Sergeant Donald WILLSDON (1420600)
550 Squadron Royal Air Force

Date of birth: 29th May 1923
Date of death: 15th February 1944

Killed in action aged 20
Buried at Berlin 1939-1944 War Cemetery Plot 6 Row L Grave 15
He was born at Lepton on the 29th of May 1923, the younger son of Frank Percival Willsdon, director of a public works contractors company, and Amy Annie (nee Beaumont) of Heathway, The Green Avenue, Northcawl, Glamorgan.

He was educated at Bryntirion, Bridgend, and at the King's School Canterbury from April 1937 to July 1941, where he was in The Grange. He was appointed as a house monitor in January 1941, and was awarded his colours for the 1st Rugby XV, the 1st Football XI and 1st String Athletics in 1941.

On leaving school he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and became a Sergeant Air Gunner.

On the night of the 16th/16th of February 1944 Bomber Command despatched 891 aircraft for an operation on Berlin, in what would be the largest raid carried out against the city during the entire war. The force was made up of 561 Lancasters, 314 Halifaxes and 16 Mosquitos. The German controllers were able to plot the bomber stream soon after it left the English coast but it changed course to swing north over Denmark for its run in and many of the fighters were unable to make contact. Berlin was covered with cloud, in spite of which, much damage was achieved including to the industrial area of Siemensstadt with some 2,642 tons of bombs being dropped, a record for Bomber Command.

Donald Willsdon and his crew took off from RAF North Killingholme at 5.29pm on the 15th of February 1944 in Lancaster Mk III JA934 BQ-H for the operation. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after takeoff and it is thought that it was shot down by a night fighter after crossing the Baltic coast. The aircraft crashed at Tribohm, near Rostock, some eight miles to the southeast of Ribnitz-Damgarten with the loss of the entire crew.

The crew was: -

Sergeant Robert Edward Woodger (Pilot)
Sergeant David Lynn Jones (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant John David McIntosh RCAF (Navigator)
Flight Sergeant Andrew Hunter Stockton RCAF (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Richard Walter John Wivell (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Sergeant Victor Hugo Mate (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Donald Willsdon (Rear Gunner)

Theirs was one of 26 Lancasters and 17 Halifaxes which failed to return that night.

The local Burgomeister was ordered by the military authorities to bury the five members of the crew whose bodies were recovered the following morning at the cemetery at Tribohm, including that of Donald Willsdon. The bodies were exhumed and moved to their present location in 1949.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records his death as having occurred on the 16th of February 1944 but post war records show it as the 15th of February. This seems more likely as the aircraft crashed along the route the bomber stream took on their way to the target.
The Grange

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