Operation: Cine gun exercise

Date: 13th March 1944 (Monday)

Unit: No. 486 Squadron (New Zealand Air Force) 83 Group

Type: Typhoon Ib

Serial: JR146

Code: SA-M

Base: RAF Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire

Location: South of Downham Market, Norfolk

Pilot: W/O. Harry Keith Williams NZ/414721 RNZAF Age 23. Killed

REASON FOR LOSS:

Taking off from RAF Castle Camps in Cambridgeshire with one other at 13:50 hrs. After just 30 minutes W/O. Williams called that he was going to make a precautionary landing at RAF Downham Market as he was experiencing engine problems.

On his first approach at Downham Market he noticed workman on the runway so carried out an overshoot. However, the engine then failed as he circuited of a second approach. The aircraft crashed through trees as it force landed in fields some 3 miles south of the airfield. The pilot suffered severe burns and was admitted to the RAF hospital at Ely. Sadly he died from his injuries the following morning.

Burial details:

W/O. Harry Keith Williams. Cambridge City Cemetery. Grave 13536. Son of Henry Daniel Williams and of Muriel Williams (née Lowrey) of Morrinsville, Auckland, New Zealand. Trained at at No. 6 Service Flying Training School, Dunnville, Ontario, Canada. 545 flying hours logged - 20 hours on the Typhoon. His father, Henry Williams served as an observer and later as a pilot during the first World War in the RFC.

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 Cenotaph, Weekly News of New Zealand, other sources as quoted below:

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