Bijur, Robert Duff

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Personal Information

Rank Sgt
Forename(s) Robert Duff
Surname Bijur
Gender M
Age 22
Date of Death 09-08-1942
Next of Kin Son of Harry Bijur and Madeline Bijur (née Ryan), of Los Angeles, California, USA.
BIJUR RD

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Vickers Wellington IC
Serial Number X3171
Markings

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country United Kingdom
Burial/Memorial Place Runnymede Memorial
Grave Reference Panel 107.
Epitaph

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 1
Panel Number 9

Enlistment Information

Service Number R/104923
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 91
Squadron 15 OTU
Trade Air Gunner
Country of Origin United States of America

Miscellaneous Information

This aircraft was later lost on 1 March 1943 from RAF Harwell.
Robert was born at Los Angeles, USA on 27 August 1919. Both parents were both born in New York and his father was a Lawyer. The schools Robert attended were De La Salle, New York, 1927-1932, Loyola Prep N.Y.C. 1932-1936 (preparation for College) and the University of Alabama 1938-1940 (Pre Law). The sports he took part in were football, baseball and track events in which he was a record holder. He enlisted at Montreal on 2 June 1941 (no oath taken), whilst the United States was still neutral.
After training, Robert embarked from Canada on 14 March 1942 and arrived at 3PRC on 28 March 1942. He was then at 7 AGS on 24 May 1942 and 15 OTU on 16 June 1942. Robert sadly lost his life on 9 August 1942.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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Fellow Servicemen

Please note that this list gives all the losses aboard the quoted aircraft and occasionally these may have occurred on an earlier date when the aircraft was not itself lost. Please check the dates of death carefully.

Barley D L (Sgt)
Bending D R (Sgt)
Donnelly J (P/O)
Gibson W S (Sgt)
Marshall G (Sgt)
Winstanley T (P/O)

Last Operation Information

Start Date -
End Date -
Takeoff Station Harwell
Operation Training- cross-country exercise, mostly over land but briefly over the sea near Middleborough.
Reason for Loss The way in which Robert went missing on a night time Cross-Country exercise remains a mystery. He was in the rear turret and so far as the rest of the crew were concerned that is where he should have been when they landed. Apart from a slight incident when the two pilots changed seats (somewhere between St. Abb's Head and Middlesborough) when one caught his foot between the seat and pedals, resulting in the momentary loss of around 1000 feet of altitude, nothing else untoward happened and it wasn’t until they landed that the rest of the crew realised Robert was missing. It is possible that Robert believed the aircraft was about to crash and baled out. His parachute and Mae West were missing when the aircraft landed. Despite alterting nearby shipping and the coastguard, his body was never recovered.

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Casualty Pack

IBCC is delighted to introduce a unique facility to link the Losses Database to the relevant RAF Casualty Pack on the National Archives website. This project is the result of on-going collaboration between IBCC, the MOD Records Office and National Archives, Kew. This document describes what Casualty Packs are, when they were created, the process of making them available to the public and then goes on to describe the process by which you can view the contents of the packs. Casualty Packs (CPs) were created by the RAF whenever there was serious injury or loss of life associated with operational activity within the RAF. This includes operational flying losses, enemy action due to air raids, road accidents either on station or even off-station if they involved RAF vehicles. Deaths due to natural causes in service or accidents that did not involve RAF vehicles did not generally give rise to a CP.

CPs were originally given a unique reference number by the RAF. Each begins with the letter ‘P’ and is followed by six digits, then an oblique (forward slash) and the finally the year in which the incident took place- for example P396154/42.

The CPs are in the process of being made available to the general public as they are passed from the MOD Records Office, Portsmouth to National Archives, Kew. This process requires some rework to the files which is very time consuming, so the process of making them all available to National Archives will take several years. They are being made available in increasing date order.

Once CPs arrive at National Archives they are assigned a unique AIR81 number, so each CP has both a P-number and an AIR81 number. Both are searchable on the National Archives website under ‘Search the catalogue’ and both are included on the IBCC website.

The AIR81 reference on the IBCC website is a link to the file on the National Archives website. When you click on it, the relevant page will open in a new tab on your browser.

There is currently no plan to digitise AIR81 files, partly because they are fragile and partly because the information they contain can at times be sensitive, even harrowing, since they may contain exhumation reports and even photographs of corpses. Family members wishing to read the AIR81 files relating to their ancestors are advised to exercise caution and be guided by National Archives warnings where appropriate.

There are two means for accessing AIR81 files- to attend in person or to order a copy by post.

To attend in person, the attendee should first create a Reader’s Ticket. This can be done online by following this link: https://secure.nationalarchives.gov.uk/login/yourdetails. Then click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and click Order in Advance. Enter your Reader’s Ticket number and state the date on which you intend to visit. National Archives will have the file ready for you when you arrive, saving you time. When you visit Kew, you must quote the Reader’s Ticket number and take along two forms of ID- one bearing your signature and one bearing your address. When you view the files, you are permitted to take photographs of each page, should you wish.

Alternatively, if you wish to order a copy by post, please be aware that there is a charge for this service based on the number of pages in the file. Click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and then click Request a Copy. There is an £8.40 charge for National Archives staff to access the file and give you a quotation for the copying service. The process takes around 24 days to complete and can be expensive.

IBCC wishes to thank the staff at the MOD Records Office and National Archives for their engagement and assistance in making this facility available to our website users.