Operation: Reconnaissance

Date: 13th February 1943 (Saturday)

Unit: 681 Squadron Photo-Reconnaissance South East Asia (1)

Type: B-25 Mitchell

Serial: N5143

Code: -

Base: RAF Agartala, Tripura, British India

Location: Bay of Bengal, India

Pilot: F/O. Redmond Lewis Barnett 111237 RAFVR Agee 26. Missing - belied killed

Nav: F/O. Michael John Horsey 61497 RAFVR Age 20. Missing - belied killed

W/Op/Air/Gnt: W/O. Henry Alec Brindle 580360 RAFVR Age 28. Missing - belied killed

Air/Gnr (m/u): LAC. Benjamin Weighell 1253670 RAFVR Age 34. Missing - belied killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Failed to return during conducting photo reconnaissance of Rangoon Docks, Mingaldon,

No additional details on loss - see (1)

Burial details:

F/O. Redmond Lewis Barnett (shown left). Singapore Memorial. Column 423. Born on the 08th May 1916Son in Laguna Beac, California. of Redmond Lewis Barnett (died 1933, age 49 ) and Caroline Yoch Barnett, (née Yoch - died 1961, age 73) of Port Hueneme, California, U.S.A. Epitaph: 'For Evermore: Stories Of The Fallen'

F/O. Michael John Horsey. Singapore Memorial. Column 424. Son of Capt. Herbert John Horsey, B.O.A.C., (killed on the 06th January 1941, age 41) and of Lois Horsey, of Newton Ferrers. Devon.. Also remembered on family grave in Holy Trinity Churchyard. Hatfield Heath, Essex, England.

W/O. Henry Alec Brindle. Singapore Memorial. Column 424. Son of Alec and Margaret Brindle, of Benoni, Transvaal, South Africa.. His name is recorded in a book located at Freemasons Hall in Kolkata (Calcutta) bearing the following inscription: 'This book is dedicated to the Sacred Memory of Members from various Masonic Bodies of the District of Bengal who laid down their Lives in the cause of Freedom in the Great World War of 1939 - 1945'.

LAC. Benjamin Weighell/ Singapore Memorial. Column 427 Son of Arthur (died 1942, age 60) and Emma Weighell (died 1949, age 62;) of 83, Abode Street: Throstle Lane, Abode Place: Leed. Husband of Lilian Weighell, of Leeds, Yorkshire, England

(1) 681 Squadron - It was formed out of No. 3 PRU, at Dum Dum in India on 2 January 1943, as part of RAF Far East Air Force. Initially it was mostly equipped with Hurricane PR.Mk.II and Spitfire PR.Mk.IV fighters, but there was also a Dutch element in 'C' flight that operated North American Mitchells, which belonged to the former Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force

(2) Singapore Memorial - After the fall of the island, the Japanese established a prisoner of war camp at Kranji and eventually a hospital was organised nearby at Woodlands.

After the reoccupation of Singapore, Kranji War Cemetery was developed from a small cemetery started by the prisoners at Kranji, by the Army Graves Service.

Within Kranji War Cemetery stands the Singapore Memorial, bearing the names of over 24,000 casualties of the Commonwealth land and air forces who have no known grave. Many of these have no known date of death and are accorded within our records the date or period from when they were known to be missing or captured. The land forces commemorated by the memorial died during the campaigns in Malaya and Indonesia or in subsequent captivity, many of them during the construction of the Burma-Thailand railway, or at sea while being transported into imprisonment elsewhere. The memorial also commemorates airmen who died during operations over the whole of southern and eastern Asia and the surrounding seas and oceans.

In addition to the Singapore Memorial, the cemetery also contains the following memorials:-

The Singapore (Unmaintainable Graves) Memorial, which stands at the western end of the Singapore Memorial, commemorates more than 250 casualties who died in campaigns in Singapore and Malaya, whose known graves in civil cemeteries could not be assured maintenance and on religious grounds could not be moved to a war cemetery.

The Singapore Cremation Memorial, which stands immediately behind the Singapore Memorial, commemorates almost 800 casualties, mostly of the Indian forces, whose remains were cremated in accordance with their religious beliefs.

The Singapore Civil Hospital Grave Memorial stands at the eastern end of the Singapore Memorial. During the last hours of the Battle of Singapore, wounded civilians and servicemen taken prisoner by the Japanese were brought to the hospital in their hundreds. The number of fatalities was such that burial in the normal manner was impossible. Before the war, an emergency water tank had been dug in the grounds of the hospital and this was used as a grave for more than 400 civilians and Commonwealth servicemen. After the war, it was decided that as individual identification of the dead would be impossible, the grave should be left undisturbed. The grave was suitably enclosed, consecrated by the Bishop of Singapore, and a cross in memory of all of those buried there was erected over it by the military authorities. 108 Commonwealth military casualties buried in the grave are commemorated on the Singapore Civil Hospital Grave Memorial.

Kranji War Cemetery and the Singapore Memorial were designed by Colin St Clair Oakes. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Robert Black, Governor of Singapore, on the 2nd March 1957.

Adjoining Kranji War Cemetery is Kranji Military Cemetery, a substantial non-world war site of 1,422 burials, created in 1975 when it was found necessary to remove the graves of servicemen and their families from Pasir Panjang and Ulu Pandan cemeteries. (Information courtesy CWWG)

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this crew with thanks to National Archives Kew. AIR-27-220-2.

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