Operation: Noball

Date: 04th January 1944 (Tuesday)

Unit: No. 487 Squadron RNZAF 2 Group. Second Tactical Air Force. (motto: Ki te mutunga - 'Through to the end')

Type: Mosquito FB.VI

Serial: LR331

Code: EG-W

Base: RAF Hudson, Hertfordshire

Location: English Channel

Pilot: Fl/Sgt. Hugh Baird NZ/415181 RNZAF Age 21. Missing - believed killed

Nav: F/O. John Frederick Parker J/21710 RCAF Age 21. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

With four other from the Squadron took off at 09:20 hrs to attack V1 site in Northern France. The crew were last seen over the target area flying normally. It is assumed that they are down in the English Channel. The body of the pilot was not recovered but that of the Canadian navigator was washed ashore on the 07th January at Plage St. Cécile - north of Le Touquet, France.

The two crew members trained in Manitoba, Canada and also at 34 Operational Training Unit Pennfield Ridge, New Brunswick where they first crewed up in August 1942.

Above: RAF Hudson, Hertfordshire memorial

Burial details:

Fl/Sgt. Hugh Baird. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 263. Born on the 19th of May 1922, at Greyabbey, County Down, Northern Ireland, the son of Hugh and Eliza Jane Baird (née Taylor), of Matangi, Auckland, New Zealand. Prior to enlisting worked on his fathers farm. A total of 667 flying hours logged - 4 operations flying the Ventura aircraft before converting.

F/O. John Frederick Parker. Boulogne Eastern Cemetery Plot 11. Row B. Grave 20. Born on the 11th of November 1914 in Toronto. Educated at Danforth Technical School. Worked for A.J. Flynn Bedding Company Limited. Enlisted on the 18th of January 1940. Commissioned on the 21st of August 1942. Son of Fred and Maggie Parker, of Lumsden Avenue, East York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The grave inscription reads: "In Life Loved And Honored In Death Remembered".

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:

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them. - Laurence Binyon
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