BLENKINSOP, S/L Edward Weyman (J3467) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.425 Squadron - Award effective 11 April 1944 as per London Gazette of 21 April 1944 and AFRO 1186/44 dated 2 June 1944. Born 08 October 1920 in Victoria, British Columbia; educated and home there (chartered accountant); enlisted in Vancouver, 04 June 1940. To No.1 Manning Depot, 05 June 1940. Trained at No.1 ITS (24 June to 20 July 1940), No.8 EFTS (23 July to 15 September 1940) and No.4 SFTS (15 October to 20 December 1940). Further trained at No.1 ANS (04 January 1941-April 1941); retained as an instructor at No.1 ANS (April 1944-18 August 1944); Subsequently assigned as an instructor to No.2 ANS (24 August 1944-24 April 1942). Commissioned 21 December 1940. To New Zealand 29 April 1942 to inspect their navigation training procedures (returned 17 November 1942). Posted overseas 4 January 1943; trained at No.3 (P) AFU (15 February 1943-15 April 1943), No.22 OTU (20 April 1943-28 June 1943) and No.311 FTU (28 June 1943-10 July 1943). To North Africa, 10 July 1943 for service with No.424 Squadron (15 July 1943-20 July 1943) but transferred almost immediately to No.425 Squadron, with whom he flew until 28 February 1944 when transferred to No.405 Squadron. Shot down with No.405 Squadron, 27/28 April 1944 (Lancaster JA976) during raid on Montzen¹ marshalling yards; only survivor. Picked up by Belgian Underground, he obtained papers which enabled him to pass as a Belgian national. However, while in Meensel-Kiesegem a German round-up netted 80 members of local Resistance including Blenkinsop (11 August 1944). Held at St. Gilles Prison, Brussels (12 August 1944-30 August 1944). While detained he transmitted his identity to an American POW by tapping in morse code over steam pipes. Sent to work in at the Eurotank Oil Refinery and later Deutsche Weft shipyards in Hamburg. In November 1944, Teddy became very ill. The lack of food, water, proper clothing and medical attention rapidly acclerated the decline. Died 23 January 1945 in concentration camp at Neuengamme (tuberculosis). Body cremated; name on Runnymede Memorial.

BLENKINSOP, S/L Edward Weyman, DFC (J3467) - Croix de Guerre 1940 with Palm (Belgium) - (deceased) - Awarded 17 July 1948 as per Canada Gazette of that date and AFRO 455/48 dated 23 July 1948.

The website “Lost Bombers” gives the following on his last sortie. Lancaster JA976, No.405 Squadron (LQ-S), target Montzen, 27/28 April 1944. JA976 was delivered to No.97 Squadron in August 1943, undertook no operations with that unit, and was transferred to No.405 Squadron at an uncertain date. When lost this aircraft had a total of 315 hours. Airborne at 0001 hours, 28 April 1944 from Gransden Lodge to attack the railway yards. Shot down by a night-fighter and crashed at Webbekom (Brabant), 2 km SE of Diest, Belgium. Crew were S/L E.W. Blenkinsop, DFC (described on the site as having been blown from the aircraft; subsequently joined up with a Belgian Resistance Group; captured in December 1944, taken to a forced labour camp and is reported to have died of tuberculosis in the Belsen Concentration Camp, 23 January 1945); P/O R.A. Booth (Belgian Croix de Guerre avec Palme, killed); F/L L. Allen, DFC (killed); F/L G.J. Smith, DFC (killed); F/L D. Ramsay, DFC (killed); Flight Sergeant J.S. Bradley (killed); WO2 L.A. Foster, RCAF (killed).

SOURCE: Air Force Association of Canada website; Hugh Halliday (July 30, 2010) & "One Who Almost Made It Back", Peter Celis (2008).

The Montzen Raid

Edward Weyman "Teddy" Blenkinsop was born in 1920 in Victoria, British Columbia and attended school in that city before articling as a Chartered Accountant with a Vancouver firm. When war broke out, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at Victoria in June, 1940 and trained as a pilot-navigator. He was posted to No. 425 Squadron in 1943 and flew Wellingtons in North Africa. Upon completion of his first tour he volunteered for a second tour with No. 405 Squadron of the Pathfinder Force.

In terms of the percentage of Canadian RCAF aircraft that failed to return, the Montzen Raid was the most costly of the war.

144 aircraft of Bomber Command attacked the railway marshalling yards at Montzen, Belgium on the night of 27/28 April, 1944. The raid was one of hundreds in preparation for the invasion of occupied France that eventually occurred on 06 June, 1944. 55 No. 6 Group Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft participated in the attack that was led by No. 405 Squadron, the Canadian pathfinder squadron. They were ordered to mark the target prior to the arrival of the main force and Teddy Blenkinsop was to assist in the target marking.

The bombing force, particularly the second of the two waves, suffered ferocious opposition when attacked by enemy fighters. Ten, a sobering 18% of the Canadian aircraft, were lost as well as five aircraft from other groups.

The painting (below) depicts a point in the raid shortly after S/L Blenkinsop DFC had dropped his markers and was about to be attacked by an enemy fighter. The Master Bomber and commanding officer of the squadron, W/C Reg Lane DSO DFC and Bar² recalled: "The operation was completed and I instructed Blenkinsop to head home. Moments later I saw the flash of an aircraft blowing up. I realized at once it was Blenkinsop's because the bright colours of his target indicators came dripping out of the explosion. When I returned to base, I reported that he had been killed."

Teddy Blenkinsop's Lancaster had been shot down by German night fighter ace Hermann Greiner but incredibly Blenkinsop had survived although the remainder of his crewmembers had not. He was picked up by the Belgian Underground and obtained papers that enabled him to pass as a Belgian national. However while in Meensel-Kiesegem the German Gestapo captured eighty members of the local Resistance including Blenkinsop. He was held at St. Gilles Prison in Brussels and while detained transmitted his identity to an American officer POW by tapping in Morse code over steam pipes.

F/Sgt Joseph William Murphy, a New Zealander flying as a wireless operator with No. 75 Squadron RAF, was shot down on 19 July, 1944. He eventually found himself in St. Gilles prison in Brussels where he met Teddy Blenkinsop. In a statement recorded by the RAF, F/Sgt Murphy recalled, "S/L Blenkinsop, whom I met about 1 September, 1944, said that while evading capture in Belgium he was helping the White army. One day he was with a group of them on the way to blow up a house occupied by the Germans when they ran into 200 Gestapo men armed with machine guns. He fled into a wood, being unarmed, and was captured by the Germans. He had not done any sabotage. He was threatened with torture but refused to speak. Three of the Belgians, after torture, did reveal their plans and said Blenkinsop had been implicated. On this evidence the Germans said they would shoot him. Whether this was done or not I could not say, but he was not evacuated from St. Gilles prison with the 40 odd British and Americans at he beginning of September, 1944. At the time of our meeting, S/Ldr Blenkinsop asked me to relate this part of his story to our Intelligence if I got back safely to the U.K."

It is thought that Blenkinsop was then sent to work as a forced-labourer in a factory in Hamburg and may have spent time in Bergen-Belsen. Teddy Blenkinsop died 23 January 1945 in a concentration camp at Neuengamme due to heart failure, possibly caused by lethal injection.

S/L Blenkinsop was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Belgian Croix de Guerre 1940 with Palm. Blenkinsop Road in the City of Victoria is named in his honour as is Blenkinsop Islet on the B.C. coast.

The painting, by prominent Canadian aviation artist John Rutherford of Kamloops, British Columbia, was commissioned by the Nanton Lancaster Society and depicts a "moment in time" during the Montzen Raid. The aircraft in the foreground is No. 405 Squadron Lancaster (LQ-S) flown by S/L Blenkinsop. The enemy fighter is a JU-88. The aircraft banking in the upper portion of the painting is another No. 405 squadron Lancaster (LQ-V) and is being flow by W/C Reg Lane.

SOURCE: Nanton Lancaster Society Air Museum website.

NOTES: In his book, "Above and Beyond," highly acclaimed author and historian Spencer Dunmore refers to Reg Lane as, "one of Canada's two leading bomber pilots of the war." The other was Johnny Fauquier, who Reg Lane took over command of Squadron No.405 from.

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