Sgt. Richard William Butler
Royal Air Force 106 Squadron
from:Bedworth, Warwickshire
(d.26th Jul 1942)
My father was a Lancaster pilot with 106 Squadron, based finally at Coningsby in Lincolnshire. His squadron leader at that time was Guy Gibson. My father and mother both volunteered in 1939, my mother joined the WAAF and at the time of my father's death was also based at RAF Coningsby. My father was trained as a pilot in Medicine Hat in Canada, then at OTU Kinloss. He was lost on a bomb laying operation in the Bay of Biscay at the mouth of the Gironde River near Bordeaux. Only two of the crew survived, Adams and Church, the rest were killed when the plane was shot down by a flack ship. Coningsby was the last posting for my mother as she left the WAAF on compassionate grounds because she was pregnant. Prior to that she had been based at Stafford and occasionally used to commute (beyond the permissible distance) at weekends to visit my father at RAF Kinloss. RAF Conningsby was their first posting together.
