Operation: Training
Date: 07th December 1941 (Sunday)
Unit: No. 2 Service Flying Training School (23 Group)
Type: Oxford I
Serial: P1930
Code: Not known
Base: RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire
Location: Broughton Heath, Gloucestershire
Pilot: P/O. Leslie Kitchener Duncan NZ/411387 RNZAF Age 25. Killed
REASON FOR LOSS:
With the great research carried out by Errol Martyn on the Royal New Zealand Airforce losses we have been able to compile this page. If you have further information and or photographs we would welcome contact from you.
P/O. Leslie Duncan on a solo cross country exercise when at 10:30 hrs flew into a snow shower losing control the aircraft dived into the ground at location shown on map.
The accident card stated that the trainee pilots from new Zealand should be informed on the adverse conditions they could face whilst training in England.
The family were also to lose another son, 25 year old, F/O. Stanley Logan Duncan NZ/415297 RNZAF. Killed on the 30th August 1943 escorting B-24 Liberators on a raid to Kahili airfield, Bougainville Island in Papa New Guinea. His P-40 Warhawk NZ3084/42 was hit by a fragmentation bomb dropped by one of the B-24's. The aircraft span down and crashed near to the target - no parachute was seen and sadly no trace of the pilot was found after the war.
Burial details:
P/O. Leslie Kitchener Duncan. Moreton-In-Marsh New Cemetery. Sec. K. Grave 14. Son of William Duncan and of Amy Eliza Duncan (née Annett), of Avondale, Auckland, New Zealand. A total of 151 flying hours logged.
Other:
F/O. Stanley Logan Duncan. Bourail Memorial. Panel 4. Next of kin details as above.
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 War Memorial Museum, Weekly News of New Zealand, other sources as quoted below:
