Clarke, Robert Mackenzie
Killed in Action 1945-06-12
Birth Date: 1915
Born:
William Edwards Clarke & Catherine McKenzie Clarke, of Vancouver, British Columbia
Home: Atlin, British Columbia
Enlistment:
Enlistment Date: Unknown
Service
RCAF
Unit
356 (B) Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
We Bring Freedom And Assistance
Base
RAF Mauripur. India
Rank
Flying Officer
Position
Flying Officer
Service Numbers
J/44024
First Burial
Akyab Military Cemetery, Burma
Aircraft on a mission to attack target(s) in Burma when it entered cloud over Burma at 1000 feet altitude and collided with a hill.
Killed (9-man crew):1945-06-12: Flying Officer Robert Mackenzie Clarke RCAF KIAFlying Officer Ralph George Henry Fisher RCAFFlight Sergeant George William Hill RCAFFlight Sergeant John Carl Hodichak RCAFFlight Sergeant Peter Nicholas Humeniski RCAFFlying Officer Floyd Reginald Ross RCAFFlight Sergeant Stephen John Veres RCAFand 2 other crewmen, not Canadians
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves CommissionLiberator KH316
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