Operation: Beach patrol

Date: 29th May 1940 (Wednesday)

Unit: No. 229 Squadron 12 Group (motto: 'Be Bold')

Type: Hurricane I

Serial: P3489

Code: RE-?

Base: RAF Digby, Lincolnshire

Location: North Sea

Pilot: Fl/Lt. Falcon Nelson Clouston 40990 RAF Age 27. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

France had collapsed, thousands of allied servicemen of the British Expeditionary Force had to be evacuated. Against all odds over 40,000 were taken off the beaches on this day alone. The Germans continued their attacks, both from land forces and the Luftwaffe.

Fl/Lt. Clouston led his section on a patrol over the beaches and encountered enemy fighters, P3489 was last seen joining in an attack on two of the enemy which were bombing the rescue ships.

He was, it is thought, shot down by one of these and crashed into the sea. His body washed up on the island of Borkum, near the Dutch border and initially buried there. Reinterred after the end of the war.

Burial details:

Fl/Lt. Falcon Nelson Clouston. Sage War Cemetery. Grave 5.F.14. Born on the 27th January 1913 at Motueka, the son of Robert Edmund and Ruby Alexandra Clouston (née Scott), of Upper Moutere, Nelson, New Zealand. Prior to service worked as a car salesman for Anderson and Hansen Ltd, Napier. A total of 488 flying hours logged and having completed over 48 operational sorties.

His brother, Arthur Edmund Clouston (shown left) also served in the Air Force. Clouston made his mark in civil aviation in the years before the war in races and record-breaking long-distance flights. He was awarded the AFC (gazetted 1st January 1938) for his work at the RAE, testing the effects of barrage balloon cables on aircraft. Recalled to the RAF at the outbreak of war, Clouston was appointed to the Experimental Section at Farnborough to carry on with his testing work. Retiring in 1960 as an Air Commodore with the CB, DSO, DFC, AFC snd Bar. He passed away in Cornwall, England on the 01st January 1984.

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:

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