Date:	Sunday 12 May 1940
Time:	morning
Type:	Lockheed Hudson Mk I
Owner/operator:	206 Sqn RAF
Registration:	N7353
MSN:	1760
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	North Sea, North of Borkum Island, East Frisian Islands, Saxony -   Germany
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Bircham Newton, Kings Lynn, Norfolk
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Lockheed Hudson Mk.1 N7353 (VX-T) of 206 Squadron, RAF: Lost on combat operations - officially described as "Hudson N7353 failed to return from air operations over the North Sea, 12 May 1940. Leading Aircraftman R J Sloan: missing. Sergeant M Moore, Aircraftman 1st Class B Gill and Pilot Officer I L Gray: report of deaths".

Took off from RAF Bircham Newton, Kings Lynn, Norfolk at 04:45 hrs on a shipping Reconnaissance sortie. Failed to return after being shot down by Bf-109s of 5./JG 186 north of Borkum island, one of the East Frisian Islands off the north German coast of Saxony. All four crew killed

Crew of Hudson N7353:
Pilot Officer [Pilot] Ian Lowrie Gray, RAF 36188 (New Zealander), age 21, believed killed in action 12/05/1940, officially posted as "missing".
Sergeant (Pilot) Montague Moore, RAF 565347, age 26, killed in action 12/05/1940, buried at Sage War Cemetery, Germany
Aircraftman 1st Class Benjamin Gill, RAF 621946, believed killed in action 12/05/1940, officially posted as "missing".
Leading Aircraftman Reginald James Sloan, RAF 517038, believed killed in action 12/05/1940, officially posted as "missing".

As stated above, the body of only one of the crew was recovered and buried at buried at Sage War Cemetery, Germany. the bodies of the other three crew were never found, and they are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

May 1940 was a terrible month for 206 Squadron, with the loss of six Lockheed Hudsons and their crews in air operations in just 31 days.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft N1000-N9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1977 p 46)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) Filre AIR 81/267: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14142092
3. Ross McNeill, 'Royal Air Force Coastal Command Losses: Aircraft and Crew Losses 1939-1941 v. 1', Midland Publishing, 2003 p 32
4. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/206_squadron.html
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1798716/gray,-ian-lowrie/
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2073993/moore,-montague/
7. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1270826/gill,-benjamin/
8. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1807301/sloan,-reginald-james/
9. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gray-13246
10. http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=4047
11. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19400514.2.55?query=pilot%20officer%20gray&sort_by=byDA&items_per_page=10&phrase=2

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
21-Jun-2019 18:17	Dr. John Smith	Added
21-Jun-2019 19:51	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
22-Jun-2019 03:08	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]