Horace Colvill Hilton was born in 1919, son of of Henry Richard and Charlotte Mabel Hilton.

Horace joined the Royal Air Force before the war and became  a pilot. He was promoted to Flying Officer on 3 September 1940. In July 1941, he was a pilot, flying Blenheim light bombers with 139 Squadron.

On 7 July 1941, F/L Horace Hilton, air gunner Sgt John Clayton and observer Sgt Jack Sykes boarded Blenheim V6084 and took off at 11.42 from their base Horsham St. Faith.

139 Squadron

 Their mission was to intercept and destroy enemy shipping off the Dutch coast. Eleven Blemheims had been detailed to this mission this day.

The Blemheims did find enemy shipping off the coast of Den Haag and attacked eight shiops and four flak vessels.ccording to their own reports, the British destroyed sunk  three ships, for the loss of three Blenheims. Two of the Blenheims that were lost were from 139 squadron. One was the V6084, flown by Sgt Hilton. All three crew members perished. Sgt Sykes's body washed ashore and is buried in The Hague (Westduin) Cemetery. Sgt. Clayton is buried in Bergen.

Sgt Hilton remains missing and is commemorated at the Runnymede Memorial.

Runnymede, United Kingdom

See Also:
Sgt John Clayton
Sgt Jack Sykes

All casualties of 139 squadron buried in the Netherlands

Sources and Acknowledgements:
Commonwealth War Grave Commission
lostbombers.co.uk

Directions to Runnymede Memorial

Posted 15 June 2009

If you have any suggestions, comments or additional information, please contact me.

This website is dedicated to the men and women who died and/or are buried in The Netherlands during World War II.

 

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