John Vere Hopgood
Flight Lieutenant · 61281 · United Kingdom
- Died
- 17 May 1943, aged 21
- Fate
- Killed in action
Biography
Flight Lieutenant John Vere Hopgood, DFC & Bar, was one of the most experienced pilots on the Dams Raid and Guy Gibson’s deputy for the attack on the Möhne dam. Born on 29 August 1921 at Hurst in Berkshire and educated at Marlborough College, he had a place waiting at Cambridge when the war intervened. He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1940 and flew operationally with Nos. 50 and 106 Squadrons — the latter under Gibson — winning the Distinguished Flying Cross and a Bar before being chosen for the new [[No. 617 Squadron]].
On the night of 16/17 May 1943, during [[Operation Chastise]], Hopgood captained Lancaster ED925, coded AJ-M, in the first wave against the Möhne. His aircraft was hit by flak on the run-in and again over the dam; with a wing on fire he held the aircraft steady and gained what height he could so that his crew might bail out before it exploded. Three of the men survived as prisoners of war; Hopgood and the rest were killed. He was 21. He is buried in Rheinberg War Cemetery in Germany.
Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Commonwealth War Graves Commission — Hopgood, John Vere and Wikipedia: John Vere Hopgood. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.
Burial / commemoration
- Cemetery
- Rheinberg War Cemetery, Germany
Operations on this date. 2 raids in this archive were flown on the night of 17 May 1943: Operation Chastise · Operation Chastise - The 'dambusters' Raid. (Cross-reference by date — not in itself confirmation this airman flew it.)
Timeline
-
8 January 1943
Gazetted: DFC
Distinguished Flying Cross -
16 May 1943
Flew Operation Chastise
Pilot, ED925 AJ-M — Failed to return -
17 May 1943
Died
aged 21
Crew & operations
Flew as Pilot with No. 617 Squadron (Dambusters).
- Operation Chastise (16 May 1943) — aircraft ED925 AJ-M (Avro Lancaster) — Failed to return
Crew: J W Fraser (Bomb aimer) · Charles Brennan (Flight engineer) · George Henry Ford Goodwin Gregory (Front gunner) · Kenneth Earnshaw (Navigator) · A F Burcher (Rear gunner) · John William Minchin (Wireless operator)
Awards
-
Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) — gazetted 8 January 1943
Source: CWGC casualty record: HOPGOOD, JOHN VERE → · Commonwealth War Graves Commission