B-17 CC Additional Material by Robert M Stitt

Anson Is and Harvard
Is at No. 6 SFTS, Little
Rissington.
U-boat U-570 after its
surrender to a Hudson of
269 Squadron on August 27,
1941.
radioed directions to British destroyers, speeding up the search for survivors. On August 28, he maintained
watch over U-boat U-570 from Hudson III T9448 ‘X’ following its surrender to a squadron aircraft the
previous day and on September 14, while flying T9427 ‘B’, he attacked U-boat U-552 in concert with a
second squadron aircraft. Pinhorn left 269 Sqn on January 22, 1942, with the rank of Flight Lieutenant.
His next move took place in February 1942 when he was posted to 1 (Coastal) OTU at Silloth as an
instructor. While there he took part in the ‘1,000-bomber raid’ on Bremen on the night of June 25/26,
flying an unidentified Hudson V coded ‘51’. The following month Pinhorn was promoted to Squadron
Leader while, on a less auspicious note, he was pilot-in-command when Hudson V AM595 ‘6’ of 1 OTU
crashed on landing at Ronaldsway, Isle of Man, on August 26.
According to Pinhorn’s logbook, his second operational tour was to have been with 59 Sqn based at
Aldergrove flying Liberator Vs but for reasons unknown this was changed to a posting to 206 Sqn to fly
Fortresses. He arrived at Benbecula on May 25, 1943, and began his conversion training four days later
under the tutelage of Flg Off Robert Cowey, a veteran of two U-boat sinkings. Pinhorn’s first operational
flight took place on June 30 when he flew Fortress IIA FL457 ‘F’ on a Creeping Line Ahead (CLA) patrol
off the southwest coast of Ireland. Three more operational flights followed before preparations began in
earnest for the squadron’s move to the Azores. This took place in late October with Pinhorn flying the
squadron’s dedicated trainer FK190 ‘J’ from St Mawgan to Lagens on the island of Terceira on October
25, 1943. A notation in his logbook by the squadron’s commanding officer, Wg Cdr Ronald B Thomson,
reads: ‘Very experienced in bad weather flying.’
Pinhorn’s operational flights in November included three more CLAs and one Met flight while in
December he undertook one CLA, one convoy escort, two searches for a German blockade runner and
two more anti-shipping patrols. His first operational flight of 1944 took place on January 6 in Fortress
II FA705 ‘U’. The entry in his logbook was completed
by Wg Cdr Thomson with the added notation:
‘Failed to return.’ Sqn Ldr Anthony James
Pinhorn and his crew had been shot down while
attacking U-boat U-270 some 400 miles (645 km)
north-northeast of the Azores. Searches over the
next four days found no trace of the Fortress or its
crew. (See main text for details)
Thomson, who with his crew had earlier survived
being shot down by a U-boat, would later
write to Pinhorn’s family:
I realized what a magnificent officer and hard
worker he was. His loss is deeply felt throughout the
squadron, and I personally feel that his position as
Flight Commander can never be as capably fulfilled.
12