Flight Sergeant Alexander Milton's plane was shot down in WWII

The information board at the crash site with missing details

May 28, 2023

A research foundation based in Holland is asking the people of Chiswick for help in finding out details of an airman whose plane crashed in its neighbourhood.

Stichting Luchtoorlog Onderzoek Drenthe seek to mark the site of each plane, allied or German, shot down during the Second World War with an information panel giving details of each individual crew member.

The Drenthe region borders Germany and the group’s main focus is its ‘Lost Wings’ project which has involved the installation of 39 these panels in both the Netherlands and Germany.

Flight Sergeant Alexander Henry Milton was the rear gunner of a Halifax DT630 VR-T that was downed by the Luftwaffe at Odoorneveen on 3 February , 1943.

The plane was part of 419 RCAF (Moose) Squadron which took off from RAF Middleton St. George Air Base at 6:34pm as part of an attack wave of 263 aircraft aiming for Hamburg.

Poor weather meant that many of the bombers turned back before reaching their target, but Flight Sergeant Milton’s plane had continued despite lagging behind the rest of the main body of the attack. In an attempt to catch up, pilot Jack D. MacKenzie pushed the nose down slightly to increase speed. He had the additional problem of the plane’s intercom system being out of action, so he had no way of contacting Flight Sergeant Milton.

At about 25 minutes short of Hamburg, they came under attack from a Messerschmitt Bf 110 nightfighter flown by Oberfeldwebel Karl-Heinz Scherfling. The Halifax performed an evasive manoeuvre called the corkscrew but was riddled with cannon fire which fatally wounded the pilot and Lennox AJ Gonnett, the dorsal turret gunner. The gunfire also ignited the incendiary bombs on board, burning through vital cables and pipes leading to the engines and controls. The flight engineer, William P. Duthie, attempted to extinguish the fire, but was unable to do so due to the flammable and difficult-to-extinguish nature of the incendiaries. The navigator, William N. Garnett, gave the order to abandon the aircraft using a previously agreed sequence of flashes of light to contact Flight Sergeant Milton due to the unavailability of the intercom system.

Eric R. Marquand, the bombardier, was the first of the crew to leave the aircraft. He was followed by William N. Garnett, who checked on the rest of the crew and saw that radio operator Raymond H. Hill was still in position, as was William P. Duthie who were both preparing to leave. At this point the German fighter turned back and attacked the falling Halifax once more.

Eric R. Marquand was hit in the ear while Flight Sergeant Milton continued to fire on the German fighter to drive it away so that the other crew members could get out. He continued to fire until he fell from his turret, but Duthie and Hill didn’t make it.

The three survivors were captured and sent to Stalag 344 Lamsdorf where they remained until 1945.

The site of the crash in February 1943

It is known that Flight Sergeant Milton was born in Hounslow in 1916 and after the war lived in Chiswick until his death in 2001. He served with RAF Bomber Command with the service number 1003107 but enquiries to various veterans’ organisations have yet to yield any further information about him. His mother was Elizabeth Susan Skinner (1882–1952) and his father was Alexander John Milton (1868–1959) and he was baptised on 25 June 1916, St Augustine, Highbury.

The Lost Wings project aims to have more detail as well as a photograph of the airmen shot down so if you have any further information about Flight Sergeant Milton, please send it to editor@chiswickw4.com.