Sgt. Wheelhouse was serving with 402 Squadron. He was a crew member of Halifax III LN692 PT-V which took off from Tholthorpe to bomb rail facilities at Lens. The aircraft was hit and crashed. Five crew members died and two were taken prisoner.
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1944; W.R. Chorley; 1997; Midland Counties Publications; ISBN 0 904597 91 1
Rev. David Youngson has submitted the following:
175807 Pilot Officer Clifford James WHEELHOUSE
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
420 Squadron
(Royal Canadian Air Force)
The son of John Henry and Emily Alice Wheelhouse of 28 Devonshire Street, Stockton-on-Tees he was a pupil at Bowesfield Lane School. A Wireless Operator/Air Gunner he died on the 20th April 1944 aged 21. He is buried in Grandcourt War Cemetery, Seine Maritime, France, Grave Reference E.4. His name appears in the 1939-1945 Book of Remembrance in Stockton Parish Church.
402 Squadron was based at RAF Tholthorpe, North Yorkshire and at the time of his death were flying Handley Page Halifax B.111. The squadron were engaged in attacks over France prior to the D-Day landings.
Clifford James Wheelhouse is remembered in Stockton on S138.19 and S138.52
