Cunningham, Walter Garfield
Killed in Action 1945-03-15
Birth Date: 1924
Born:
Ernest L. & Annie Cunningham
Home: Fort William, Ontario (parents)
Enlistment:
Enlistment Date: Unknown
Service
RCAF
Unit
159 (BR) Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
Quo Non, Quando Non Wither not? when not?
Base
RAF Digri, India
Rank
Flying Officer
Position
Flying Officer
Service Numbers
J/43407
Prev: R/215854
Target
Moulmein Burma
First Burial
Singapore Memorial Singapore
Took off from Digri in Liberator KH-256 to bomb bridre(s) on the Burma/Siam Railway at Moulmein, Burma.
,p>Shot down (means not found) and crashed in target area. No Survivors.Killed includes Cunningham:Pilot Officer Gerald Francis Greenlee RCAF J/95310 KIA Singapore Memorial, Column 457.Flight Sergeant Donald Leo Haberthur RCAF R/258143 KIA Singapore Memorial, Column 458.Flight Sergeant John William Paterson RCAF R/212692 KIA Singapore Memorial, Column 458.Flying Officer Thomas Clement Reeve RCAF J/43995 KIA Singapore Memorial, Column 456.Flying Officer William Francis Stafford RCAF J/44123 KIA Singapore Memorial, Column 456.F/Lt William Murray Tree RCAF J/12488 KIA Singapore Memorial, Column 455.Sergeant John McGibbon Fletcher RAF KIA Singapore Memorial, Panel ???.
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
www.findagrave.comLiberator KH256
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