Pilot Officer W. J. Champion
75 Sqn. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
53774
Killed in action, 4 November 1943, Denmark. Aged 24.
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William Champion was born in 1919 in West Byfleet, the son of Edward and Mary Champion (nee Ford) of Woking and attended the County School 1931-1935. Edward was verger of West Byfleet Church. He was married to Edna Champion.
William received an emergency commission to the RAFVR on 23 September 1943.
Stirling Mk. III BF461 had flown 30 missions when it took to the air at 1601 from RAF Mepal in Cambridgeshire on 4 November 1943 headed for the Kattegat Sea between Sweden and Denmark on a ‘gardening’ mission to lay mines in the Silverthorn Sector. Pilot Officer Champion aged 25, was Wireless Operator/Air Gunner.
Stirling Mk III’s
The other members of the crew were Pilot Officer G. K. Williams (RNZAF), Sgt. H. Moffat, Flt. Sgt. W. F. Morice (RNZAF), Sgt. F. E. McGregor (RNZAF), Flt. Sgt. J. A. Black (RAAF) and Sgt. Reggie Ingrey.
Over Denmark and on its way to the target area BF461 was attacked by a German night fighter. During the exchange of fire tail gunner Sgt. Reggie Ingray wounded the fighter pilot in the thigh and forced him to call off the attack and land his damaged plane at Fliegerhorst Grove. But meanwhile a fire had taken hold in the rear of the Stirling and it soon became evident that the controls had been damaged. Pilot Officer Gordon (Bill) Williams ordered the crew to bail out. The bomber was left to crash into a hillside near Kallerup.
William Champion jumped from the doomed aircraft but his parachute failed to deploy and he fell to his death. His body was discovered the next day lying beneath his parachute.
Of the other six crew members, five were captured and one walked to Sweden from where he was repatriated.
William Champion was buried in Frederikshaven Cemetery, northern Denmark on 13 November 1943 (allied plot 48). He is also remembered on the Woking County Grammar School roll of honour located in Christ Church, Woking and the West Byfleet war memorial.
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Last updated 4 July 2010
Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
London Gazette
Woking News and Mail
Woking County School magazine
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