1944 June Quarter death registration-
Name: Bennis, Henry---Age: 23
District: Ely (Volume & Page: 3b & 562)
Warrant Officer Class II Bennis was one of seven airmen of 115 RAF Squadron, based at RAF Witchford in Cambridgeshire, who perished in the crash of 115 Squadron's Avro Lancaster Mk.I (#LL867) A4-J aircraft at Coveney, near Ely in Cambridgeshire. The Lancaster had earlier taken flight from Witchford on a bombing operation, over the railway yards at Rouen in France, following which it was shot down, on its return flight, over its own Witchford aerodrome by an intruding German Messerschmitt 410 night fighter.
The seven casualties of this attack were-
RCAF Warrant Officer Class II Henry BENNIS,
RNZAF Flight Lieutenant Charlie EDDY,
RAFVR Sergeant Alfred Frank LANGRIDGE,
RAFVR Flight Sergeant Peter John Edward MADDOX,
RAFVR Sergeant William Leslie MURPHY,
RAF Sergeant Harold Edward George PUGH and
RAFVR Flying Officer Albert SMITH.
Military Service:-
Rank: Warrant Officer Class II
Service Number: R/178351
Age: 22
Force: Air Force
Unit: Royal Canadian Air Force
Division: 115 RAF Squadron [MOTTO: "Despite the elements"]
He enlisted in the RCAF on 24 July 1942 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
A florist by trade, he was the son of Nellie (née Overkleeft) Bennis of Balmoral Street in Medicine Hat, Alberta, and Jacob Bennis [both parents born in the Netherlands; they married in Rotterdam on 24 Feb 1909]; brother of Audriana Jozina Bennis, William Marinus Bennis, Jozina (Seena) Bennis, Jacob III Bennis and Cornelia Nellie Bennis. His father, Jacob, had gone to the USA when Henry was under 2yo, and was never heard from again.
[NOTE-in the 1940 Michigan Census, married, 52-year-old, Netherlands-born Jacob Bennis was residing in Grand Rapids, Michigan; he was working as a 'fireman' in a 'Brass Works' factory.]
Warrant Officer Class II Henry Bennis is commemorated on Page 248 of Canada's Second World War Book of Remembrance.
He is also commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
And he is commemorated at the war cenotaph in Riverside Park in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
1944 June Quarter death registration-
Name: Bennis, Henry---Age: 23
District: Ely (Volume & Page: 3b & 562)
Warrant Officer Class II Bennis was one of seven airmen of 115 RAF Squadron, based at RAF Witchford in Cambridgeshire, who perished in the crash of 115 Squadron's Avro Lancaster Mk.I (#LL867) A4-J aircraft at Coveney, near Ely in Cambridgeshire. The Lancaster had earlier taken flight from Witchford on a bombing operation, over the railway yards at Rouen in France, following which it was shot down, on its return flight, over its own Witchford aerodrome by an intruding German Messerschmitt 410 night fighter.
The seven casualties of this attack were-
RCAF Warrant Officer Class II Henry BENNIS,
RNZAF Flight Lieutenant Charlie EDDY,
RAFVR Sergeant Alfred Frank LANGRIDGE,
RAFVR Flight Sergeant Peter John Edward MADDOX,
RAFVR Sergeant William Leslie MURPHY,
RAF Sergeant Harold Edward George PUGH and
RAFVR Flying Officer Albert SMITH.
Military Service:-
Rank: Warrant Officer Class II
Service Number: R/178351
Age: 22
Force: Air Force
Unit: Royal Canadian Air Force
Division: 115 RAF Squadron [MOTTO: "Despite the elements"]
He enlisted in the RCAF on 24 July 1942 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
A florist by trade, he was the son of Nellie (née Overkleeft) Bennis of Balmoral Street in Medicine Hat, Alberta, and Jacob Bennis [both parents born in the Netherlands; they married in Rotterdam on 24 Feb 1909]; brother of Audriana Jozina Bennis, William Marinus Bennis, Jozina (Seena) Bennis, Jacob III Bennis and Cornelia Nellie Bennis. His father, Jacob, had gone to the USA when Henry was under 2yo, and was never heard from again.
[NOTE-in the 1940 Michigan Census, married, 52-year-old, Netherlands-born Jacob Bennis was residing in Grand Rapids, Michigan; he was working as a 'fireman' in a 'Brass Works' factory.]
Warrant Officer Class II Henry Bennis is commemorated on Page 248 of Canada's Second World War Book of Remembrance.
He is also commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
And he is commemorated at the war cenotaph in Riverside Park in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
Inscription
(Epitaph...)
REST IN PEACE
