Name
John Cecil (Jack) Dennis
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
08/04/1942
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sergeant
1160749
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
405 Sqdn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL
Panel 81.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. Saviour's Church Memorial, Hitchin, St. Mark’s Church Memorial, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was educated at St. Michael's College in Hitchin and was later on the staff of the Herts Express where he was responsible for the children's ‘Acorn Club’. He was also a saxophonist and a member of the Serenaders Dance Band.
He joined the RAF. in July 1940 and became a Radio Operator/Air Gunner with the Service Number 1160749. He was posted to 405 Squadron and took off from Pocklington at 22.18hrs on the 8th April 1942 in an operation against Hamburg in Wellington II bomber Z8358 LQ-B. Of the 272 aircraft taking part in the raid, four Wellingtons were lost and only the equivalent of 14 aircraft loads of bombs actually hit the target. Icing and electrical storms were encountered, and the raid was not judged to have been a success. Jack's aircraft was thought to have landed on a beach, but the plane landed in the sea and six members of the crew were killed. The bodies of the Co-Pilot and the Observer were later recovered from the sea at Withernsea and Clay-on-Sea respectively. He was the only son of John Henry and Grace Elizabeth Dennis of 43, Periwinkle Lane, Hitchin.
He has no known grave but is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial to the Missing at Egham in Surrey on Panel 81.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘RAF Bomber Command Losses’ by W.R. Chorley, Herts Pictorial dated 12th May 1942
