Atkinson, Theodore Blanchard
Killed in Action 1945-04-16
Birth Date: 1920
Born:
Son of Manasseh Glenwright Atkinson and Violet Anne Atkinson, of Clarke's Harbour, Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Home: Clarke's Harbour, Nova Scotia
Enlistment:
Enlistment Date: Unknown
Service
RCAF
Unit
53 Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
United in Effort
Base
RAF Rekjavic, Iceland
Rank
Flight Lieutenant
Position
Flight Lieutenant
Service Numbers
J/23757
Prev: R/137833
First Burial
Runnymede Memorial Surrey, England.
53 Squadron. Liberator EW 303 aircraft ditched in Helmsdale Bay, one mile off the coast of Scotland.
Crew:Flying Officer Henry Lewis RAF pilotFlying Officer David James McLean Robertson, RAF navigatorF/Lt Theodore "Blanchard" Atkinson RCAF WOp-AG.. Born 1920-01-30 in Clark's Harbour, Shelburne County, Cape Sable Island Nova Scotia.Flying Officer Herbert Brown RAF WOp-AGFlight Sergeant Gilbert Llewellyn George RAF WOp-AGWO William Parry RAF WOp-AG.
Detail provided by D.A. Stallard, Trenton, Nova Scotia.
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
www.findagrave.comLiberator EW303
Consolidated Liberator B-24 / F-7
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