Spencer, Walter William (Warrant Officer 1st Class)

206 Squadron (Nihil Nos Effugit). Liberator aircraft KH 410 missing during a night anti-sub patrol off the Danish Coast. Warrant Officer 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: Pilot Officer G.H. Topliff (RAAF), Flying Officer A.R.T. Smith (RNZAF), and six RAF airmen, WOs K. Emery, G.C.K. Long, Pilot Officer W.T.H. Gale, Flying Officer A.J. Harding, Flight Lieutenant P.S.L. Laycock, and FS F.R. Orritt.