LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Donald FLETCHER
Service No: 412942
Born: St Leonards NSW, 18 January 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 15 August 1941
Unit: No. 77 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Elvington
Died: Air Operations: (No. 77 Squadron Halifax aircraft LL143), North West Europe, 20 February 1944, Aged 27 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Angus Linwood Fletcher and Ella Emily Fletcher, of Manilla, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Manilla NSW
Remembered: Panel 258, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Manilla and District Soldiers memorial Hall, Manilla NSW
At 2331 hours on the night of 19 February 1944 Halifax LL143 took off from Elvington on an operational sortie to bomb Leipzig, Germany. The aircraft did not return and nothing further was heard of aircraft or crew who were on their 30th operation. Both the aircraft and crew were lost without trace and the crew members have no known graves.
The crew members of LL143 were:
Flight Lieutenant Henry Arthur Laurence Ellis DFC (412932) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Donald Fletcher (412942) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Charles William George Graham (171278) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Peter Hendry Jones Mackie (171615) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant Herbert Frederick Payne (1271687) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant John Northcott Schofield (1604023) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Pilot Officer Robert Denis Sullivan (138898) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/13/193
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line