Craig, Alfred Burton

Killed in Action 1942-08-13

Birth Date: 1920-July-26

Born: Saint John, New Brunswick

Home: St John, New Brunswick

Enlistment:

Enlistment Date: Unknown

Service

RCAF

Unit

120 (AS) Sqn- Squadron (RAF)

Base

RAF Coastal Command Ballykelly, Northerm Ireland

Rank

Flight Sergeant

Position

Flight Sergeant

Service Numbers

R/50369

Took off from Ballykelly on a daytime anti-submarine patrol of the North Atlantic.

Returning from a patrol where they had attacked and been damaged by sub U 256, a type VII U-boat commanded by Odo Loewe. The aircraft ditched in the sea off the coast of N.I. after all 4 engines stopped after dropping three depth charges at low level, thirty miles south-west of Tory Island, north-west of County Donegal, Ireland

Detail from: (discussion page www.rafcommands.com and D Burke, http://www.ww2irishaviation.com/lv341.htm)

Killed includes Craig:Pilot Officer Victor Dennis James RNZAF KIA Runnymede Memorial Panel 116.Sergeant Seymour Clare RAF KIA Runnymede Memorial Panel 80.Flight Sergeant Kenneth Henry Watson RAF KIA Runnymede Memorial Panel 76.

Survivors:Sergeant H V F Archer RAFSergeant P F George RAFSergeant W C Gordon RAFSergeant F N Hollies RAFwere rescued by the trawler, GLENAGILL from Fleetwood, Ireland.

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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