Bonany, Albert Louis

Killed in Action 1944-12-04

Birth Date: 1910-August-05

Born:

Home: North Bay, Ontario

Enlistment:

Enlistment Date: Unknown

Service

RCAF

Unit

354 (B) Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
-

Base

RAF Minneriya, India

Rank

Pilot Officer

Position

Pilot Officer

Service Numbers

J/93685
Prev: R/151687

354 Squadron (RAF) Liberator GR VI aircraft NG 822 "P" flying out of Kankesanturai, Ceylon ran out of fuel and crashed into the Bay of Bengal on a night anti-submarine sortie. Pilot Officer AL Bonany (RCAF), Pilot Officer C Abildgaard (RCAF), Pilot Officer RN Etherington (RCAF), Flying Officer M Jorgenson (RCAF), Pilot Officer JC Slawson (RCAF) and Pilot Officer GM Thickett (RCAF), FS WD Smail (RAF) and Sergeant RH Chester (RAF) missing, presumed killed (R. Quirk). This aircrew have no known graves but are commemorated on the Singapore War Memorial.

Consolidated Liberator B-24 / F-7

(DND Photos via James Craik) (Source Harold A Skaarup Web Page)
Consolidated Liberator G.R. Mk. VIII, RCAF (Serial No. 11130) ex-USAAF Consolidated (Vultee) B-24L Liberator USAAF (44-50154)
ex-RAF (Serial No. 5009), ex-Indian Air Force (Serial No. HE773).
Currently preserved in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum Ottawa Ontario.
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The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber flown by the RCAF during the Second Word War. It was designed with a shoulder-mounted, high aspect ratio Davis wing which gave the Liberator a high cruise speed, long range and the ability to carry a heavy bomb load. Early RAF Liberators were the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean as a matter of routine. In comparison with its contemporaries the B-24 was relatively difficult to fly and had poor low speed performance; it also had a lower ceiling compared with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Of the roughly 18,500 B-24s built in the USA during the war, 148 were flown by the RCAF on long range anti-submarine patrols, with the B-24 serving an instrumental role in closing the Mid-Atlantic gap in the Battle of the Atlantic. The RCAF also flew a few B-24s post war as transports.

Roughly half of all (RAF) Liberator crews in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theatre were Canadian by the end of the war. John Muir of Vancouver flew the longest mission of the war: 24hrs, 10mins from Ceylon to Burma and back. (Kyle Hood) Harold Skaarup web page


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