HughAHalliday
6th June 2022, 21:39
The thread entitled "Flight Lieutenant Alexander Donovan, HOLMES should read
"Flight Lieutenant Alexander Donovan MCCONNELL, (NZ 39061) No. 550 Squadron Distinguished Flying Cross awarded as per London Gazette dated 25 January 1946 with effect from 16 June 1944. No published citation. Information from Spink catalogue of 7 May 2002, transcribed by Huguette Mondor Oates.. Recommendation states:
Flight Lieutenant McConnell, as Air Bomber, has completed numerous operations against the enemy, in the course of which he has invariably displayed the utmost fortitude, courage and devotion to duty.
Flight Lieutenant Alexander Donovan McConnell, DFC. from Dunedin, Otago, arrived in the U.K. from New Zealand in June 1941 and completed his training as a Navigator at No. 12 O.T.U. at R.A.F. Benson, Oxfordshire. Posted to No. 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds in Lincolnshire in October 1941, he went on to complete a tour of operations in Wellingtons, his German targets including Bremen, Cologne, Essen, Kiel, Mannheim and Rostock. In addition, he flew a number of sorties to France and Belgium, including Poissy, Paris, St. Nazaire and Ostend and one minelaying operation to a location near the Freisan Islands.
McConnell joined No. 550 (New Zealand) Squadron at North Killingholme, Lincolnshire in November 1943. Having completed several sorties to such heavily defended German targets as Berlin, Leipzig and Nuremberg, and assisted in softening up a number of French targets in the run-up to D-Day Auloye, Maintenon, Milly, Orleans and Wimmereux among them he was posted missing after a raid on Sterkrade on the night of 16-17.6.1944. He is interred in the Rusthof Cemetery at Amersfoort in Holland. McConnell was 25 years old and left a widow in Headington, Oxfordshire.
"Flight Lieutenant Alexander Donovan MCCONNELL, (NZ 39061) No. 550 Squadron Distinguished Flying Cross awarded as per London Gazette dated 25 January 1946 with effect from 16 June 1944. No published citation. Information from Spink catalogue of 7 May 2002, transcribed by Huguette Mondor Oates.. Recommendation states:
Flight Lieutenant McConnell, as Air Bomber, has completed numerous operations against the enemy, in the course of which he has invariably displayed the utmost fortitude, courage and devotion to duty.
Flight Lieutenant Alexander Donovan McConnell, DFC. from Dunedin, Otago, arrived in the U.K. from New Zealand in June 1941 and completed his training as a Navigator at No. 12 O.T.U. at R.A.F. Benson, Oxfordshire. Posted to No. 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds in Lincolnshire in October 1941, he went on to complete a tour of operations in Wellingtons, his German targets including Bremen, Cologne, Essen, Kiel, Mannheim and Rostock. In addition, he flew a number of sorties to France and Belgium, including Poissy, Paris, St. Nazaire and Ostend and one minelaying operation to a location near the Freisan Islands.
McConnell joined No. 550 (New Zealand) Squadron at North Killingholme, Lincolnshire in November 1943. Having completed several sorties to such heavily defended German targets as Berlin, Leipzig and Nuremberg, and assisted in softening up a number of French targets in the run-up to D-Day Auloye, Maintenon, Milly, Orleans and Wimmereux among them he was posted missing after a raid on Sterkrade on the night of 16-17.6.1944. He is interred in the Rusthof Cemetery at Amersfoort in Holland. McConnell was 25 years old and left a widow in Headington, Oxfordshire.