Flight
Sergeant William Albert Wright
Royal
Canadian Air Force
Son
of Harold Hutchinson Wright and Eva Luella Wright, of Pembroke,
Ontario, Canada; husband of Margaret Mary Wright, of Pembroke. Age 22,
died on 24 Dec 1944, after being attacked by allied aircraft upon
returning to his base in Holland. F/S Wright had only been with the
Squadron since 02 Dec 1944 and this was his fourth mission. He had
recently become the father of a brand new baby girl.
The
following entry is from 439's War Operations Record Book (Form 540): Fate
was against us on this day before Christmas. On the second operation
R74061 f/Sgt Wright W.A. was shot down by a Thunderbolt and is
presumed killed. This was quite a blow to us as this N.C.O's wife
recently gave birth to a baby daughter and we had barely finished
congratulating him. He has 4 sorties to his credit totaling 4:10
operational hours, giving him a grand total of 438:25 flying hours.
The
following entry is from 439's War Operations Record Book (Form 541): On
returning home, the flight was attacked by two Thunderbolts and broke
into them. The Thunderbolts turned with them after damaging Red Three
(F/L Sage)
in a head long shot, making his aircraft a Cat A. They then shot at
Red Four (R/74061 F/S Wright) who went over on his back and straight
down in flames at map reference F.1545. He was seen to bail out but
his parachute didn't open (presumed killed).
Following
entry is from The
Canadian Virtual War Memorial website courtesy
of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
R/74061
F/S W.A. Wright is buried at RHEINBERG
WAR CEMETERY, Germany.
Grave
Reference: 5. A. 8
Webmaster's
note: The F/L Sage mentioned above was also killed on this same day on
a later mission.
Back
to Index
Copyright
©1998-2016 Michael T. Melnick. All rights reserved
the
unofficial homepage of 
Tiger
Squadron
Book
of Remembrance - Volume I