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225197
F/O. Wilfred Glennie Airs
Royal Air Force 7 Squadron
(d.29th June 1944)
Flying Officer Bill Airs became one of the top navigators in the Royal Air Force with the famous Pathfinders Squadron who in Lancasters (and Mosquitoes) led the bomber fleets to the correct target and also had to circle it dropping flares to ensure all the fleet found it. The death rate was 1 in 6 for Pathfinders crews but he successfully completed his tour of duty of 70 missions and could have taken a safer training role.
But he shrugged off his young pregnant wife's fears and volunteered for another 70 missions though he told my father that "every time I take off I just wonder if it's my last op".
Cruelly, aged 29, on 29th June 1944 and their wedding date was the 29th, his flight was shot down and he was killed over the Pas de Calais, France, over a V1 rocket base.