Commonwealth War Graves Sassenay

There are eight Commonwealth war graves at Sassenay Cemetery. They are the graves of F/S A.A. Balcome, W/O J.H. Dugan, F/O K.A.Gough, F/L S.G. Matkin, F/O J.W. O'Hara, F/S J.B. Paterson, F/L R.C.C. Taylor and Sgt. A. Whatmore.

On Saturday 14 August 1943 at 21:02, the Lancaster Mk.III, with serial number JA850 and fuselage code MG-M, belonging to RAF 7 Squadron, took off from Oakington Air Base in the English county of Cambridgeshire for a bombing mission on the city of Milan in Italy. On its way there, the JA850 was intercepted near Chalon-sur-Saône at an altitude of approximately 4,000 metres by a German Bf 110 G-4 night fighter from Fliegerhorst Dijon-Longvic. The night fighter was flown by Squadron Captain Hans-Wolfgang von Niebelschütz of the 5th Squadron of Nachtjagdgeschwader (NJG) 4. After the attack, the JA850, still carrying its full bomb load, crashed near Sassenay at approximately 23:53, killing all crew members.

They were all buried in the cemetery in Sassenay. Of the 140 bombers dispatched for the attack, which encountered little anti-aircraft and night fighter opposition, it was the JA850 that was the only bomber lost in this attack on Milan.

A monument has been erected in Sassenay to commemorate these crew members.

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