206 Squadron (Nihil Nos Effugit). Liberator aircraft KH 410 missing during a night anti-sub patrol off the Danish Coast. WO T.K. Theaker and eight of the crew, not Canadians, were also killed. After the War a local newspaper reported the following: On the 20th of April 1945 a British Liberator manned by members of the Flying Confederation with a crew of eleven men who, in the last years of the war flew many missions, crashed in Raid Forest near Norlund Sawmill, all those on board were killed. The German occupation forces buried the crew in a mass grave and it was not until the 22nd of June 1947 that the men were given a proper burial attended by a large congregation in the Arestrup Churchyard. The Airmens Stone is a memorial consisting of a large stone, with one of the propellers from the Liberator attached, erected at the crash site in August, 1945 by forestry workers from Norlund. The inscription reads: HER-FELDT EN-ALLIERET-FLYVER-NED D.20 APROL - 1945. IKAMPFOR-DANMARKS-FRIHED. The eight crew members killed were: P/O G.H. Topliff (RAAF), F/O A.R.T. Smith (RNZAF), and six RAF airmen, WOs K. Emery, G.C.K. Long, P/O W.T.H. Gale, F/O A.J. Harding, F/L P.S.L. Laycock, and FS F.R. Orritt.

Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Find-A-Grave.com

Library and Archives Canada Service Files (may not exist)

Crew on Liberator B 24 KH410

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.

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

Liberator bomber

Wikipedia Liberator bomber

Harold A Skaarup Web Page

CASPIR Aircraft Groups:

RCAF On Strength (148), RCAF 400 Squadron (19), Canadian Aircraft Losses (145), Canadian Ferried (1)

last update: 2021-09-18 19:06:22

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Liberator B 24 KH410

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206 Sqn- Squadron (RAF) Nihil Nos Effugit