COUNELL / HORTON

bekie2004 · 24 November 2003, 12:12 PM

Can anyone tell me more about these two aviation officers

H.J.M. Counell (or Cornell) 5. Royal Irish Rifles
killed in action on 31th may 1918
Lieutenant

and

?? Horton, Stad Quartere Company IIIth Inf.
USA Captain
killed in action on 31th may 1918

both in the neighbourhood of Eernegem (West-Flanders, Belgium)

They should have been in the same aircraft.
Can anyone tell me of suggest me where I can find the information about
1. the exact names
2. their regiment
3. their burial places
4. the type of aircraft
5. the mission
or any other relevant information?

Bekie 2004

Rick · 24 November 2003, 12:32 PM

Bekie,

According to The Sky Their Battlefield by Trevor Henshaw, this would be the 98 Sqn. RAF crew of Capt. G.D. Horton, KIA and 2/Lt. H.J. McConnell, KIA, in DH 9 #B.7657. They left their airfield at 12.15 hours and were shot down by flak fire over Bruges. I'm sure others here will be able to fill in more details. R.

Immo_Frese · 24 November 2003, 01:00 PM

Hm, that's really interesting! According to the NB there was no confirmation of a german Flak-claim on this date...

Immo

Immo_Frese · 24 November 2003, 01:17 PM

Just to add a little bit more to the confusion...

According to The Jasta War Chronology, Horton & McConnell were claimed by FlgMt Mayer of Marine-Feldjasta 2 near Aertyke at 14.33 hours for his second victory.

Hm, Henshaw says that Flak got them, the authors of TJWC say that the DH 9 crew was shot down by a fighter and the NB didn't even take notice of the incident at all!!!

Rick, I need a explanation

Very confused

Immo

Rick · 24 November 2003, 01:45 PM

Immo,

Regarding the flak, I was merely quoting Henshaw. Yes, I believe Mayer was responsible. Guess I should have double checked before posting.

R.

Immo_Frese · 24 November 2003, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bekie2004@Nov 24 2003, 08:12 PM
[b]
They should have been in the same aircraft.
Can anyone tell me of suggest me where I can find the information about
1. the exact names
2. their regiment
3. their burial places
4. the type of aircraft
5. the mission
or any other relevant information?

Bekie 2004

Bekie,

to come back to your questions. Always a good possibility to do some research on casualties is to visit the official site of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Their search-machine is quite good.

http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search.aspx

Lt. Harrold Jeffrey McConnel, age 24, was burried at Larch Wood Cemetery and Captain Horton found his last resting place on Bedford House Cemetery.

According to Henshaw 98.Sqdn. RAF was on a bombing mission that day, I suspect targets were Bruges Docks. German Anti-Aircraft fire must have been strong that day, because a second machine of 98.Sqdn, was too badly shot up and managed to reach the own aerodrome only with great luck. The returning crew got a DFM for act of gallantry on this operation.

Hope this helps...

Immo

Immo_Frese · 24 November 2003, 02:17 PM

Thanks Rick.
BTW, do you know if Mayer ever got an official confirmation by Kogenluft for this claim? I wonder why he is not listed in the "Nachrichtenblatt" ?

Immo

Rick · 24 November 2003, 03:06 PM

Immo,

Yes, I believe he did receive confirmation. The reason he isn't in the NB, is because he is a Marine flyer. The NB pretty much stuck to Army flyers. It is very rare to see a Marine with mention of a confirmed victory. R.

Immo_Frese · 24 November 2003, 03:15 PM

Thanks Rick, think that explanation solves my problems

Immo

bekie2004 · 24 November 2003, 10:16 PM

Hello everyone who has answered my questions.
I'm very satisfied with the answers

I had found Horton's burial place on the CWGC-site, but wasn't sure. McConnell was not found, but I didn't have the right name.
According to my source Horton was an American?

The claim by the German fighter is probably wright, because Aartrijke is the village east of Eernegem (distance between the two churches is about 4 km).

I'm very interested in the on going discussion.

Thanks

Bekie2004