Flying Officer Edmond Frank MYERS (128612) | |
A Flight, 148 (Special Duties) Squadron Royal Air Force Date of birth: 19th February 1913 Date of death: 20th October 1943 Killed in action aged 30 Commemorated on the Alamein Memorial Column 268 |
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Edmond Frank Myers was born at Brentford in Middlesex on the 19th of February 1913 the twin son of Victor Myers, an East India merchant of the Port of London, and Beatrice Minnie (nee Glen) Myers later of 14 West Lodge Avenue, Acton. He was christened at St Peter’s Church, Ealing on the 20th of April 1913. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Seconds House from January 1927 to December 1930. He gained his School Certificate in 1928 and his Higher Certificate in 1930 with a Distinction in German. He was a Corporal in the Officer Training Corps. On leaving school he went to work in his father’s business. He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve rising to the rank of Leading Aircraftman before being commissioned as a Pilot Officer on the 29th of August 1942, being promoted to Flying Officer on the 28th of February 1943. He was posted to 148 Squadron flying a variety of aircraft and was based at Tocra in Italy for special operations dropping supplies to resistance groups in the Balkans. On the 19th of October 1943, Edmond Myers and the crew of Halifax MkII HR674 were briefed for Operation "SAPLING 7", a supply drop over the Biza Plain in the Chermenika Mountains of Southern Albania. They took off at 11.25pm for the operation but the aircraft did not return and a subsequent report from the reception party stated that the aircraft had appeared to catch fire in the air and then to strike a hillside at position 40 degrees 16 north/ 19 degrees 34 East near Dukati about 16 miles south-south east of Vlore. The crew was:- Flight Sergeant James Clement Cole Flying Officer Peter Raymond Flyte Flight Lieutenant William Ross Forester (Pilot) Flying Officer Edmond Frank Myers Flying Officer Francis Jack Hunter RNZAF (Air Bomber) Sergeant Peter Twiddy Flight Sergeant Harold Williams (Air Gunner) Captain Alfred Careless Royal Armoured Corps attached to the Special Operations Executive Signalman David William Rockingham Royal Corps of Signals attached to Force 133 Special Operations Executive The pilot, William Forester, had previously briefed his commanding officer about the dangers of operating over this drop zone. He had provided the CO with a sketch map of the area with the caution; ‘Climb quickly, left handed or else’. |
Seconds House |
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