting together little clues we believe (i.e. the Hughes family) that it was Rodney who died in the tree. The little clues are a) Rodney wore a wedding ring and he was the only one married and b) the plane went into the ground nose first (eye witness evidence) which means the body recovered was in the rear of the plane. As the 2nd Australian Crew member was the rear gunner and that position was the most difficult to exit from (the gun turret had to swivel to just the right position to allow crawling, cramped exit and needed to be mechinacally OK). Therefore the odds are it was the 2nd Australian (not the pilot) who died in the plane.
The old Wellington Heavy Bomber was known to the aircrews as the Wimpie but there was nothing wimpish about those aircrews.
40 Squadron and its fellows in 236 Air Wing were the only Commonwealth forces ever to be placed under the command of a foreign power. They were seconded to the 205 Group, 15th USAAF under General Doolittle of atomic fame. General Doolittle did look after the aircrews of 40 squadron moving them from the tents in the ankle deep mud sea of Foggia Main aerodrome to a bombed out school house in Foggia village itself.
While under the command of the 15th USAAF it was agreed that the US Air Force with their lighter more manouverable planes would fly the daylight raids and the Commonwealth Squadrons with their heavier but more reliable bombers (the Wellington was slow and heavy but almost indestructible) would fly the night missions.
On 2nd June 1944 the American's had not flown because their planes could not cope with the weather but the RAF flew their regular night mission over the Roumanian oil fields. It must have been a horrible flight in bad weather over enemy territory. On the way back NL120 was seen circling over Krupac (it made at least 3 circuits over the valley) before crashing. Why it crashed is unknown but as the Wellington was known to fly with enormous damage it must have been engine damage of some kind.
To me personally it was amazing to learn the full story of Uncle Rodney's death exactly 62 years to the day after he died. Because that's what I haven't told you so far, I was sent this story on the night of 2/3 June 2006, 62 years to the day after he and his Australian comrade died. The only thing that I found sad was that my father had died exactly 5 years previously that is exactly 57 years after his beloved brother's death.
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