Name
John Thompson O'Brien
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
19/11/1941
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Flying Officer
41053
Royal Air Force
7 Sqdn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Mentioned in Despatches
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CAMBRIDGE CITY CEMETERY
Grave 6441.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
LORD JESUS RECEIVE HIS SOUL. MAY HE REST IN PEACE
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He arrived at Oakington in August 1941 to join 7 Squadron his Service Number being 41053. His first operation was on the 7th September 1941 when he was co-pilot flying Stirling W7436 on a raid to Berlin deep in enemy territory. He flew on two further operations as co-pilot to Squadron Leader Speare, to Turin on the 10th September and to Frankfurt on the 12th September. On the latter raid the target could not be located and instead they bombed the secondary target at Trier.
A few days later John took over his own crew and on the 18th October they attacked Le Havre. The following day they went deep into Germany to Stettin. This was a flight of nine hours, and the inexperience of the crew led to them becoming very short of fuel and they had to jettison machine-guns and ammunition to lighten the load. They managed to return to Oakington and land successfully.
They flew on nine further operations together without serious incident. On a flight to Hamburg on the 9th November they were accompanied by the Squadron Medical Officer though the purpose of his flight is not known.
On the 18th November 1941 they took off from Oakington at 14.58hrs in Stirling I bomber N6087 MG-A for their 13th Mission which was a daylight raid on the Hipper Class warships at Brest. Shortly after, tragedy struck, and O'Brien had to make a forced landing near Bluntisham with a full load of bombs and fuel due to the port outer engine catching fire. The bomber struck telegraph poles one mile west of the Bluntisham to Headingworth Road and crashed about twelve miles northwest of Cambridge. Three of the crew including John were killed outright and another (F/O James Lopez) died at 18.20hrs that afternoon. Two other members (Sgt Ryder and Sgt Devlin) of the crew suffered fractured legs and Sgt Sullivan, although injured himself played a major part in helping his two injured comrades.
John and two other members (F/Sgt Paul Comrose and F/O James Lopez) of the crew are buried in Cambridge City Cemetery, Grave 6441 and a third (Sgt James Rose) is buried in Wandsworth (Putney Vale) Cemetery.
He was the son of Marie Theresa Thompson O'Brien of Hitchin.
After one of his missions he was Mentioned in Despatches.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘Bomber Command Losses’ by W.R. Chorley
