AR banner
Search Tips Advanced Search
Back to Top

• Kracker Archive
• Allied Losses
• Archiwum Polish
• Paradie Canadian
• RCAF
• RAAF
• RNZAF
• USA
• Searchable Lists

Info LogoAdd to or correct this story with a few clicks.
Archive Report: Allied Forces

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.
Check our Research databases: Database List

.

We seek additional information and photographs. Please contact us via the Helpdesk.

165 Squadron Crest
12.06.1944 165 (Ceylon) Squadron Spitfire IX MK471 SK:N Plt Off. Donald Moffat-Wilson

Operation: Rhubarb

Date: 12th June 1944 (Monday)

Unit: 165 (Ceylon*) Squadron. 19 Group (motto: Infensa virtuti invidia - 'Envy is the foe of virtue')

Type: Spitfire IX

Serial: MK471

Code: SK:N

Base: RAF Preddanack, Cornwall

Location: West of Lambelle, France

Pilot: Plt Off. Donald Moffat-Wilson 173334 RAFVR Age 21. Killed

* The name "Ceylon" was added in recognition of the Island of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, raising the funding to originally equip the squadron.

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off at 11:30 hrs on Rhubarb 278 operation with three others. During this operation in the afternoon whilst attacking a military transport convoy west of Lambelle his aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed in a field west of the town.

He had just returned form compassionate leave following the early death of his father of a heart attack, aged just 55.

Also lost from the squadron during the same operation:

Spitfire IX MK567 SK:Q Flown by 20 year old, Flt Sgt. James Johnston McLean 417080 RNZAF from Auckland, New Zealand. Missing after baling out and seen climbing into his dingy some 70 miles south of Start Point, South Devon, England.

During this day 10 pilots were killed or missing, 2 injured with 6 others safe after either baling out or crash landing. 10 Spitfires and 8 Typhoon aircraft were lost.

Photograph of the pilots of 165 (Ceylon) Squadron - Dated February 1944 and captioned "Splinters’s Chindits". Sgt. McLean standing 3rd row from the front and 3rd from the right, the remainder are unknown (Courtesy James Mclean)

Above: Sherborne School, Dorset - Any further information that you are able to assist them with fallen former pupils from all wars, we would be pleased to pass onto them.

Burial details:

Plt Off. Donald Moffat-Wilson. Bayeux War Cemetery. Grave XVII.F.4. Grave inscription reads: "Beloved Son Of Guy And Edith Moffat-Wilson. In Proud And Loving Memory".

Further information courtesy Sherborne School Archives:

Born 23rd February 1923, son of Guy Burgo Moffat-Wilson and Edith Moffat-Wilson, of Trentham, Stillorgan, Dublin, Irish Republic. Attended Sherborne Preparatory School. Attended Sherborne School (Lyon House) May 1937-July 1941; 6th form; Prefect.

Obituary, 'The Shirburnian', July 1945: 'Donald Moffat-Wilson, Flying Officer, RAF, came to Sherborne from the Prep. where he had shown himself a promising footballer and was also a King's Scout. At one time it looked as though he must get into the XV, but knee trouble intervened and the promise did not materialise. He was in the School boxing team and was a School Prefect and a promising mathematician. On leaving he went to a Scottish University, where one of the authorities later declared him to be the finest character he had met. He came back from his training in America quite unspoiled and started "what he had always wanted to do and dreamed about." In a sweep over France last June he was shot down and nothing has been heard since. His Squadron Leader has told of the respect and affection with which he was regarded.'

Note: His older brother, also a pilot, 28 year old Plt Off. Guy Patrick Hamilton Moffat-Wilson 54738 RAFVR was killed just 6 months later on the 3rd December 1944. We are unable to locate any details as to the reason for his loss, but as he is buried at Wolverhampton Borough Cemetery in England, it is possible that it was due to a training accident.

A tribute to Plt Off. Moffat-Wilson has been posted here.

Researched by Kelvin Youngs (Webmaster) for relatives of the pilot. With thanks to Sherborne School Archives for additional information. Thanks to James Mclean for the image of 156 Squadron (Apr 2020).

RS 29.04.2020 - Addition of Squadron photograph

Pages of Outstanding Interest
History Airborne Forces •  Soviet Night Witches •  Bomber Command Memories •  Abbreviations •  Gardening Codenames
CWGC: Your Relative's Grave Explained •  USA Flygirls •  Axis Awards Descriptions •  'Lack Of Moral Fibre'
Concept of Colonial Discrimination  •  Unauthorised First Long Range Mustang Attack
RAAF Bomb Aimer Evades with Maquis •  SOE Heroine Nancy Wake •  Fane: Motor Racing PRU Legend
Acknowledgements
Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and MWO François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Stan D. Bishop, John A. Hey MBE, Gerrie Franken and Maco Cillessen - Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vols 1-6, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiton - Nachtjagd Combat Archives, Vols 1-13. Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
Click any image to enlarge it

Click to add your info via ticket on Helpdesk •Click to let us know via ticket on Helpdesk• Click to explore the entire site
If you would like to comment on this page, please do so via our Helpdesk. Use the Submit a Ticket option to send your comments. After review, our Editors will publish your comment below with your first name, but not your email address.

A word from the Editor: your contribution is important. We welcome your comments and information. Thanks in advance.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them. - Laurence Binyon
All site material (except as noted elsewhere) is owned or managed by Aircrew Remembered and should not be used without prior permission.
© Aircrew Remembered 2012 - 2024
Last Modified: 26 January 2022, 11:32

Monitor Additions/Changes?Click to be informed of changes to this page. Create account for first monitor only, thereafter very fast. Click to close without creating monitor