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 Sergeant Herbert Vincent Winch, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve


Vincent Winch trained as a Wireless Operator / Air Gunner and was an Air Gunner with 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron based at RAF Waddington. He was killed when Lancaster W4124 was shot down by a night-fighter and crashed at 0026 28 August 1942 at Haltern, 6 km WSW of Steinfurt. All the crew were killed. Vincent was initially buried ...
Cat1 War-->World War 2

Sergeant Herbert Vincent Winch, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Vincent Winch trained as a Wireless Operator / Air Gunner and was an Air Gunner with 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron based at RAF Waddington. He was killed when Lancaster W4124 was shot down by a night-fighter and crashed at 0026 28 August 1942 at Haltern, 6 km WSW of Steinfurt. All the crew were killed. Vincent was initially buried in Rheine-Koenigsesch Cemetery, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Five years later, on 26 March 1947 he was re-buried at the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery at Kleve, close to the Dutch border.
Vincent was 31.

His name appears in the list of the fallen in Colchester Town Hall, and at the International Bomber Command Centre Memorial in Lincoln.

Vincent was son of Frederick Clappison and Lilian Winch who lived in Colchester and moved to Mersea around 1951. In 1939 he was living in Colchester and working for his father as a Wine Merchant's Clerk. He bought the West Mersea smack NELLIE and re-registered her in November 1939 as a fishing boat.

With thanks to RAF Waddington Heritage Centre for information on 44 Squadron and Vincent's sorties.

Read More:
Smack NELLIE owned by Herbert Vincent Winch
Frederick Clappison Winch


Photo: Pauline Winch
Image ID PMS_HVW_001
Category 1 War-->World War 2


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This image is part of the Mersea Museum Collection.