Operation: Training

Date: 06/07th April 1942 (Easter Monday/Tuesday)

Unit: No. 10 Air Observer School. No. 3 Training Command

Type: Anson I

Serial: 6631

Code: -

Base: RCAF Chatham, New Brunswick

Location:

Pilot: L. Berriman (Civilian pilot Instructor) No further details - are you able to assist?

Obs: LAC. Cyril Robert Hudson McFarlane NZ/413946 RNZAF Age 30. Missing - believed killed

Obs: Cpl. Harold Stuart McKinnon NZ/415340 RNZAF Age 31. Missing - believed killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Aircraft history:

Ex RAF W2421. To No. 3 Training Command on 8 July 1941, for use by No. 10 Air Observer School at Chatham, NB. Category D damage at Chatham on 13 December 1941, when an ambulance collided with this parked aircraft.

Took off at 21:55 hrs on a night navigation exercise piloted by L. Berri man and failed to return. An extensive search was conducted but no trace of its 3 crew was found.

Two months later, on the 18th of June, the body of observer McKinnon was found washed up on the shore of the Northumberland Strait near Shediac, where he is now buried. No trace of his fellow observer was found, however, and he is commemorated on the Ottawa Memorial.

Berriman is believed to have been a civilian pilot flying under contract as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS)

It was later assumed that the Anson had either crashed in the sea or into ice floating in the Strait.

Burial details:

LAC. Cyril Robert Hudson McFarlane. Ottawa Memorial. Panel 2. Column 1. Born on the 22nd of September 1911 in Hamilton. Enlisted at Levin on the 05th July 1941. A total of 47 hours logged. Son of Robert John (died 19th July 1935, age 67) and Jessie McFarlane (née Watts - died 15th June 1961), of Hamilton, Auckland, New Zealand. Husband of Linda Winifred McFarlane (née Padkin), of Wellington City, New Zealand. Brother of Lt. Reginald Owen McFarlane - killed 21st April 1943.

Cpl. Harold Stuart McKinnon. Shediac Cemetery (Greenwood). Born on the 16th of February 1911 in Whangarei. Enlisted at Levin on the 28th of September 1941. Son of James and Annie McKinnon, of Whangarei, Auckland, New Zealand.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of this pilot with thanks 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, Air Museum of New Zealand, Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland, other sources as quoted below:

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