Operation: Dive bombing
Date: 29th December 1944 (Friday)
Unit: No. 127 Squadron
Type: Spitfire XVI
Serial: RR255
Code: 9N-Y
Base: B.79 Woensdrecht, Holland
Location: Dorst, Netherlands
Pilot: Fl/Sgt. Peter Ralph Attwooll 1396551 RAFVR Age 22. Killed
REASON FOR LOSS:
During the afternoon on Friday 29th December 1944 the squadron were involved in dive bombing attacks on barges.
Spitfire RR255 took off at 12.10 hrs to attack a quay near Gorinchem was hit in the radiator by flak and although Fl/Sgt. Attwooll managed to force land his aircraft in a field 3 miles East of Breda shortly after at 12.50 hrs.
The Spitfire caught fire, Fl/Sgt. Attwooll succumbed as a result of burns.
A fine memorial has been erected in his memory - December 2009, by our Dutch friends.
Fl/Sgt. Pete Attwooll (courtesy Andy Ingham)
Grave (shown below) and the memorial recently erected (courtesy Andy Ingham)
FL/Sgt. Peter Ralph Attwooll. Bergen-Op-Zoom War Cemetery 13.A.2. Son of Ralph Harold and Alice Attwooll. Born at Prittlewell. Southend-on-Sea on the 6th May 1922 .
The grave inscription reads: "Remembrance is a golden chain that binds us till we meet again."
Acknowledgments: With thanks to the following: Andy Ingham from the 127 Squadron website who supplied the pictures and further information. The Commonwealth Graves Commission.
