Operation: Training
Date: 01st June 1941 (Sunday)
Unit: No. 41 Squadron - 13 Group
Type: Spitfire IIa
Serial: P8163
Code: EB-?
Base: RAF Catterick, Yorksshire
Location: East of Northallerton, Yorkshire
Pilot: Sgt. Eric Eugene Croker NZ/391826 RNZAF Age 24. Killed
REASON FOR LOSS:
Taking off at 20:40 hrs from RAF Catterick in Yorkshire. Some 40 minutes later in what has been describes as poor visibility crashed into the side of a hill some 5 miles east of of Northallerton (some say that it was near Osmotherley).
He survived and taken for treatment at Catterick Military Hospital with severe head injuries only to die the following morning at 06:00 hrs.
Burial details:
Sgt. Eric Eugene Croker. Catterick Cemetery. C. of E. Sec. Row M. Grave 18. Son of Eric Arthur Croker, and of Ethel Maude Croker, of Point Chevalier, Auckland, New Zealand. 325 flying hours logged and had completed some 41 operational sorties.
Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this pilot with thanks to the research by Errol Martyn and his publications: “For Your Tomorrow Vols. 1-3”, Auckland Cenotaph, Weekly News of New Zealand, Grave photo courtesy Dimitrios Corcodilos, Pilot photo courtesy of our friend Carl Briese of the Battle of Britain Monument. Other sources as quoted below:
