Bodnar, Boris Olen (Flight Lieutenant)

Prisoner of War 1944-February-20

Male Head

Birth Date: unkown date

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Distinguished Flying Cross

Service

RCAF

Unit

35 (PFF) Sqn- Squadron (RAF)
Uno Anima Agimus We Act with One Accord

Base

RAF Graveley

Rank

Flight Lieutenant

Position

Navigator

Service Numbers

J/17669
PoW: 3525

Took off from RAF Graveley at 23:51 in Halifax Mk III (Sqn code TL-J Bomber Command) on an operation to Leipzig Germany.

Shot down by a night fighter outbound at 20000 feet whose fire set the rear overload tank alight and brought down the aircraft.

Killed: Flight Sergeant Kenneth Knight RAF KIA Hanover War Cemetery grave 5. C. 7. Squadron Leader Douglas Julian Sale RCAF J/9929 KIA Choloy War Cemetery grave 1. G. 8.

POWs: F/Lt Boris Olen Bodnar RCAF J/17669 POW Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria. S/Ldr Gordon Henry Francis Carter RCAF J/11213 POW Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria. WO George Henry Cross RAF POW Stalag 357 Kopernikus. Flight Sergeant Robert Lionel Lamb RAF POW Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria. F/Lt Harold John Rogers RAF POW Stalag Luft L3 Sagan and Belaria.

Footprints on the Sands of Time, RAF Bomber Command Prisoners of War in Germany 1939-45 by Oliver Clutton-Brock page 248

Mission

Halifax B/GR.Mk.III HX325

Combat Leipzig Germany 1944-February-19 to 1944-February-20

35 (PFF) Sqn (RAF) RAF Graveley

35 Squadron RAF (Uno Anima Agimus), Pathfinder Force, RAF Graveley. Halifax III aircraft HX325 TL-J was shot down by a Ju88 night fighter flown by Felwebel Frank of NJG3 on February 21, 1944 while engaged in an operation against targets in Leipzig, Germany. The aircraft crashed at Beedenbostel, Germany

Knight was killed by the night fighter. Sale, although wounded during the action, stayed at the controls so his crew could bale out, crash-landed his aircraft and managed to get out. It was his fiftieth trip. Sale was taken Prisoner of War and died in hospital a month later from his wounds. The rest of his surviving crew, Carter, Bodnar, Lamb, Rogers and Cross were taken as Prisoners of War

Unvetted Source Halifax HX325 (19/02/1944) I No.35 Squadron

Unvetted Source Aircraft losses from Graveley 1942-1945. I RAF Graveley