Simon Glancey has submitted the following:
F/O Wardle was killed when Avro Lancaster I ME864 DX-E of 57 Sqn was lost on a mission to Stuttgart. Of the seven crew, two were killed, three were made P.o.W, one was injured and confined to hospital, and one was killed whilst in the custody of the local police.
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1944; W.R. Chorley; 1997; Midland Counties Publications; ISBN 0 904597 91 1, page 359
Tony Hibberd has offered the following:
Lancaster ME864 DX-E had departed East Kirkby at 2144 for Ops Stuttgart
It was intercepted at 4900M, nr Eutingen, NE of Pforzheim by a Night-Fighter captained by Nacht Jagd “Experten” Oblt Hans-Heinz Augenstein (XII/NJG1) and shot down at 0152 for his 37th Abschuss
Nacht Jagd War Diaries Vol 2 Dr Theo Boiten
F/O Wardle’s D.F.C. was gazetted in the London Gazette of June 1st 1945, w.e.f. July 28th 1944. It was reported in the Newcastle Journal and North Mail, Tuesday 05/06/1945, page 2:
North Country Notes
He played cricket
The award of the D.F.C. to Flying Officer Anthony V. H. Wardle, recalls his outstanding association with Northern sport. He was reported missing after a raid in Germany last year, and has since been presumed killed. He was the only son of Colonel V. H. Wardle, M.C., now a prisoner of war in Japanese hands, and Mrs. Wardle, of Thornfield, Etherley Lane, Bishop Auckland.
He was captain of the cricket Xi and the rugby XV, at Sedbergh (Yorks.) School, and also played for Bishop Auckland C.C. and Durham County C.C. One of his best feats for Bishop Auckland was 5 for 22 against Middlesbrough in the N.Y. and S. D. League when only 16 years of age. All were clean bowled. He hunted with the South Durham and Zetland Hounds, and won many successes at riding and jumping. At the Northumberland County Show in 1934 he carried off the pony show jumping event.
Anthony Valentine Hutchinson Wardle is remembered in Bishop Auckland on B140.06 and B140.12
