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Archive Report: Allied Forces

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.
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RAF Transort Command Crest
108 OTU Dakota DC3 Mk IV KJ931 Fl/Sgt. Walter Pinfold

Operation: Training

Date: 19th January 1945 (Friday)

Unit: No. 108 OTU (Operational Training Unit)

Type: Douglas DC3 Dakota IV

Serial: KJ931

Base: RAF Wymswold, Leicestershire

Location: Not known - North Sea.

Pilot: Fl/Sgt. Walter William Pinfold 950971 RAFVR Age ? Missing

Nav: Sgt. William Dean 1590636 RAFVR Age ? Missing

W/Op: Sgt. James Lindsay Cameron 984337 RAFVR Age 26. Missing


We would appreciate any photos or contact from any of the above crew - relatives of Fl/Sgt. Pinfold have very little information and would like to know more.


REASON FOR LOSS:

Took off on a night training exercise. It is thought that the aircraft suffered severe icing and crashed into the North Sea. Neither aircraft or crew were recovered. The pilot was inexperienced on this type of aircraft.

108 OTU at this time, had been a Transport Command Training unit.

Note: The Dakota IV was a short range general purpose transport aircraft. Powered by 2 Pratt and Whitney radial engines. Having a wing span of 95ft and length of 64ft. Maximum speed of 229 mph with a range of 1,500 miles. The DC3 was the RAF equivalent of the USAAF C-47B.

Burial details:

None - all crew were classed as missing.

Fl/Sgt. Walter William Pinfold. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 272. NoK details currently not available - are you able to assist completion of these and any other information?

Sgt. William Dean. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 274. NoK details currently not available - are you able to assist completion of these and any other information?

Sgt. James Lindsay Cameron. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 274. Son of Donald Cameron, and of Barbara Lindsay Cameron, of Fort William, Inverness-shire, Scotland.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to Robert Thorpe - great nephew of the pilot. Colin Cummings - ‘Though Without Anger’. Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

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Acknowledgements
Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and MWO François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Stan D. Bishop, John A. Hey MBE, Gerrie Franken and Maco Cillessen - Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vols 1-6, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiton - Nachtjagd Combat Archives, Vols 1-13. Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
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