Flt Lt Frede Johannes Florentsen

254 Sqn

Beaufighter X (F)

11.08.44

19:07 - 23:15

1907/16/11 A/B North Coates armed with 4 cannon - F/O Richardson in 'K' leading.
1917 'C' landed - failure engineer.
1946 R/V at Langham with 12 Beaufighters from Strubby and 13 from Langham.
R/V at Coltishall with fighter escort of 7 Mustang A/C.
2113 S/C base from 54°12'N 07°27'E on account of poor visibility.
2237 North Coates A/C set course base from Langham.
2245 A column of smoke and flame was seen on the surface in position 53 22'N 00 21'E. This was thought to be a crashed aircraft and D/254 broke formatino and circled the fire. Base was informed and 'D' climbed in order to obtain fix.
2300 Being unable to obtain M/F fix 'D' continued to circle until flames extinguished at 22.55 hrs. A light thought to be that of a torch was seen throughout and an unidentified aircraft was also seen circling position.
0001/12 'D' S/C base as nothing further was seen and petrol was low. 3 fixes were obtained from Coltishall on V.H.F.
2259/2315/11 All remaining A/C, except 'D' and 'U' landed base.
0016/12 'D' Landed base.
'U' failed to return and is presumed to be the crashed aircraft circled by 'D'.

AIR 27/1516