The Aircraft
The Wellington Z1099  was one of a batch of 440 aircraft that were delivered between May 1941 and March 1942. It flew with 75 (NZ) Squadron from RAF Feltwell.

The Crew
Captain of the crew was Sergeant F.C. Harrison-Smith (403959 NZRAF). The other were Sergeant D.V. Sizmur (934205 RAF), Sergeant D. McCready (1375023 RAF), Sergeant B.D. Meagher (1109620 RAF), E.J.H. Painter (1359501 RAF) and P. Buckby (1156870 RAF).

The Mission
The aircraft took off from RAF Feltwell on a mission to bomb Emden.

Their Fate
The aircraft was intercepted by the German night-fighter Ofw, Paul Gildner (4./NJG1) in his Messerschmitt Bf110 and crashed into the Waddenzee or Lauwerszee around 11 PM. The body of Brian Dominic Meagher washed ashore at Schiermonnikoog where he was buried at Vredenhof cemetery. All the other crew member have no known grave but the Schiermonnikoog archives revealed that probably one other member has been found.

On 3 December 1941 there has been an post mortem examination of the body of a
wireless operator that was found at Engelsmanplaat, a sandbank in the mudflats
between Ameland and Schiermonnikoog.
The report states that the body must have been in the water for 2 or 3 days and the possible cause of death as the result of an explosion.