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Operation: Delivery flight
Date: 12th January 1943 (Tuesday)
Unit: No. 2 Aircraft Delivery Unit. 216 Group
Type: Spitfire Vb
Serial: ER544
Code: -
Base: LG 209 Deversoir, Egypt
Location: Lost without trace
Pilot: Sgt. Murray Waldron Bentley NZ/413806 RFNZAF Age 20. Missing - believed killed
REASON FOR LOSS:
Very little is known but took off at 09:45 hrs on a delivery flight to Ajdabiya - he failed to arrive.
Placed this page to him as very little is recorded on this type of accident. Of course we welcome any new information.
Burial details:
Sgt. Murray Waldron Bentley. Alamein Memorial. Column 278. Born on the 11th March 1922 at Ovalau, the son of Henry Arthur Bord Bentley and Jessie Eleanor Bentley (née Waldron), of Auckland City, New Zealand. Prior to enlisting on the 06th July 1941 worked as an advertising clerk for the Auckland Star. A total of 301 flying hours were logged.
His brother, P/O. Robert Henry Waldron NZ/414580 RNZAF (shown left) was also missing believed killed just a few months later on the 06th May 1943. 75 Squadron Stirling I EF340 AA-Q P/O. Bentley flying as the navigator, the Australian pilot 20-year-old, P/O. Reginald Francis Westwood AUS/416471 RAAF also lost along with all the crew (3 New Zealanders, 1 from Northern Ireland, 2 from England) after being shot down in the Waddenzee in Holland on a 'Gardening' operation.
Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this pilot with thanks to Jenifer Lemaire and to the extensive research by Errol Martyn and his publications: “For Your Tomorrow Vols. 1-3”, Auckland Library Heritage Collection, Weekly News of New Zealand, other sources as quoted below:
KTY - 02.01.2020
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember
them. - Laurence
Binyon
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Last Modified: 24 April 2022, 15:22