Name
Alan Harwood Knape
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
28/06/1941
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sergeant
918540
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
10 Sqdn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HAMBURG CEMETERY
4A. J. 2.
Germany
Headstone Inscription
IN LOVING AND PERPETUAL MEMORY. AUDREY
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was given the Service Number 918540 and was a Serjeant Pilot and member of 10 Squadron. He took off from Leeming at 22.30hrs on the evening prior to his death, for a raid on Bremen. He was flying a Whitley bomber V P5016 ZA-?.
A force of 108 aircraft attacked the target including 35 Whitleys. They encountered storms and icing conditions and, for the first time, intense night-fighter attacks. A total of 14 aircraft were lost of which 11 were Whitleys. This was the heaviest loss during the war so far. That night many bombers attacked Hamburg over 50 miles away by mistake. Reports from Hamburg stated that the night-fighters shot down 5 bombers.
Four of the crew, including Alan, were killed and were buried in Ohlsdorf British Military Cemetery near Hamburg in a collective grave. A private inscription on the headstone reads "In loving and perpetual memory always".
One crewman, Flight Serjeant Lewis, was reported to have been captured and later escaped but was shot by the S.S. after recapture. Another report states that on the 1st August 1944 Lewis was shot dead by guards at the Danzig Kaiser-Lager whilst attempting to escape and that he is buried in Danzig Cemetery Grave 4428, Row 3, Field 16.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘Bomber Command Losses’ by W.R. Chorley
