Unknown (Enemy?) aircraft or Wellington off Scarborough/Whitby.
On the 16th of November 1941 an aircraft was reported by Scarborough Police to have been shot down to the north
of the town and crashing into the sea at dusk. Later Cloughton Home Guard were called out to apprehend four
German airmen said to have come ashore in the locality. Its identity remains a mystery.
There was a loss of Wellington Z8848 on this night, it was ditched ten miles off Whitby and the crew were picked up by a passing destroyer although one later died.
Pilot - P/O John F Stock RAFVR (101082), of Trewarmett, Cornwall.
Pilot - Sgt John A Weller RAAF (404518), of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
P/O James B Maher RAAF (402517), of Mosman, New South Wales, Australia.
Sgt Baker
WOp/AG - Sgt Herbert L Suckling RAFVR (1258955), of Northolt, Middlesex.
Sgt Roche
F/O Stock was to be lost on 27th July 1942 when his aircraft crashed into the North Sea, he was aged 22 and his body was never found.
If it were enemy, this incident does not appear in Bill Norman's near Biblical "Broken Eagles" book which adds more confusion,
Mr Norman's work is a definitive account of Luftwaffe Losses.
Sgt Suckling, Agt Weller and P/O Maher were sadly killed on 28th March 1942 all still serving with 115 Sqdn. They were
buried in Becklingen War Cemetery. Suckling was 21 years old, Maher was 25 and Weller was 26.