213892 WO2 Robert Alexander Riddoch Royal Air Force 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron from:Okanagan Center, BC, Canada (d.25th Jun 1944) Robert Riddoch was my great Uncle. He was trained in Canada and attached to the RAF where he served with the RAF stationed at Dunholme Lodge. The Squadron identity letters were KMJ and the serial number was ND 751. He flew on bombing missions as part of the crew captained by Flt Sgt DE Aiken. He signed on on March 31 1944 and flew operations all in Lancaster MKIII aircraft. The aircraft left at 2330 and the raid was against Pommerval.
He flew missions were on April 20th, 22, 24, 26, 28th,
May 11, May 19th, May 21, May 22, May 27th, May 31,
June 2, June 5, June 6 June 8, June 9, June 12 and June 24.
He and the crew never returned from the June 24 mission and were listed as missing in action but later confirmed dead. Date of death is listed as June 25, 1944.
Crew members were:
- P/O Douglas Aiken RCAF Pilot,
- Sgt John Hare- air gunner,
- Sgt Horace A Lewarne- flight engineer,
- F/Sgt Sidney Rawson- wireless operator,
- WO Robert Riddoch RCAF-navigator,
- PO Alfred M Simmons RCAF- air bomber.
Robert Riddoch was twenty three years old when he was shot down and died. He and all of the flight crew are buried in a mass grave in a church cemetery at Criquetot-Sur-Longville Churchyard Seine Maritime France and it is a joint grave for them and he is in grave 3. The village church is about 17 Km south of Dieppe and one Km east of the N 27 road from Dieppe Totes. His name is in the book of Remembrance in Canada.
For his sister and his wife life would never be the same and closure never came to his sister Dorothy Johnstone.
|